Tag: Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Hearing on Covid’s Origins Promises Politics Mixed With Substance

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Wednesday will dig into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in a hearing that promises to be filled with political theater alongside substantive questions about laboratory safety and what, if anything, could have been done to prevent the worst public health crisis in a century. The hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic is expected to focus largely on the intensifying debate over whether Covid-19 was the result of a laboratory leak. In advance of the session, Republicans issued a memorandum critical of…

What to Expect at China’s National People’s Congress as Xi Tightens Grip

Chin@Strategy

China’s leaders are set to use a gathering of the top legislature starting Sunday to outline plans to restore public confidence and bolster economic growth after a year of uncertainty, disruption and discontent around the government’s Covid restrictions. The annual session of the largely ceremonial National People’s Congress is aimed at conveying the ruling Communist Party’s confidence and inspiring national unity. For the country’s top leader, Xi Jinping, this year’s event will also be key to reinforcing his authority after his signature “zero Covid” policy, now abandoned, drew widespread protests…

China’s Factories Report Surge in Activity After Lockdowns End

Chin@Strategy

After being brutally battered by the coronavirus pandemic last year, Chinese factories bounced back with unexpected vigor last month. The official index of manufacturing activity, based on surveys of purchasing managers at companies in China, shot up in February from the month before to its highest level in more than a decade. The index of service sector activity also rose.Both measures suggested that business had expanded for a second straight month, after contracting during the Covid restrictions. After a year of unrelenting lockdowns, quarantines and coronavirus testing that paralyzed much…

China Moves to Erase the Vestiges of ‘Zero Covid’ to Deter Dissent

Chin@Strategy

This is how China’s ruling Communist Party wants people to remember how it handled the Covid-19 pandemic: It was a “miracle in human history.” Every measure the government imposed was rooted in science, supported by the masses — and, ultimately, “completely correct.” The party is waging an ambitious propaganda campaign to rewrite the public’s memory of “zero Covid,” a signature policy of China’s leader, Xi Jinping, that helped contain the virus for almost three years — but went to such extreme lengths that it smothered the economy and set off…

Where Did Covid Originate? Here’s What We Know and Don’t Know

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — The Energy Department’s conclusion, with “low confidence,” that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic has renewed questions about what sparked the worst public health crisis in a century — and whether the virus at the heart of it was somehow connected to scientific research. Scientists and spy agencies have tried assiduously to answer that question, but conclusive evidence is hard to come by. The nation’s intelligence agencies are split, and none of them changed their conclusions after seeing the Energy Department’s findings, officials…

China Dismisses Latest Claim That Lab Leak Likely Caused Covid

Chin@Strategy

China accused the United States of politicizing the coronavirus pandemic again on Monday, in response to reports that the Energy Department had concluded that an accidental laboratory leak had likely triggered the spread of Covid worldwide. The rebuke marks the latest salvo in a running war of words between the two countries over the origins of the virus, an issue that has taken on as much of a political dimension as a scientific one as the rivalry between the two superpowers deepens. “Covid tracing is a scientific issue that should…

Lab Leak Most Likely Caused Pandemic, Energy Dept. Says, as Spy Agencies Remain Split

Chin@Strategy

WASHINGTON — New intelligence has prompted the Energy Department to conclude that an accidental laboratory leak in China most likely caused the coronavirus pandemic, though American spy agencies remain divided over the origins of the virus, American officials said on Sunday. The conclusion was a change from the department’s earlier position that it was undecided on how the virus emerged. Some officials briefed on the intelligence said that it was relatively weak and that the Energy Department’s conclusion was made with “low confidence,” suggesting its level of certainty was not…

How Health Insurance Works in China, and How It’s Changing

Chin@Strategy

Almost everyone in China has had at least some health insurance since new policies were introduced a decade ago. Now China has begun pursuing a second wave of changes. The new policies, which have triggered protests in several big cities like Wuhan, are aimed at covering deficits in local employee health insurance plans and reducing inequality between cities and rural areas. Who has health coverage in China? China has two main kinds of health insurance: employee hospitalization insurance and so-called residents insurance. The employee hospitalization insurance is the better of…

How Deadly Was China’s Covid Wave?

Chin@Strategy

China’s official count 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths LOW ESTIMATE HIGH ESTIMATE Estimate using travel patterns 970,000 deaths Estimate using recent testing data 1.5 million deaths Estimate based on U.S. death rates 1.1 million deaths China’s official count 2.5 million 83,150 deaths Model based on Shanghai outbreak 1.6 million deaths Estimate using travel patterns 970,000 deaths Estimate using recent testing data 1.5 million deaths Estimate based on U.S. death rates 1.1 million deaths After China relaxed the world’s most stringent Covid-19 restrictions in…

N.I.H. Leader Rebuts Covid Lab Leak Theory at House Hearing

Chin@Strategy

The suspicions revolve around $8 million in grants to EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit that was collaborating on coronavirus research with scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, in the city where the pandemic began. Late last month, an internal federal watchdog agency found that the N.I.H. had made significant errors in its oversight of those grants. In a 64-page report, the Office of Inspector General at the federal Department of Health and Human Services outlined missed deadlines, confusing protocols and misspent funds — raising and reinforcing concerns about the government’s…