Photographer: Hector Retamal / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Hector Retamal / AFP / Getty Images
A year after the blockade imposed on the Chinese city of Wuhan impacted the world, the tactic is becoming a lasting tool to suffocate the coronavirus almost everywhere.
When the first large-scale closure of modern times was implemented in China on January 23 at the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was considered unproven and unthinkable, especially on the part of democratic governments that refused the implications for human rights violations of limiting the freedom of movement of citizens on such a huge scale.
However, almost twelve months later, the United Kingdom is in the third country blockage while fighting a mutated coronavirus strain. In Australia, the recent discovery of a case in Brisbane sparked a three-day period confinement. And China, which is experiencing its biggest outbreak since the start of the pandemic with more than 500 cases, closed three cities surrounding Beijing this month.
“Before COVID-19 there was a strong discourse on global health that argued against closures and similar massive quarantines. This is just one area of thinking that the current pandemic has turned upside down, ”said Nicholas Thomas, an associate professor of health security at City University of Hong Kong.
“As far as possible, blockades will become part of the set of essential tools that governments will need to use to deal with ongoing and future outbreaks,” he said.
War measures
The speed with which China shut down millions of people when the pandemic erupted marked the first time that the measure was taken on such a massive scale in modern times.
Until last year, strong blockades were synonymous with the bubonic plague waves that swept through Europe from the 14th century onwards. Even during the Spanish flu of the early twentieth century, no central blockade was imposed. However, China imposed three major blockades in recent history: one during an outbreak of bubonic plague in the northeast in 1901, and two short after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake and another in the midst of a plague outbreak. bubonic in Gansu province in 2014.
Foreign countries that were baffled by the closure of Wuhan found themselves doing the same thing a few months after the virus spread uncontrollably.
After an infectious disease reaches a certain number of people, blockages cannot be avoided because no other measure can be spread, said Jiang Qingwu, a professor of epidemiology at Shanghai Fudan University.
While it is clear that there is a huge gap between what the Chinese government is able to impose on its citizens during a shutdown compared to democratic countries. Always quick to declare what the government routinely refers to as “war” measures in response to a relatively low number of infections, local authorities also ensured compliance through actions such as the total sealing of residential premises. In some cases, people are not allowed to go out to look for food, but deliveries are organized.
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According to the authors of a a study by Bloomberg Economics that compares how democratic countries confronted other more authoritarian countries in dealing with the pandemic, “a quick, strict blockade is the kind of reaction that is most natural to authoritarian regimes that democratic regimes “
At China’s last closure in Shijiazhuang, the capital of Hebei province, strict measures are reminiscent of the Wuhan closure, which ended on April 8 after infections were reduced to zero. Residents of the northeastern city, 290 miles (290 kilometers) southwest of Beijing, must stay home for seven days as the city begins a second round of mass testing for the entire population of Beijing. ’11 million, as the cases in the region exceed 500. Flights and trains to and from the city have been stopped, as well as virtually all public transport.
In contrast, democracies like the UK in their versions of closures have allowed people to leave home to buy commodities such as food and medicine, walk their dogs or exercise. Schools remained open at France’s fall closing, while during the last two-week closure of this month, Israel allows people to gather outdoors in groups of Until 10, with exemptions for religious activities.
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But there have also been examples of democratic governments imposing extreme rules. A state government in Australia, where officials have reacted fiercely to the blasts, it even banned outdoor exercise and walking with dogs for a brief closing in November.
Winter resurgence
Chinese authorities argue that the rebound of the country’s crisis shows that its approach works. And a winter resurgence of the virus in countries such as South Korea, Japan and Sweden, which was originally successful with a minimal disruption approach that avoided blockages, reinforces the argument of stricter measures, especially when tired citizens reject advice on your stay at home.
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“Given the large number and high density of China, we have shown [these measures] they are very effective, ”Mi Feng, a spokesman for the country’s National Health Commission, told Bloomberg News.
In addition to concerns about civil liberties, many governments continue to hesitate to impose the kind of complete closures seen in China due to the economic cost, although research on the latest World Economic Outlook from the International Monetary Fund goes demonstrate that if countries were decisive in taking action, they performed better in terms of protecting the economy. New Zealand is an example, which recorded only 25 deaths after quickly imposing closures, and life returned to near normal soon after.
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However, even China, of whom the economy has come back to life, it is aware of the economic pressure. Since the closure of Wuhan, authorities have revealed, in a revealing way, the closure of economically significant cities such as Beijing, despite major flagrante delicto. Officials were largely engaged in aggressive monitoring of contacts during an outbreak in the capital last summer.
“How effective the blockages are, they are costly,” said Yanzhong Huang, director of the Center for Global Health Studies at Seton Hall University in New Jersey. “Even for China, it’s unsustainable in the long run,” he added, comparing reflective blocking decisions to “firing cannonballs at mosquitoes.”
With vaccination actions being rapidly deployed in major Western countries and China, the European Union hope is that blockades will be much less common in 2021, although substantial uncertainty remains as to how long it will take to vaccinate enough the world’s population to safely reopen the world economy.
Despite the economic implications, the legacy of Covid-19 is likely to continue to deploy blockchains during highly communicable disease outbreaks in the future, especially because they are now a familiar concept to people everywhere for the first time in a century.
“Restrictive quarantine itself is not a new invention and its application dates back to the Black Death in medieval times,” Huang said. “But it’s ironic that such an old method is still the most effective despite the huge advances in medical science.”
– With the assistance of John Liu, Claire Che and Dong Lyu