China puts millions of people back into Coronavirus lockdown...

 

Coronavirus testing in China. AFP.

China has put millions of people back into Coronavirus lockdown in response to new outbreaks. AFP. The new outbreaks are in the historic city of Xian and Shanghai. It had been hoped that China would move away from the so called Zero Covid model, which has been proven to have been a failure in other countries that have tried it. In Shanghai people have reported that they are again receiving government rations. In Xian, people are undergoing testing and many entertainment venues are shut down. In total 114 million people remain in lockdown in China. 

My Comment:

At a time when almost nobody cares about the Coronavirus anymore the Chinese have more than 100 million people in lockdown. It's utterly insane and even worse they are pursuing the Zero Covid model, which has been abandoned by pretty much every other country that has tried it. 

It seems like the Chinese are approaching the limit though. The AFP article quoted several Chinese citizens who were sick of the lockdowns and said they feared them a lot more than they fear the virus. This makes sense because the Coronavirus is no longer a threat to the vast majority of people. Sure, there are people still at risk, such as those with immune system problems, other illness or are advanced in age. But for the average working aged person? It's not a threat. 

This is going to have global effects as well. The only positive about this I can see is that it should reduce demand for gasoline. With millions of Chinese people stuck at home it will decrease the usage of gasoline in China which should reduce prices a bit globally. It won't help that much given the problems of production being at capacity, high demand and the disruption caused by the Ukraine war and sanctions, but it will help a little. 

But that's about the only good news. These cities in lockdowns are economic powerhouses and are producing the products that the rest of the world needs. With them in lockdown production will slow and the supply chain disruptions we have seen since the pandemic began will continue. Given that we haven't even begun to recover from the pandemic this development is not good. 

What I don't understand is what China is thinking. The virus is not going away anytime soon, it's never going away. The virus has natural reservoirs now outside of humans and no vaccine has proven effective in stopping the spread of the virus. On top of that it has mutated several times and is not anywhere near the threat it used to be. 

My guess is that the problem is the concept of "face". China has said that Zero Covid is the way to go and to change course now would be massively embarrassing to them. That's the only thing I can think of that makes any sense and even that is a long shot. In truth I have no idea what China is thinking.