The raging spread of COVID in China could pave the way for a drastic genetic curveball in the virus.
for nearly three years. Only on Dec. 8, following widespread public protests in many major cities, did the ruling Chinese Communist Party“The situation completely changed on Dec. 8,” Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at The University of Hong Kong, told The Daily Beast. The restrictions had contained COVID, resulting in what was one of the lowest overall case-rates of any country. But the lack of infectionsYes, around 90-percent of the Chinese population was at least partially vaccinated.
It’s a problem for China, of course, which has weeks or months of suffering ahead of it as authorities scramble to organize fresh rounds of vaccinations. The jabs are triage—a desperate effort to prevent overfull hospitals from collapsing as the Chinese population slowly, painfully builds up its natural immunity.
Subvariants might mix, like they did in much of the rest of the world. “China might even get its own version of the recombinant XBB,” Edwin Michael, an epidemiologist at the Center for Global Health Infectious Disease Research at the University of South Florida, told The Daily Beast. That subvariant is more transmissible than previous subvariants and it somewhat evades our antibodies. But it’s still a form of Omicron. It’sBut a major outbreak in a population of 1.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
China looks past Covid as tourist bookings surge for the Lunar New YearPeople in China are moving past the pandemic and going out to travel, preliminary data for the Lunar New Year holiday show.
Read more »
China, speeding through phases of covid, gets on with living with virusCovid ripped through China following the end of all restrictions last month. Now, after three difficult years, many Chinese are ready to get on with their lives.
Read more »
Posts falsely claim Malaysia mandates second Covid booster as China tourist influx expectedMalaysian social media users have repeatedly shared a false claim the country is mandating Covid-19 booster shots and 'will take legal action' against those who do not comply. The claim circulated as Malaysia anticipated an influx of tourists from China, which saw a surge of coronavirus cases after hardline zero-Covid policies were scrapped at the end of 2022. But a Malaysian health ministry spokeswoman said there was no mandate, and a lawyer told AFP there have never been any state or federal laws requiring residents to get booster shots.
Read more »
China domestic tourism picks up over Lunar New Year as COVID curbs endAlmost a quarter more domestic Chinese tourism trips have been made during this year's Lunar New Year holiday, while cross-border travel more than doubled in the first six days of the week-long break following the end of strict COVID-19 curbs.
Read more »
China’s Portrayal of Smooth Covid Exit Leaves Scientists Wanting More DataChina published a raft of data to show the peak of its Covid-19 wave has passed, but public-health experts continue to question whether Beijing has been transparent enough to enable them to accurately assess the situation
Read more »
COVID: China spread an 'experiment the likes of which none of us have seen'China's COVID secrecy and 'fairly limited' systemic global monitoring 'leads to a perpetual risk of a wider outbreak of infections,' a Stanford professor said.
Read more »