2022 is the third year that the pandemic has swept across the globe, taking people on a journey of initial panic, to the "normal" life of mask-wearing, social distancing and sanitizing.
Though people still suffer from the pandemic, some countries have learned to live with the virus. However, the novel coronavirus is still mutating, and the number of new cases and deaths in many countries continues to increase. Therefore, the "let it go" attitude may not be the wisest way forward.
Meanwhile, in China, the country's dynamic zero-COVID policy has been blamed by a handful of Western observers for blocking the global supply chain, and even for escalating global inflation, saying more and more foreign companies are exiting China because of its stringent "lockdown" policy.
It's time to look at this in a more rational and comprehensive light. Bloomberg's Opinion articles commented that China's economy may be healthier than it looks, and while old industries weaken, new ones start to thrive. Industrial China is alive and well despite concerns of an economic slowdown, and investors need to use a new lens to assess the economy. China's economy has hidden pockets of strength.
During an interview with U.S. mainstream media recently, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Qin Gang further explained that the dynamic zero-COVID policy readjusts?according to circumstances, particularly the degree of the spread of COVID-19.
So, instead of focusing on attacking China's dynamic zero-COVID policy, it is better for the critics to rationally review its own country's pandemic prevention policy, put people's lives and property first, and minimize the damage caused by the pandemic.
On August 17, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), delivered a sweeping rebuke of her agency's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying it had failed to respond quickly enough and needed to be overhauled.
"To be frank, we are responsible for some pretty dramatic, pretty public mistakes, from testing to data to communications," she said.
Walensky said CDC's future depended on whether it could absorb the lessons of the last few years, during which much of the public lost trust in the agency's ability to handle a pandemic that has killed more than one million Americans. "This is our watershed moment. We must pivot," she said.
She laid out her basic conclusion from the review of a report, which would soon be published. CDC must refocus itself on public health needs, respond much faster to emergencies and outbreaks of disease, and provide information in a way that ordinary people, the state and local health authorities can understand and put to use.
Dr. David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said messages to the general public need to be, "Very clear, very simple, very straightforward," not framed for scientists. "I do think that culture is changing, but we need it to change faster," he said.