I read that COVID is basically a non-issue in Africa now since Africans did not have the resources (or perhaps they just had the good sense) regarding societal lockdowns. I wonder how COVID can be so debilitating for China and not for other areas of the world.
It probably is not so debilitating by now.
The original prototype, accidently released from the Wuhan labs was believed to be extremely lethal. It supposedly caused 100% fatalities in experimental lab animals - and in the first half-dozen or so of the research technicians who were infected.
The Chinese bureaucrats were absolutely terrified at first. Then they attempted various CYA diversions. We know this from communications intercepts and mid-level defections.
We seem to have gotten lucky in that COVID mutated very quickly into less lethal variants. This is the normal evolution of plague agents since forever. It continues to this very day.
But a terrorized population is more likely to be an obedient population. The Chinese seem to have their own versions of "Never let a crisis go to waste".
In the West, we are old and sickly. Prime candidates for covid.