”Like in a Kubrick film”, with the Chinese government implementing a ”totally crazy and absurd” policy, deciding to open the country to international travel precisely ”while the Covid infections are exploding again” -19, and with the European Union choosing to adopt ”a weak and disappointing approach”, limiting itself to providing ”recommendations” on entry tests. But ”if the 27, 28 with Great Britain, don’t all adopt the same approach and don’t follow Italy’s example, then we risk a lot”. This was told to Adnkronos by Axel Berkofsky, professor at the University of Pavia and Co-Head of the Asia Center of ISPI, who finds it “incredible that China is not sharing data on infections with the WHO, even if the government Chinese claims otherwise. Just like he did at the beginning of the pandemic when he hid it for 3-4 months. Months that could have made a difference” and which ”caused millions of deaths”.
And yet today, Berkofsky continues, “40 million cases a day” are recorded in China and “70 percent of the population of Shanghai has contracted the coronavirus, even if we don’t know which variant, with what effects”, but we know that ”we are talking about a city that has a population of 20 million people”. In short, while ”the pandemic is over in Europe, we are practically all vaccinated, the Chinese are not. We don’t know the effectiveness of their vaccines and they don’t want European ones”. While defining it as ”predictable” because ”China is a very important economic player”, Berkofsky considers ”the European response disastrous, not very courageous and almost incomprehensible after what we have experienced in the past three years”.
In short, ”there is no political discrimination, nor racism” adds the expert, recalling that China itself required ”tests and long quarantines in hotels at its own expense” for those arriving in the country while the Covid-zero policy. For this reason, ”Europe should do what European countries, Italy in primis, are doing on an individual level. Introduce the testing obligation for those arriving from China”. But if ”the health policies of the individual European countries are not the responsibility of the EU, then it is necessary for the individual states to adopt the right policy, hoping that they can save us from a new wave”. And ”I hope – concludes Berkofsky – that common sense will also prevail in the Chinese government, which asks its citizens for a negative Covid test before embarking on an international journey. The pandemic has not ended with them”.
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