Don’t think it can happen here? “A week and a half into one of the biggest pandemic lockdowns in China,” reports The Wall Street Journal, “residents of Xi’an voiced desperation online about challenges in getting food and medical care.”
Here’s a couple of them:
“My biggest fear is not lack of food but being dragged to some unknown quarantine centers because one neighbor in the same building tested positive,” one resident posted on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform.
“To be honest, I don’t think Covid is scary. I think having no food to eat is my biggest threat,” he wrote on the WeChat social-media app.
The WSJ continues: “[A] video that went viral over the weekend showed a man being beaten by guards, with comments alleging that he had gone out to buy steamed buns on New Year’s Eve. Following an online outcry at the video, which showed the buns scattered on the ground, police said two guards had been detained, and that they had apologized to the man.”
This is a city of 13 million residents. Locked. Down. And those with Covid? Off to one of the 387 quarantine camps, which currently house 40,000. And all across China, there are only 100 cases of Covid a day? This is what happens when a few rule the many. Can’t happen here, you say?
The WSJ’s Notable and Quotable cites Amanda Kaufman reporting for the Boston Globe:
In a memo to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, . . . two researchers propose the use of “circuit breakers,” which are temporary, local restrictions on “high-risk” activities like indoor dining, performances, or non-essential work outside of homes.
“Because many regions are entering this wave with higher hospital censuses (both due to COVID-19 and other conditions) than in previous waves, it is possible that uncontrolled spread of Omicron could quickly overwhelm hospital capacity, despite the existing immunity of the population,” wrote Dr. Jeremy Faust. . . and William Hanage. . . .
The so-called circuit breakers would be triggered once individual regions have met or are approaching certain thresholds of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, Faust and Hanage said, and might last about five to seven days “but would be unlikely to be necessary for longer than 14 days in order to achieve the stated objective.”
Action Line: Only two weeks? Where have we heard that before? The possibility of new harsh lockdowns could drive Americans back into panic mode. You need to stay ahead of the risk curve. Click here to sign up for my free RAGE Gauge alert, where you’ll get access to my regular analysis of Americans’ risk tolerance.
