What is the cost of the zero-Covid policy for China and the world?

In order to preserve the stability of Chinese society and to save lives, China’s dynamic zero-Covid policy has been necessary. The alternative would’ve meant another major outbreak that overwhelms China’s health care system and causes millions of deaths.

However, this comes with a cost:

• a hit on China’s economic growth
• supply chain disruptions around the world
• a lot of grumpy people

Look, there’s no kind and gentle way to fight a pandemic. Everybody is unhappy. That’s just the way it is.

But there’s also no question that China has vastly outperformed all other major economies and saved a great many lives.

From Worldometer, May 20, sorted by total deaths:

The G7 countries, the BRICS countries (minus China), Mexico…their death tolls are disastrous. China has fewer than 250,000 infections and around 5,000 deaths. The contrast is stunning.

Dynamic zero-Covid is absolutely proven to work for the betterment of China. We in the West are not entitled to second-guess China and to criticize China.

From Worldometer, May 20, sorted by new daily cases:

Omicron is running amok in USA, Taiwan, Australia, Germany, Japan, Italy, South Korea, France, and Spain. They will pay a high price. This is inexcusable and irresponsible.

By the way, Omicron may be milder than previous variants but it still kills. A CFR of 0.1%, for example, as reported in Indian media, means 100 deaths out of 100,000 infections. If USA maintains 100,000 daily infections for a month, that works out to 3,000 deaths.