Covid-19 in China

[Randy W]

“How about giving up strict epidemic prevention and experimenting with coexisting with the virus in Yangzhou.”
A teacher in Jiangxi has been detained for 15 days after commenting on a news article “in an inappropriate manner,” according to local authorities.

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/posts/3017381461914027

‘Coexist With the Virus’: Chinese Man Detained for COVID-19 Comment
Authorities said the teacher’s remark was “inappropriate” and had caused “adverse social impact.”

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“How about giving up strict epidemic prevention and experimenting with coexisting with the virus in Yangzhou, a small city without a large population, to provide a reference for the country,” a screenshot of Zhang’s now-deleted comment showed. “Just a suggestion — don’t get mad.”

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

It's not enough to just point a finger at a map and say, "Go look here!".

WHO urges China to share raw data on early COVID cases
UN agency says cooperation and transparent data ‘vitally important’ to preventing future pandemics.

from Al Jazeera

The WHO's proposal to return to Wuhan as part of its investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, following a month-long visit in January, has increased anger in China [File: Thomas Peter//Reuters]

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The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged China to share the raw data from its earliest cases of the coronavirus, which first emerged in its central city of Wuhan, saying on Thursday it was “vitally important” to understand the virus’s origins to prevent future pandemics.

A team of scientists from the WHO made a long-delayed visit to the city in January this year as part of a mission to trace the origins of the virus, releasing a report in March that drew no firm conclusions on what had happened.

Instead, it listed a number of hypotheses, saying that a jump from animals to humans – probably a bat – was the most likely route of infection, while the possibility that the virus leaked from a lab was “extremely unlikely”.

The report, which was carried out jointly with Chinese scientists, prompted renewed calls for a deeper probe into the virus’s origins and for China to be more transparent with its data on the virus.

Last month, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus proposed a second stage of the investigation to include further studies in China as well as laboratory “audits”.

The lab leak theory has infuriated China, which expressed “surprise” at the WHO’s suggestion and urged the investigation be broadened to other countries.

“WHO reiterates that the search for the origins of SARS-CoV-2 is not and should not be an exercise in attributing blame, finger-pointing or political point-scoring,” the UN health agency said in a statement, noting that a number of countries including Italy had been sharing biological specimens from 2019.

“It is vitally important to know how the COVID-19 pandemic began, to set an example for establishing the origins of all future animal-human spillover events,” it said.

On Friday, China said it had not rejected cooperation.

 

 

Edited August 14, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

I don't think this applies anywhere but Pakistan, but it's definitely something to be aware of.

The Chinese embassy in Pakistan published a notice on Aug. 12th, 2021 on Health Declaration code application for foreign passengers, it says that the issue of Health Declaration Code for holders of M visa, Z visa, F visa and S visa is suspended temporarily.

from China Highlights on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/groups/going2china/posts/4124461077682232/

[Randy W]

The daily increase of China's locally confirmed COVID-19 infections fell to single digits on Monday, with only six cases reported, showing the efficacy of the country's targeted and intensive control measures following the resurgence from the highly contagious Delta variant.
During the resurgence, the daily increase of locally transmitted confirmed cases jumped to 108 on Aug. 9. A total of 18 provincial-level regions had reported local infections as of Aug. 12, and no deaths were reported, said figures released by the National Health Commission.
Strict, scientific, and swift measures have been implemented in affected areas since July, highlighting the country's principle of putting people's lives first. With massive nucleic acid testing, accelerated vaccination, closed-loop management, and travel restrictions in place, China has seen an apparent downward trend in new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases.

from China Pictorial on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaPic/posts/4050811528377539

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

My own impression is that Wuhan was the epicenter of the global pandemic. Research into the origin of COVID will get nowhere without China's cooperation.

When the WHO director general privately 'lost patience' with China
How Chinese pressure on coronavirus origins probe shocked the WHO — and led its director to push back

This is from Yahoo News, which references this article from the WaPo

How Chinese pressure on coronavirus origins probe shocked the WHO — and led its director to push back

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From the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization has been accused of being too soft on China. President Donald Trump last year accused the organization of pushing “China’s misinformation about the virus” as he threatened to withdraw U.S. funding. At one point, Japan’s deputy prime minister labeled it the “China Health Organization.”

But a new book that details the relationship between the United States, China and the WHO during the pandemic offers a more nuanced and revealing story. It shows how WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautiously praised China in public while pressuring it in private. And it shows how the Trump administration undermined this tactic with open hostility toward China and the WHO.

“Aftershocks: Pandemic Politics and the End of the Old International Order,” written by Thomas Wright and Colin Kahl and due to be published next Tuesday, reveals how Tedros lost patience with China: When a WHO scientist on a coronavirus origins probe announced in February that the idea that the virus leaked from a lab was “extremely unlikely” and unworthy of further investigation, senior WHO staff in Geneva were shocked. “We fell off our chairs,” one member told the authors.

The team in Wuhan appeared to have given in to Chinese pressure to dismiss the idea without a real investigation. Later, when the WHO-China team released a report that again dismissed that scenario, Tedros pushed back, saying that the research was not “extensive enough” and that there had not been “timely and comprehensive data-sharing.”

Since then, relations between the WHO and China have nosedived. Chinese officials said in July that they would not accept any further investigation into the origin of the coronavirus in China and accused the United States of pressuring scientists. The WHO last week released a statement that resisted the idea that “the origins study has been politicized, or that WHO has acted due to political pressure.”

 

 

[Randy W]

A study report on Chinese inactivated #vaccines’ effectiveness against #Delta variant co-authored by Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan said one shot is only 14% effective in preventing Delta while two shots are 59% effective. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202108/1232089.shtml

from the Global Times on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/globaltimesnews/posts/4392355117512021

2 shots of Chinese inactivated vaccines effective in curbing Delta: Report co-authored by epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan

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A study by teams led by top Chinese epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan showed that two shots of Chinese inactivate vaccines are still effective in preventing the Delta variant as they showed a whole 59 percent efficacy in preventing symptoms caused by the variant during the outbreak in South China’s Guangzhou.

The study, results of which were published in the journal Emerging Microbes & Infections on August 14, said that two shots of Chinese inactivated vaccines are 70.2 percent and 100 percent effective in preventing moderate symptoms and serious symptoms, respectively. 

It is reportedly the first real world data report on the effectiveness of Chinese inactivated vaccines against the Delta variant. 

The report is based on real world data of 153 confirmed cases and 475 close contacts collected during an outbreak in Guangzhou, South China’s Guangdong Province, between May 18 and June 20, which was caused by the Delta variant. 

The report concluded that two shots of China’s inactivated vaccines are still effective in preventing the variant.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Zhang Zhan, a Chinese journalist, was sentenced to four years in prison for documenting the Covid-19 outbreak in Wuhan. She is now seriously ill from a hunger strike and weighs less than 90 pounds, her former lawyer said.

from the NYTimes on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/nytimes/posts/10152760625724999

Chinese Citizen Who Documented Wuhan Outbreak Falls Ill in Prison Hunger Strike
Zhang Zhan was sentenced to four years for videos about failures in handling the virus. She now weighs less than 90 pounds, her former lawyer says.

Zhang Zhan in Wuhan, China, last year. She declined to appeal her conviction, telling her lawyers that she refused to acknowledge the validity of the legal process used to imprison her.Credit...Melanie Wang, via Associated Press
 

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The journalist, Zhang Zhan, 37, had traveled to Wuhan from her home in Shanghai and spent the early days of the outbreak documenting the city’s strict lockdown and the severe impact it had on residents’ livelihoods and freedoms.

Ms. Zhang’s reports challenged the government’s efforts to portray its response as competent and caring. She was convicted last year of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a vague charge often used to target dissent, and sentenced to four years in prison after a three-hour, closed-door trial.

Ms. Zhang began a hunger strike after her arrest in May of last year. Her lawyers previously said that the authorities had used a feeding tube to feed her and restrained her hands. Her mother, Shao Wenxia, described it as a “partial hunger strike,” with Ms. Zhang eating fruit and cookies but not meat, rice or vegetables.

 . . .

Ms. Zhang had declined to appeal her conviction, telling her lawyers that she refused to acknowledge the validity of the legal process used to imprison her.

 

 

[Randy W]

The authorities in at least 12 cities in China warned unvaccinated residents that they could be punished if they are found to be responsible for spreading Covid-19 outbreaks.

from the NYTimes on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/nytimes/posts/10152760663729999

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The authorities said they would “hold accountable” people who refused to be vaccinated if they were responsible for spreading an outbreak, unless they had a medical exemption. They did not specify what the punishment would be. On Aug. 17, several cities in central Hubei Province announced that people who refused to be vaccinated would have that entered into their “personal credit score.” They could be barred from going to work or entering hospitals and train stations.

On Weibo, a popular instant messaging platform, some Chinese expressed anger at the latest mandates. Many said the policy went against their free will.

Although China has managed to reduce its number of daily cases to single digits, the recent outbreak has posed a threat to the government’s resolve in maintaining a zero-Covid strategy.

 

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

China tames latest Delta-induced surge in 35 days
Chinese 'Four Early' model proves effective: experts

from the Global Times 

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China has put the latest wide-spread outbreak under control in 35 days as zero domestic confirmed COVID-19 cases were registered on Monday in the country despite that an asymptomatic case was reported late that day, a result that experts said proves the effectiveness of China's anti-epidemic model.    

Since the first cases in the latest outbreak that started in July 20 in an airport in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, the latest round of epidemic surge affected more than ten provinces and regions. It is regarded as the widest-spread one since the Wuhan outbreak in 2020 and the number of daily new cases at a time exceeded 100. 

 . . .

China's zero tolerance method of the epidemic coping strategy will continue. At the same time, the immunologist suggested boosting efforts in prompting vaccinations to slow down transmissions and reduce severe illness as well as give booster shots for frontline workers.

After 35 days, the Global Times found that over the weekend, places such as Beijing, Jiangsu and Southwest China's Sichuan announced they would gradually lift restrictions and restore normal life and production. 

 . . .

In the early stage of the epidemic surge, Nanjing was also blamed by the public and some experts as it has been comparatively slow in taking action and conducting epidemiological investigations. 

It is a big lesson to learn from this round of the epidemic related to Nanjing and Zhengzhou that staff members at airports and designated hospitals should be subject to regular testing and other strict epidemic control measures along with cargo and objects.  Controlling the infection source and cutting off the infection channel are the two main ways to prevent and control any epidemic resurgence in China. If the people involved fail to do a good job in daily health monitoring and protection, they will ignite fresh flare-ups anytime, Wang said.

 

 

[Randy W]

Quarantine policies for inbound travelers to China

Source： https://www.ikkyinchina.com/china-tube/quarantine-policies-for-inbound-travelers-to-china/?fbclid=IwAR2PC8a_BFGgSFkKkW3ZuMfOM0JZ3r3bN9CARat0tYY2Aj86XGL6hi_mu3A

#quarantine

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Credits to Arun Boddu and Lauren Mills for the updates on Sichuan and Fujian.

All these policies have been effective from April 1, 2021 (unless stated otherwise for a specific province)

 

from Going to China on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/going2china/permalink/4145839792211027/

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/going2china/permalink/4151370794991260/

Shanghai nucleic acid testing 

Nucleic acid tests mandatory for air travelers from Shanghai

Travelers departing from Shanghai's Pudong airport now have to provide nucleic acid test reports or receive on-site testing on arrival at multiple domestic cities.

Shanghai's Pudong New Area and Songjiang District have been listed as "COVID-19-related areas" by some Chinese cities after six locally transmitted COVID-19 cases have been reported in the two districts since August 18.

Cities including Beijing, Urumqi in northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Sanya in south Hainan Province, Nanyang in central Henan and Xi'an in northwest Shaanxi, are requiring travelers departing from Pudong International Airport to acquire a negative nucleic acid test report within 48 hours.

Source: https://www.shine.cn/news/metro/2108223893/

Edited August 26, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Alina Chan, a young scientist who raised early questions about how Covid started, was widely criticized for her work. Her story reflects how deeply polarizing questions about the pandemic’s origins have become.

from the NY Times on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/nytimes/posts/10152760807079999

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In the early days of the pandemic, scientists reported a reassuring trait in the new coronavirus: It appeared to be very stable. The virus was not mutating very rapidly, making it an easier target for treatments and vaccines.

At the time, the slow mutation rate struck one young scientist as odd. “That really made my ears perk up,” said Alina Chan, a postdoctoral fellow at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Chan wondered whether the new virus was somehow “pre-adapted” to thrive in humans, before the outbreak even started.

“By the time the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected in Wuhan in late 2019, it looked like it had already picked up the mutations it needed to be very good at spreading among humans,” Dr. Chan said. “It was already good to go.”

The hypothesis, widely disputed by other scientists, was the foundation for an explosive paper posted online in May 2020, in which Dr. Chan and her colleagues questioned the prevailing consensus that the lethal virus had naturally spilled over to humans from bats through an intermediary host animal.

 . . .

In last year’s paper, Dr. Chan and her colleagues speculated that perhaps the virus had crossed over into humans and been circulating undetected for months while accumulating mutations.

Perhaps, they said, the virus was already well adapted to humans while in bats or some other animal. Or maybe it adapted to humans while being studied in a lab, and had accidentally leaked out.

Dr. Chan soon found herself in the middle of a maelstrom. An article in The Mail On Sunday, a British tabloid, ran with the headline: “Coronavirus did NOT come from animals in the Wuhan market.”

Many senior virologists criticized her work and dismissed it out of hand, saying she did not have the expertise to speak on the subject, that she was maligning their specialty and that her statements would alienate China, hampering any future investigations.

 . . .

A Chinese news outlet accused her of “filthy behavior and a lack of basic academic ethics,” and readers piled on that she was a “race-traitor,” because of her Chinese ancestry.

“There were days and weeks when I was extremely afraid, and many days I didn’t sleep,” Dr. Chan, 32, said in a recent interview at an outdoor cafe, not far from the Broad Institute.

Dr. Chan’s story is a reflection of how deeply polarizing questions about the origins of the virus have become. The vast majority of scientists think it originated in bats, and was transmitted to humans through an intermediate host animal, though none has been identified.

 

 

[Randy W]

Statement by the Chinese Embassy in the United States on the "COVID-19 Origin-Tracing" Report of the U.S. Side

2021/08/27

 

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On August 27, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States released a summary of the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins, which does not rule out either natural exposure or laboratory accident as the origin of SARS-CoV-2. The report wrongly claims that China "continues to hinder the global investigation, resist sharing information and blame other countries". The statement by the White House issued on the same day also purported that China tries to hold back international investigation and rejects calls for transparency. It urges like-minded partners to exert pressure on China. The Chinese side expresses its firm opposition and strong condemnation to this.

First, a report fabricated by the U.S. intelligence community is not scientifically credible. The origin-tracing is a matter of science; it should and can only be left to scientists, not intelligence experts. There has been no lack of "masterpieces" by the U.S. intelligence community, such as using a tube of laundry powder to convict Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction, or staging the "white helmets" video as evidence for chemical weapon attack in Syria. Now, the US side is using its old trick again. Ignoring the Report by the WHO-China joint mission, it chooses to have its intelligence community put together a report instead. How can this possibly be science-based and reliable origin-tracing?

Second, the assertion of lack of transparency on the part of China is only an excuse for its politicizing and stigmatizing campaign. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken an open, transparent and responsible attitude. We have released information, shared the genome sequencing of the virus, and carried out international cooperation to fight the disease, all done at the earliest possible time. On December 27, 2019, Wuhan authorities made the first reporting of suspected cases. On December 30, emergency notices were issued on the treatment of pneumonia of unknown cause. On December 31, China informed the WHO China Country Office of cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan. On January 3, 2020, China began sending regular updates about the novel coronavirus to the WHO and other countries, including the United States. On origin-tracing, China has followed a science-based, professional, serious and responsible approach. We are the first to cooperate with the WHO on global origin-tracing, and we have invited WHO experts to conduct the investigations twice in China. We were completely open, transparent and cooperative when the experts were in China. They visited every site on their list, met every individual they asked for, and were provided with all the data they wanted. The formulation of the Report of the WHO-China joint mission issued on March 30, 2021 follows WHO procedures and adopts a scientific approach. It is authoritative and science-based. The openness and transparency China has displayed has won full recognition from international experts.

Third, the report by the U.S. intelligence community shows that the U.S. is bent on going down the wrong path of political manipulation. The U.S. has registered the most infections and death cases from COVID-19 in the world, and the American people have paid a heavy price. The report by the intelligence community is based on presumption of guilt on the part of China, and it is only for scapegoating China. 

 

 

[Randy W]

Because well, it's Meiguo and we don't REALLY want to send a team to Fort Detrick

The 90-day U.S. intelligence community work ended with a report on #COVID19's origins released but without any certain conclusions. The role of U.S. intelligence agencies in political manipulation through history begs a question: Are they trustworthy? This animation offers an insight. #cartoon #CGTNOpinion

from CGTN on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/ChinaGlobalTVNetwork/posts/6842567792450649

[Randy W]

Another worldwide plague that may have had Chinese origins . . .

Did the Black Death Rampage Across the World a Century Earlier Than Previously Thought?
Scholar Monica Green combined the science of genetics with the study of old texts to reach a new hypothesis about the plague

By David M. Perry

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM
MARCH 25, 2021

The genetic lineage of the plague that hit London in 1348 gave Green a data point to track the disease back to its origin. (MOLA / Getty Images)

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In December, the historian Monica Green published a landmark article, The Four Black Deaths, in the American Historical Review, that rewrites our narrative of this brutal and transformative pandemic. In it, she identifies a “big bang” that created four distinct genetic lineages that spread separately throughout the world and finds concrete evidence that the plague was already spreading in Asia in the 1200s. This discovery pushes the origins of the Black Death back by over a hundred years, meaning that the first wave of the plague was not a decades-long explosion of horror, but a disease that crept across the continents for over a hundred years until it reached a crisis point.

 . . .

Mongols hunted marmots for meat and leather (which was both lightweight and waterproof), and they brought their rodent preferences with them as the soon-to-be conquerors of Asia moved into the Tian Shan mountains around 1216 and conquered a people called the Qara Khitai (themselves refugees from Northern China). There, the Mongols would have encountered marmots who carried the strain of plague that would become the Black Death. Here, the “big bang” theory of bacterial mutation provides key evidence allowing us a new starting point for the Black Death. (To support this theory, her December article contains a 16-page appendix just on marmots!)

 . . .

She imagines scholars may find plague in other places, once they start looking. In the meantime, the stakes for understanding how diseases move remains crucial as we wrestle with our own pandemic. I ask her what she thinks it all means for a world today still grappling with a pandemic. She replies, with a harrowing, centuries-look ahead, “The story I have reconstructed about the Black Death is 100 percent an emerging infectious disease story. ... an ‘emerging’ disease lasted for 500-600 years!!!”

 

 

[Randy W]

This is not the first time nursing assistants and other caregivers have borne the brunt of new outbreaks in China: new COVID cases at two separate hospitals in Shanghai earlier this year were traced back to two nursing assistants who lived in the same neighborhood.
Read more: http://ow.ly/hTBA50FZjht

from the Sixth Tone on Facebook 
https://www.facebook.com/sixthtone/photos/a.1604152706570250/3029201570732016

How Outsourcing Puts Hospitals at Risk
Recent COVID-19 outbreaks at Chinese hospitals have exposed a weak link in their defenses.

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The first cases were confirmed not in patients, or even doctors, but two members of the hospital’s cleaning staff. Of the 128 people who fell ill, 23 were caregivers, including family caregivers and nursing assistants, and three were janitors. This is not the first time nursing assistants and other caregivers have borne the brunt of new outbreaks in China: new COVID cases at two separate hospitals in Shanghai earlier this year were traced back to two nursing assistants who lived in the same neighborhood.

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by Randy W (see edit history)