In a devastating revelation of the anti-science policy thrusts of Washington and European powers, which have led to millions of Covid-19 infections and deaths, sweeping implementation of China’s scientific public health policy includes a recent outbreak of the delta variant there. . This highlights the potential for a global campaign to eradicate the virus to stop the pandemic, as long as the ruling class’s international opposition to science policy can be crushed.
A new outbreak emerged at Nanjing airport last month, after the massive mobilization of public health measures that ended the epidemic in China last year. The delta variant virus, which was brought into the country from Moscow by Air China CA910, infected vaccinated maintenance workers at the airport and quickly spread throughout China. The outbreak was detected on July 20, and by the end of the month, 381 people had already contracted the disease, in more than a dozen provinces in the country. While the highest level of the outbreak infected more than 140 people a day, that number is now falling dramatically, with large parts of China reporting no new cases.
Yesterday, 29 cases of Covid-19 were reported across China. Jiangsu province, where Nanjing is located and was the first epicenter of the outbreak, reported only three new cases. Nearby Shanghai recorded two and eight in the southern border province of Yunnan, the second most affected province by the eruption after Jiangsu. Nine people were reported from the southern industrial center of Guangdong Province. Hunan Province, which was hit hard for the first time by tourists from Nanjing who brought Delta version there, has not recorded any new cases.
While the situation in China remains poor, this initial success demonstrates the enormous power of scientific methods, even against the pernicious delta variant. Vaccination and sealing of affected neighborhoods — as well as extensive testing of entire cities, including Nanjing, Wuhan and Yangzhou, to quickly locate, isolate and treat patients — prevents the virus from spiraling out of control elsewhere in the world.
This comes after the success of the closure that was imposed during the outbreak of the epidemic in Wuhan and Hubei Province, from January 23 to April 8 last year. The strict lockdown, which was lifted only after no new cases of the virus emerged, has put an end to the transmission of the coronavirus within China, with the exception of outbreaks imported from outside the country’s borders.
But in the imperialist countries and in most parts of the world, governments pursued a completely opposite strategy. They have rejected extreme lockdowns, or when forced to implement them with spontaneous strikes in Italy and the United States, they lifted them before transmission of the virus ended, and there were programs for mass testing and detection and detection of new cases.
The resulting difference in health outcomes is astounding. There have been fewer than 5,000 Covid-19 deaths in China, while more than 643,000 have died in the United States and an estimated 1,155,000 across Europe. The disparity was greater in the period after the lockdown was lifted in the spring of 2020.
Since May 1, 2020, after the lockdown of Wuhan, two people have died of Covid-19 in China, more than 500,000 in the United States and more than 950,000 in Europe. In India, with a population roughly the size of China, between 2.9 and 5.8 million people died, according to estimates by demographers, most of which are not on the list.
However, fighting and eliminating the epidemic requires an international strategy. The Nanjing outbreak once again underscores the impossibility of eliminating the epidemic with national policies. Scientific policy guidance must be used to eradicate the virus on a global scale – otherwise new variants of a highly contagious nature will inevitably evolve, due to the virus’s characteristics of rapid mutations, which then spread back to areas where the virus has been eradicated.
The main obstacle is the imperial financial aristocracy in North America and Europe, which refuses to impose scientific policies. Instead, they took trillions of dollars, euros and pounds in bank and corporate bailouts, demanding that lives be sacrificed so employees could stay at the company to make a profit. At the same time as millions were dying needlessly, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson shouted, “Enough! Un *** ji Shut up, let the corpses pile up by the thousands! “
With variable deltas set to cause record loss of life worldwide, US and European media are launching a campaign to discredit China’s public health policy. It is quite clear that their goal is not only China, but the resistance of the working class internationally against political trends that lead to unnecessary mass deaths.
“The delta outbreak in China is showing signs of slowing,” CNN demanded in the news network’s report that Beijing stop trying to contain the infection. While the report acknowledged that “the zero-transmission model … has so far proven effective in reducing widespread transmission,” it added, “However, this approach requires punitive and repressive measures that many argue are simply unsustainable.” New varieties are spreading and other countries are opening their doors again. Experts say fortification areas must eventually move away from this strategy — they cannot be cut off from the world forever.”
The imperialist media is also trying to take advantage of the political crisis caused by the epidemic in China itself to distort the scientific political orientation in order to save lives. In France, the conservative newspaper claimed: Le Figaro That Chinese scientists and doctors themselves reject Beijing’s policies, wanting to heed President Emmanuel Macron’s call to “coexist with the virus.” Le Figaro He referred to the recent controversy in China about the statements of the pioneering virologist, Dr. Chang Wenhong.
Le Figaro He claimed that: “Zhang Wenhong, a well-known infectious disease expert from Shanghai, expressed skepticism about China’s Zero-Covid strategy in late July, and asked to ‘learn how to live with the virus.'” Avisa added that this suspension order “casts doubt on the The possibility of transferring control of the epidemic in China” and “causing bitter controversy in the country.”
Chang does not actually support the criminal and political approach of European governments and tries to portray it as a mere fraud and deception. In his latest post on the Weibo Internet platform, Zhang unequivocally endorsed China’s public health policy: “The international epidemic control situation is still very serious and China still faces enormous epidemic challenges. But we must firmly believe that our country’s anti-epidemic strategy is better Our strategy at the moment.
Le Figaro He referred to Zhang Weibo’s July 29 post, which was criticized in China. After this position, his employer, Fudan University in Shanghai, launched an investigation into possible plagiarism in Zhang’s thesis. In a distorted echo of the imperial press’s crackdown, Chinese social media criticized Zhang for his support of Western culture.
In the previous post on July 29, Zhang wrote: “When it comes to how the world deals with the virus, each country has its own response. China responded with its beauty. After the Nanjing volcano eruption, we will definitely learn more. China should build a common future with the world, and connect with The rest of the world, returning to normal life, while protecting citizens from fear of the virus. China should have this wisdom.”
Zhang’s statement is ambiguous because he avoids direct condemnation of the policies of the criminal political epidemic of the imperialist countries and their allies. However, this ambiguity is not just about Zhang’s individual opinions. Zhang was a physician rather than a politician, speaking under the restrictions imposed by his membership in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a Stalinist bureaucratic party that restored capitalism in China in 1989 and now has deep financial and economic ties to global imperialism.
The Chinese Communist Party, entangled with capitalist ties and a growing fear of the working class at home, has largely avoided condemning the public health policies of the imperialist countries. However, the CPC did not prevent Zhang and other Chinese doctors and health professionals from implementing policies that saved millions of lives in China.
Two important conclusions can be drawn from this. First, Zhang and other Chinese scientists working to eradicate Covid-19 are not supporters of the reactionary epidemic policies of the imperialist powers, nor are they “Western” agents against China. Moreover, the work they have done and workers in China is a great service to international workers: it shows that science and mass mobilization can stop the epidemic.
Incidentally, ending the epidemic requires a conscious international mobilization of the working class, for socialism and against both imperialism and Stalinism, with the aim of wresting power from the hands of the capitalist financial aristocracy and imposing a scientific political orientation. Saved lives.
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