My Take | Covid-19 situation in China is no worse than most OECD countries
- Unlike medical reporters who know their subject well, correspondents inevitably link China politics to a health system they know little about
These days, every social problem and crisis in China is reported as a crisis of legitimacy and challenge to Beijing. That may be so, but in the larger global context, those same problems and crises are no more or less than what most governments face.
The current opening and live-with-Covid policy is a case in point. Everywhere, living with Covid means queuing times are surging, staff are leaving or on strike, and more patients are dying. Globally, it’s chaos and despair in the public healthcare system, not just China’s.
But everywhere else, it’s mainly reported as a local or national health service crisis. In China, it’s inevitably tied to the country’s alleged dictatorship and authoritarianism. Whether zero-Covid or living with Covid, it’s always the same pre-scripted news template.
My complaint is not about whataboutism; perspective and context matter. All across Europe, in North America and Britain, sick patients are flooding hospitals, overcrowding wards and delaying non-Covid but essential life-saving treatments and operations.
Public healthcare systems within the European Union – ravaged for three years by the pandemic – are being overwhelmed by huge backlogs while they have to battle, all at the same time, a “triple epidemic” of Covid-19, seasonal flu and the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) this winter.
Britain’s once widely admired National Health Service is on the brink, with public nurses on strike for the first time in modern history. Emergency services are either not responding or if they are, patients have had to wait hours before being picked up and then wait many more hours, sometimes for a whole day, before being admitted. Reports of death while waiting have been on the rise.