Zero COVID prevented the virus from becoming endemic in China (look up the definition of endemic). Once it does, you’re right that it seems like putting the genie back in the bottle is impossible - once COVID has spread to wildlife like deer and cats it seems hard to imagine a method of wiping it out within that country’s borders.
We know several other countries with less strict policies than China maintained zero COVID for quite some time, or states within those countries (Australia for instance had COVID outbreaks they successfully confined to one or two states). Once delta hit, it became too difficult for those countries to continue, but we can see China is more authoritarian and their stricter measures may still be effective for now.
Short term zero COVID may be achievable. I am not disputing that. However, China must maintain vigilance literally forever. That is why I don't find it a realistic policy.
China was becoming insular even before COVID. One gets the impression that the Chinese government finds COVID to be a convenient excuse to control the population in ways that would have been unthinkable before.
I give it another month. Hosting the Winter Olympics is guaranteed to bring in some Omicron where at which point it'll all be over, regardless of the precautions they have in place.
No need to have volunteers. Seems like it would make more sense to have paid staff for everything, and pay them for a 2 week quarantine before going back to normal society. It can be done.
We know several other countries with less strict policies than China maintained zero COVID for quite some time, or states within those countries (Australia for instance had COVID outbreaks they successfully confined to one or two states). Once delta hit, it became too difficult for those countries to continue, but we can see China is more authoritarian and their stricter measures may still be effective for now.