China or the USA – which country is pursuing the right corona strategy? US virologist Anthony Fauci took a position on Sandra Maischberger’s talk show.
Munich – The question of what the correct answer to the spread of the omicron variant of the corona virus is has long since become a kind of culture war between China and the USA. Almost every day, Beijing’s state media report on the devastation caused by the US’s handling of the pandemic. “200,000 US children orphaned by COVID-19 weigh on Washington’s conscience,” headlined the state-controlled newspaper recently Global Times. The “irresponsible” policies of the US and other Western countries are causing millions of deaths, while China’s “zero Covid strategy” is saving lives, the tenor goes.
But because the omicron variant is extremely contagious and at the same time leads to comparatively few deaths, China’s government is increasingly finding it difficult to explain its approach of not allowing any infections. For months, Beijing has sealed off one city after the other and locked millions of people in their homes. Mass tests should also track down the very last infected person. Shanghai was hit particularly hard. The economic metropolis with around 25 million inhabitants has been under a lockdown since the beginning of April, which was only recently eased a little.
Anthony Fauci at Sandra Maischberger: China has “no good vaccine”
Resistance to the tough policy has been growing among China’s population for a long time. The social networks are full of videos of fights between citizens and security forces showing people banging on pots from their apartment windows in protest against the measures. These are images that also cause horror in the West and which – keyword culture war – should now have persuaded the US virologist Anthony Fauci to reject the Chinese strategy.
“To impose a lockdown and do nothing else makes no sense at all. You have to use the lockdown period to vaccinate and boost the population,” said the 81-year-old immunologist on Wednesday on Sandra Maischberger’s talk show. The chief medical adviser to the US presidents declared China’s “zero Covid strategy” a failure on the show. Fauci complained that China “doesn’t have a good vaccine – compared to the vaccines in the EU and the US”.
Frank Ulrich Montgomery at Maischberger: “The zero-Covid strategy has failed”
In fact, two inactivated vaccines developed in China are used in particular, which have proven to be less effective against omicron. Biontech’s mRNA vaccine, on the other hand, has still not been approved, although the Mainz-based company had already signed a contract with a Chinese company for the production of the vaccine more than two years ago. At least four of China’s own mRNA vaccines are currently being developed, and a few days ago a new inactivated vaccine that was specially developed against the omicron variant was tested on a volunteer for the first time.
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At “Maischberger. the week” Fauci not only criticized the lack of a good vaccine in China, but also blamed the vaccination rate among older people for the country’s problems. According to the US immunologist, this is far too low. Fauci received approval for his analysis of Chinese corona policy on the show from Frank Ulrich Montgomery, chairman of the World Medical Association. “The ‘zero Covid strategy’ has failed. Lockdown again and again, that’s not possible,” said Montgomery at Maischberger.
Corona in China: Expert calls for the end of mass tests
While criticism of the “zero Covid” policy in China’s social networks is usually censored within a very short time, an article that called for a rethink was recently able to spread online. Like the Hong Kong based one South China Morning Post reported on Thursday, the text comes from Zhang Zuofeng, a Chinese-American public health professor who teaches at the University of California at Los Angeles.
Zhang writes in the text that the mass public tests currently being carried out in many Chinese cities would only increase the risk of infection. After all, many people would come together in one place; In addition, there is a risk of infection from the test staff. He also calls for the use of the Biontech vaccine and the treatment of older people with a corona drug from Pfizer. As the post Office continues to write, the text has not yet fallen victim to censorship – possibly a faint sign of a slight course correction in Beijing.
Meanwhile, the US broadcaster reported NBC News on Wednesday, citing self-compiled data, that a million people in the United States have already died in connection with a corona infection since the beginning of the pandemic. A number that should give the advocates of China’s zero-tolerance policy a boost. (sh)
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