People are often surprised to find out that in the US, Omicron has killed as many people as Delta (a few hundred thousand Americans each). Omicron is slightly less lethal than Delta, but much more transmissible. That combination means that it is capable of killing just as many people at the population level.
Hong Kong is an example of what happens when Omicron is allowed to spread in a population that has a low vaccination rate (particularly among the elderly, who for cultural reasons are less likely than young people to be vaccinated in HK). The results are horrific: thousands dead in just a few weeks, in a city of about 7.5 million.
For whatever reason, the public perception in the US is that Omicron is harmless. That's simply not the reality. To the extent that deaths are declining anywhere, it's mostly because of vaccination and previous infection.
For the last two years, mainland China has managed to prevent community transmission of the virus, while keeping society almost completely open. That's a major achievement. That has become more difficult for a number of reasons (way more infected travelers arriving in the country, higher vaccination rates leading to more asymptomatic infections, higher transmissibility of Omicron).
In this latest outbreak, Shanghai waited for a few weeks before locking down. Evidently, they were experimenting with a new approach. That new approach didn't work, and this lockdown is the consequence. If Shanghai had done what Shenzhen did (lock down early for one week), they would already be out of the woods. They chose not to, so they're in a much more difficult position now.
If you're going to argue that China should just give up zero CoVID, you should be clear about what you're calling for. The immediate consequence will be several hundred thousand deaths, within the next few weeks. That would make what Shanghai is going through right now look like nothing, and I'm sure that plenty of people in the West would express a good deal of Schadenfreude over it.
Hong Kong is an example of what happens when Omicron is allowed to spread in a population that has a low vaccination rate (particularly among the elderly, who for cultural reasons are less likely than young people to be vaccinated in HK). The results are horrific: thousands dead in just a few weeks, in a city of about 7.5 million.
For whatever reason, the public perception in the US is that Omicron is harmless. That's simply not the reality. To the extent that deaths are declining anywhere, it's mostly because of vaccination and previous infection.
For the last two years, mainland China has managed to prevent community transmission of the virus, while keeping society almost completely open. That's a major achievement. That has become more difficult for a number of reasons (way more infected travelers arriving in the country, higher vaccination rates leading to more asymptomatic infections, higher transmissibility of Omicron).
In this latest outbreak, Shanghai waited for a few weeks before locking down. Evidently, they were experimenting with a new approach. That new approach didn't work, and this lockdown is the consequence. If Shanghai had done what Shenzhen did (lock down early for one week), they would already be out of the woods. They chose not to, so they're in a much more difficult position now.
If you're going to argue that China should just give up zero CoVID, you should be clear about what you're calling for. The immediate consequence will be several hundred thousand deaths, within the next few weeks. That would make what Shanghai is going through right now look like nothing, and I'm sure that plenty of people in the West would express a good deal of Schadenfreude over it.