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Earlier this week, screenshots of “Ten Questions” about China’s pandemic coverage started making the rounds on the Chinese language web and social media, attracting an excessive amount of curiosity and commentary. These screenshots have now been deleted, and the WeChat account (长安课堂, Chang’an Ketang, or “Chang’an Classroom”) that posted the article has been completely banned. CDT has translated the article in full, beneath, in addition to a collection of netizen feedback compiled from across the internet and from social media. Among the stances implied by the questions could also be controversial, however the posting’s widespread enchantment illustrates common frustration with the depth and unpredictability of China’s pandemic management regime, whereas its predictable erasure highlights the tight limits on public dialogue.
Ten Questions
As an unusual peon, I wish to pose the ten questions beneath to the Nationwide Well being Fee, the group chargeable for overseeing public well being. Would possibly I hassle you to reply the next?
Query One: Is the primary accountability of the Nationwide Well being Fee to compile information associated to COVID-19? How a lot public outreach work has the Nationwide Well being Fee finished concerning medical therapy for COVID-19 sufferers? Has the Nationwide Well being Fee made public the fatality fee of the Omicron variant? How many individuals has the Nationwide Well being Fee punished for implementing extreme pandemic prevention measures on the grassroots degree? Does the Nationwide Well being Fee suppose that this yr’s prolonged, months-long lockdowns in Xinjiang, Tibet and different areas are applicable?
Query Two: In human historical past, have we ever efficiently eradicated any pressure of influenza virus? If not, how can we presumably eradicate SARS-CoV-2? And if it can’t be eradicated, what’s the price of persevering with to hold out a “zero-COVID” coverage in opposition to an invisible, intangible virus? Simply how helpful are a number of rounds of nucleic acid testing?
Query Three: The overwhelming majority of individuals have obtained three or extra doses of the vaccine, so why are outbreaks of infections persevering with apace? Do the vaccines really work?
Query 4: In comparison with different influenza viruses, is Omicron’s fatality fee low or excessive? How many individuals has Omicron really killed?
Query 5: With regards to managing COVID-19, what are our benchmarks for lifting restrictions? If there aren’t any goal, scientific benchmarks, does that imply that the restrictions will merely proceed?
Query Six: The three latest fatalities in Beijing had been all aged, bedridden sufferers. How did they get contaminated? Did contact-tracing discover the supply of an infection? Is it potential that nucleic acid checks yield false positives when somebody is contaminated with the flu? In that case, what’s the level of nucleic acid testing?
Query Seven: What’s our COVID prevention and management coverage based mostly on? Is it based mostly on information, or modeling, or hypothesis? Specialists similar to Zhong Nanshan, Zhang Wenhong, and Zhang Boli have mentioned that the virulence of Omicron could be very low. Why ought to we put a lot effort into attempting to handle and management a not-at-all-deadly illness?
Query Eight: Resulting from systemic variations, Hong Kong, whose inhabitants density is far greater than that of the mainland, has by no means required mass nucleic acid testing for all residents, and pandemic restrictions have been relaxed for the previous a number of months. Life in Hong Kong is again to regular. Has the medical system there been overwhelmed? Why not, and why is the mainland so fearful concerning the medical system being, as they are saying, “overwhelmed”? Aren’t there [vulnerable] aged folks and kids in Hong Kong, too?
Query 9: Greater than 120 nations worldwide have lengthy since lifted COVID-related restrictions or controls. Has public well being in these nations been harmed? Are their folks residing regular lives? Why can they stay extra freely than Chinese language folks? The World Cup simply kicked off in Qatar. Not one of the followers had been carrying masks, and nobody was requested to point out a nucleic acid check certificates. Are we even residing on the identical planet as them? Can COVID-19 not hurt them?
Query Ten: India and China have roughly related inhabitants sizes, though India has lower than half of China’s landmass—and what’s the pandemic state of affairs in India like? In Africa, Nigeria’s pandemic prevention efforts have achieved outstanding outcomes. So why not look to India, whose nationwide circumstances are just like China’s? Why not study from Nigeria, as a substitute of tallying case counts within the U.S.? What sensible significance does which have for China’s pandemic prevention and management?
Is it an excessive amount of to ask that the Nationwide Well being Fee take the above questions into severe consideration earlier than deciding on and deploying pandemic prevention coverage? [Chinese]
Beneath is a collection of netizen feedback responding to “Ten Questions,” collected, archived, and translated by CDT editors:
wayky: Unusual, there are greater than 100,000+ views. Why didn’t anybody depart feedback? // 长安课堂 [the author of the ten questions]: I noticed that there have been greater than 200 feedback.
Zihann今天吃啥好纠结：Now this is optimistic power!
程娅敏：I’d like so as to add one query preemptively: Why was this text deleted?
Ingew：We don’t remedy issues. We “remedy” the individuals who ask about them.
徐斌辉：It’s such an excellent article that I predict will probably be “harmonized.”
晓芬：To stop it being harmonized, I’ve already taken screenshots.
王小东：I hope that somebody actually does step ahead to reply these questions.
刘老师13361787700：If this text will get deleted, we now have an extended darkish evening forward of us! [Chinese]
Additionally being censored is the time period “十一问” (“eleven questions,” or “eleventh query”). The time period was utilized by many supporters of the article to criticize or mock the truth that it was deleted. One now-deleted instance exhibits a screenshot of the Chinese language structure and a quote from the part concerning the rights and duties of Chinese language residents:
Title on the purple guide cowl: “The Structure of the Folks’s Republic of China.”
What provides you the suitable to delete “Ten questions”?
Chapter II The Basic Rights and Duties of Residents
Article 35 Residents of the Folks’s Republic of China get pleasure from freedom of speech, of the press, of meeting, of affiliation, of procession and of demonstration.
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