Attention to the Unseen

CNN reports: Almost 250 million people in China may have caught Covid-19 in the first 20 days of December, according to an internal estimate from the nation’s top health officials, Bloomberg News and the Financial Times reported Friday. If correct, the estimate – which CNN cannot independently confirm – would account for roughly 18% of China’s 1.4 billion people and represent the largest Covid-19 outbreak to date globally. The figures cited were presented during an internal meeting of China’s National…

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The Wall Street Journal reports: Covid-19’s rapid spread in China has prompted reports of crowded hospitals and inundated crematoria. It could also help answer whether Omicron is truly a milder version of the virus. Iterations of the Omicron variant are spreading rapidly in China after officials relaxed zero-Covid controls in place for most of the pandemic. Pharmacies say they are out of fever medications and hospitals are strained, employees have said. Chinese officials have reported a modest rise in Covid-19…

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CNN reports: China’s abrupt and under-prepared exit from zero-Covid could lead to nearly 1 million deaths, according to a new study, as the country braces for an unprecedented wave of infections spreading out from its biggest cities to its vast rural areas. For nearly three years, the Chinese government has used strict lockdowns, centralized quarantines, mass testing and rigorous contact tracing to curb the spread of the virus. That costly strategy was abandoned earlier this month, following an explosion of…

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Michael Schuman writes: For three years, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, fought a remorseless battle against COVID-19. He called it a “people’s war”—a national struggle to defeat an unseen foe and save lives. The contest locked families in their homes for weeks, strangled the economy, and closed the country to the world. Other governments that failed to contain the pandemic may be indifferent to death and suffering, the message was, but not the Chinese Communist Party, which cares about life above…

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The Wall Street Journal reports: China dropped many of its quarantine and testing requirements and curtailed the power of local officials to shut down entire city blocks, as the government accelerates plans to dismantle zero-Covid controls in the wake of nationwide protests. The speed of Beijing’s retreat from its pandemic regime suggests the country’s leaders are now more concerned about the damage those controls have caused to China’s economy than the risk of worsening Covid infections that surged to a…

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The Observer reports: Victoria Li* has experienced several lockdowns since Covid emerged in China almost three years ago. Being a prisoner in her own home in Beijing made her feel depressed, powerless and angry. “Being stuck at home with my door sealed, I felt unmotivated to do anything,” she said. “I didn’t want to work, I didn’t want to study. Sometimes, I crept into my bed and cried,” said the lawyer, who is in her 20s. Even when she was…

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The Washington Post reports: Trump appointees oversaw a concerted effort to restrict immigration at the U.S.-Mexican border during the pandemic, change scientific reports and muzzle top officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to emails, text messages and interviews gathered by a congressional panel probing the pandemic response. Former CDC Director Robert Redfield, former top deputy Anne Schuchat and others described how the Trump White House and its allies repeatedly “bullied” staff, tried to rewrite their publications…

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