By the twelfth century in China, vector tracing was standard procedures for epidemics and and lockdowns of households, neighborhoods and cities were standard. Pandemics, like the Black Death, which brought down Western empires, made little headway in China. Nor did Covid. Death rates were much lower and the economy grew four time faster than America’s during the Covid years. Let’s see why.
America’s Covid Factors
Definition: The CDC reported 1.2 million ‘Covid deaths,’ but the virus was primarily responsible for only 4% of them. It was only a ‘factor’ in 96%.
Incentives: Washington reimbursed hospitals $12,000–$160,00 for each inpatient if Covid was a ‘factor’ in their admission. Charlie Munger: “Show me the incentives and I’ll show you the outcome”.
Health: 70% of Americans are sick enough to take prescription drugs daily, usually two or more. Life expectancy, falling since 2014, is below China’s.
Government: 30% of Americans trust the President to tell the truth.
Media: 6% of Americans trust their media to tell the truth.
Education: 5% of Americans can distinguish fact from opinion.
Competence: Lockdowns in the USA were haphazard, and few understood how or why they were imposed.
Elite disagreement: Is masking worthless? Useful? Necessary? America’s medical elite still disagree.
Treatment: The CDC used an untested gene therapy costing $35/unit, which provided no protection against infection and triggered many side- and after-effects, some fatal.
History: Two to six million Americans were Covid seropositive in December, 2019.
To reach that levels took 6-12 months. ‘vaping’ and care home deaths had 100% Covid symptoms. The world’s first Covid death occurred in Kansas.
China’s Covid Factors
Definition: In Beijing’s reported 83,150 deaths, Covid-19 was primarily responsible, the standard clinical practice.
Health: Chinese are healthier and more energetic than Americans, thanks to consuming 70% of the world’s fruit and vegetables, a few minutes daily tai chi, and cheap, preventive TCM.
Government trust: 80% of Chinese trust their government and, by extension, its public health agency, which is headed by a famous epidemiologist.
Media trust: 80% of Chinese trust their government media. During the epidemic, senior scientists spoke directly to the people, without political interference.
Education: In OECD testing, 62% of Chinese students could reliably distinguish fact from opinion.
Competence: 82% of Chinese approved of Dynamic Covid Zero and just 7% of them were ever locked down. Since lockdowns are traditional there, they elicited little complaint.
Incentives: Beijing provided emergency staffing and supplies to hospitals and covered extraordinary costs, nothing more.
Elite disagreement: China had been planning for an outbreak (‘SARS, but highly communicable’) since 1982. Their approach followed WHO guidelines, obviating disagreement.
Treatment: The CCDC used a 35¢ killed virus. Slightly more effective than mRNA treatment, it had no side- or after-effects.
History: WHO inspectors found no sign of Covid in China prior to September, 2019, when Wuhan hosted the World Military Games. (The big US team barely participated, but stayed off campus in a hotel near the Huanan Seafood Market. Two of the team were hospitalized with suspected Covid).
Reality check
For months I have been asking Chinese friends if they know of anyone who died of Covid. None does. A friend who blogs for the 800,000 expats living there asked readers, “Do you know of any expats who have died in China of Covid?”. None did. Since Western media would have jumped on such a story, it appears that none did – further buttressing China’s figures.
Politicization
Tom Fowdy’s list of how Covid-19 was politicized against China:
China is accused of a coverup
China is accused of being brutal in how it handled the outbreak in Wuhan
China is accused of being responsible for the pandemic going global
China is accused of unleashing the virus through a laboratory leak
China's vaccines are accused of being ineffective
China's medical aid is accused of being ineffective
China is accused of "vaccine diplomacy" to "coerce" other countries
China's Winter Olympic bubble is accused of being oppressive, dystopian
China's Shanghai lockdown is again accused of being brutal
The pandemic, both in beginning and end, are characterized as "China's Chernobyl moment”.
Reading
The Last—And Only—Foreign Scientist in the Wuhan Lab Speaks Out.
Smouldering ashes: burning questions about vaping-associated lung injury (EVALI) FREE
French doctors believe they may have treated coronavirus patients last fall:
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2020-05/08/c_139040660.htm