Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
China Covid: Young people self-infect as fears for
elderly grow
BBC
Fri, January 6, 2023 at 3:44 p.m. GMT+8
When Mr. Chen's 85-year-old father fell ill with Covid in
December, it was impossible to get an ambulance or see a doctor.
They went to Chaoyang Hospital in Beijing, where they were told to either try other hospitals or sit in the corridor with an IV drip.
"There was no bed, no respiratory machine, no medical equipment" available, Mr Chen tells the BBC.
His father managed to find a bed at another hospital, but only through a special contact, and had by then developed a severe lung infection.
Three years of Covid prevention measures were a complete waste and failure, he says, because the government eased controls too quickly, with no preparation, and so many have caught the virus.
But younger Chinese, all of whom did not wish to be named, feel differently - and some told the BBC they were voluntarily exposing themselves to infection.
A 27-year-old coder in Shanghai, who did not receive any of the Chinese vaccines, says he voluntarily exposed himself to the virus.
"Because I don't want to change my holiday plan," he explains, "and I could make sure I recovered and won't be infected again during the holiday if I intentionally control the time I get infected." He admits he did not expect the muscle aches that came with the infection, but says the symptoms have been largely as expected.
Another Shanghai resident, a 26-year-old woman, tells the BBC she visited her friend who had tested positive "so I could get Covid as well".
But she says her recovery has been hard: "I thought it would be like getting a cold but it was much more painful."
A 29-year-old who works for a state-run business based in Jiaxing, in the northern Zhejiang province, says she was thrilled when she heard the country's borders were reopening. She is excited to travel to other parts of China again to see concerts.
"Life was ridiculous when I had to ask my manager's permission to travel. I just want life to get back to normal," she says. "But I do worry about the elderly."
When her grandfather fell sick with Covid, he refused to go to hospital, even when his condition took a turn for the worse, she says. And reports of overwhelmed hospitals and crematoriums have only added to the worry - she says she has heard stories of corpses piled high in funeral parlours.
She herself has not tested positive for the virus yet, but concedes that - when her husband did - she wore a mask 24/7 at home, even when she was sleeping.
"I did not want us to be sick at the same time," she says. "But I'm not scared of the virus, as the severe symptoms are rare."
If normal days are indeed back, it is an uncomfortable return to normalcy for many.
Mrs. Liu's husband never got vaccinated because he suffers from advanced diabetes. Since the re-opening, she has stayed indoors and has disinfected every home delivery that has arrived, but the couple still caught the virus.
Their daughter, also sick with Covid, scoured various locations in the midst of a cold Beijing winter for Paxlovid, Pfizer's anti-viral Covid medication, before finally purchasing a single box off the black market at 7500 CNY (£918).
"My husband has recovered smoothly. It's a big relief for me," Mrs Liu says. "But when the second wave comes, what will happen to him?"
Ms. Wang, another Beijing resident, and her family have pre-purchased Paxlovid before it becomes too expensive, as well as an oxygenator and pulse oximeter, for her grandfather-in-law. He has not gotten the virus but is in his 90s.
"Anyways, the open-up is good for the economy. Business has recovered quickly," she remarks, adding that hotels, restaurants and shopping malls are all filling up with people again.
Customers dine at a restaurant as Beijing no longer requires people to show their negative nucleic acid testing results before entering public places on December 21, 2022
For three years, state-run media presented the virus as a dangerous menace to society, vowing that it would achieve "dynamic zero-Covid" to keep the population safe.
But that rhetoric has been turned on its head in recent weeks, with doctors regularly trotted out to call for calm over confusion.
Mrs. Li, a 52-year-old in Beijing, argues the government "did the right thing" for the first two years but should have ended its zero-Covid policy in early 2022.
"Now we finally have all controls eased, but it's too sudden. The government could have done it phase by phase, region by region. Also winter is the worst season to do it. Why not wait until next spring? And why didn't the government prepare enough resources before opening up?" she asks.
"2022 was the worst year for us. I can only pray 2023 won't be any worse."
Translation
去年 12 月，當Chen先生 85 歲的父親因新冠肺炎病倒時，無法叫到救護車或看醫生。
他們去了北京的朝陽醫院，在那裡他們被告知要么去其他醫院試試，要么坐在走廊裡打點滴。
Chen先生告訴 BBC: “那裡沒有床、沒有呼吸機、沒有醫療設備” 。
他的父親設法在另一家醫院找到了一張床位，但只是通過一個特殊的聯繫人，那時他已經患上了嚴重的肺部感染。
Chen老先生現在已經康復，但他的兒子擔心將來二次感染可能要了他的命。
他說，三年的新冠肺炎預防措施完全是浪費和失敗，因為政府放鬆控制太快，沒有任何準備，所以很多人感染了病毒。
Chen先生說“疫情還會捲土重來，對於老年人來說，只能指望自己的命運了”。
中國迅速扭轉其有爭議的零新冠病毒政策的最後一步是在周日重新開放國際旅行邊界。 隨著大規模檢測、嚴格的隔離和突然的、全面的封鎖解除，像Chen先生這樣的家庭對未來的事情保持警惕。
但不願透露姓名的年輕中國人有不同的看法 - 一些人告訴 BBC，他們是自願讓自己暴露在感染之下。
上海一名 27 歲的編碼員沒有接種任何中國疫苗，他說他自願暴露於這種病毒。
他解釋說: “因為我不想改變我的假期計劃”; “如果我有意控制感染時間，我可以確保我在假期期間康復並且不會再次被感染。” 他承認他沒有預料到感染會引起肌肉酸痛，但表示症狀與預期基本一致。
另一位上海居民，一名 26 歲的女性告訴 BBC，她拜訪了測試呈陽性的朋友， “這樣我也可以感染 新冠肺炎” 。
但她說她的康復過程很艱難： “我以為這會像感冒一樣，但更痛苦。”
一位在浙江省北部嘉興市的一家國營企業工作的 29 歲女性說，當她聽說該國的邊境重新開放時，她很激動。 她很高興能再次到中國其他地方看音樂表演。
她說: “當我不得不徵得經理的許可才能出差時，生活變得很荒謬。我只想恢復正常生活”; “但我確實擔心年老的人。”
她說，當她的祖父感染新冠肺炎時，他拒絕去醫院，即使他的病情惡化了。 而有關醫院和火葬場不堪重負的報導只會加劇這種擔憂 - 她說她聽說過殯儀館裡屍體堆積如山的故事。
她自己的病毒檢測結果還沒有呈陽性，但她承認 當她丈夫呈陽性的時候 - 她在家裡全天候 24/7 戴著口罩，即使是在睡覺的時候。
她說: “我不想我們同時生病”; “但我並不害怕這種病毒，因為嚴重的症狀很少見。”
至少在大城市，人們已經重新回到購物中心、餐館和公園，甚至排隊等待簽證和旅遊許可。 國營的《環球時報》宣稱 “正常日子回來了” ，並將這句話歸因於對中國人對採訪的回應。
如果正常的日子真的回來了，這對許多人來說是一種不舒服的恢復常態。
劉女士的丈夫患有晚期糖尿病，因此從未接種過疫苗。 自從封鎖解除以來，她一直待在室內，並對送達的每一個送貨上門進行消毒，但這對夫婦仍然感染了病毒。
他們的女兒也感染了新冠病毒，她在北京寒冷的冬天四處尋找輝瑞公司的抗病毒新冠病毒藥物 Paxlovid，最後以 7,500 元人民幣（918 英鎊）的價格從黑市上購買了一盒。
劉女士說: “我丈夫恢復順利。這對我來說是一個很大的安慰”; “可是下一波來的時候，他會怎麼樣呢？”
另一位北京居民王女士和她的家人在 Paxlovid 變得太貴之前為她的祖父預購了增氧機和脈搏血氧儀。 他沒有感染病毒，但已經 90 多歲了。
她說: “無論如何，開放對經濟有好處。業務恢復得很快” 。並補充說酒店、餐館和購物中心都再次擠滿了人。
2022年12月21日，北京不再要求人們在進入公共場所前出示核酸檢測陰性結果，顧客在餐廳用餐。
但在大城市之外，很難知道人們 - 尤其是中國農村地區的人們 - 對政府信息的轉變有何反應。
三年來，官方媒體將這種病毒描述為對社會的危險威脅，並誓言它將實現 “新冠肺炎-動態清零” 以確保民眾安全。
但最近幾週，這種言論發生了翻天覆地的變化，醫生們經常跑出來呼籲人們冷靜平靜勝過困惑。
北京 52 歲的李女士認為，政府在頭兩年“做了正確的事”，但本應在
2022 年初結束其新冠病毒清零政策。
她問: “現在我們終於放鬆了所有管控，但這太突然了。政府本可以分階段、逐地區進行。而且冬天是最糟糕的季節。為什麼不等到明年春天呢？為什麼不呢？
政府在開放前準備了足夠的資源嗎？”
“2022 年對我們來說是最糟糕的一年。我只能祈禱 2023 年不會更糟。”
So, China’s final step in
handling the Covid-19 is a swift reversal of its contentious zero-Covid policy.
It reopens borders for international travel. Mass testing, stringent
quarantines and lockdowns are gone. I am wondering whether the Chinese
government has made enough preparations before opening up. I also worry about when
will the next wave come to China.
Note:
1. IV drip (打點滴)is
a staple of the medical world. IV drips are used to quickly administer
medications, replace lost fluids or deliver blood. An IV fluid drip involves
a small tube called a catheter and a saline-based electrolyte solution that
contains selected vitamins and nutrients.
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