"I’m reading things from friends of mine in Beijing, and 80 to 90 percent of the people they know already have COVID. If that figure is transferred to elderly people it’s just going to be a catastrophe." https://prospect.org/world/what-now-for-china-kurlantzick-interview/

"several models predict that a half million people could die, possibly more." h/t @stephenjudkins https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2022/12/15/1143002538/china-appears-to-be-facing-what-could-be-the-world-s-largest-coronavirus-outbrea

really fucking bad https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/world/asia/china-covid-hospital-crisis.html

@ryanlcooper no wonder Chinese officials were trying so hard to contain the virus. They buckled under public pressure to ease restrictions, but thankfully there are plenty of tested vaccines and treatments now. Won’t look anything like early breakouts in the US and other countries that refused to shut down

@organizingpower my understanding is that the chinese vaccines are far less effective

@whetstone @organizingpower
And for seemingly (almost certainly) political reasons, China refuses to utilize western vaccines

@Randall @organizingpower it’s really disturbing how Chinese leadership has decided that politics is more important than their peoples’ lives

@Randall @whetstone lmao at the idea that China—which has been lambasted by US corporate media for the past 2 years for doing universal testing and shutdowns—is putting “politics above people’s lives”

@whetstone @Randall Fauci went on national TV in May 2020 and said there was no reason for people to wear masks, and you have the gall to accuse the Chinese govt of not caring about lives? Get fucked buddy

@organizingpower interestingly one can critique specific policies without implying blanket condemnation or superiority. china’s decision specifically with regard to which vaccines it makes available to its population is bad for the reason i stated. i have made no claims about any other chinese policy or any comparisons to any other country.

@whetstone you said, “Chinese leadership has decided that politics is more important than their peoples’ lives,” which isn’t a critique about a specific policy, but a blanket statement of condemnation. And one that implies that China cares less about lives than other countries, which is demonstrably false on every objective measure

@whetstone there are plenty of valid critiques about the Chinese government, but if you think that China has spent the past 3 years doing anything other than desperately trying to keep its people alive, you have porridge for brains