At least six million, maybe 20 million dead worldwide: That is the result of a pandemic that is now being dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders: “Even had Covid?” In China, however, where the Communist Party is just about to extend its strict zero-Covid policy by the time the highly contagious omicron variant spread across the country, the virus could claim another 1.5 million lives, according to The Economist.
Older people are particularly affected in areas where health care is suboptimal and the vaccination campaign has come to a standstill. When the government downplayed the danger at the beginning of the pandemic, a conservative columnist insinuated that the old age of pensioners had “been a thorn in the side of politicians for a long time and a misery in the household”. That was nonsense; the CP of China, however, would be capable of such misanthropic calculations.
After moving away from the zero-Covid policy, the corona cases in China are increasing rapidly again. It’s been a long time since the last major vaccination campaign. The hospitals are caught unprepared. The government is now talking about a turnaround “at the right time”.
Source: WORLD
Whether the virus came from an inadequately regulated market or an inadequately protected laboratory, China’s government only warned the world long after the virus had spread to Europe. In turn, the nonsensical zero-Covid policy, which has caused serious damage to the global economy, was above all a show of power by the party, which under Xi Jinping relies on total control.
As lockdowns sparked political protests, the leadership reversed course, exposing an unprotected population to the free spread of the virus. 5000 people are said to die in China every day. German reporters observed long queues of cars in front of the capital’s crematoria.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Health Minister Jens Spahn estimated the death rate would be between 0.1 and 0.7 percent; for this he earned scorn and ridicule. In fact, Germany had one of the lowest mortality rates in the world at 0.4 percent. Open societies often have trouble responding quickly to emergencies; but all in all they have met the challenge of the pandemic.
The same cannot be said of China and Russia. China’s dead will probably remain a state secret. Because what shouldn’t be can’t be. But that is not a viable reason of state.
