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Stilgar314 t1_iudq57b wrote

Zero COVID policy worked like a charm at the beginning, but now doesn't make any sense. China has the vaccine for years but COVID is still a problem there. At some point they lost the way big time.

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sziehr t1_iuefqh0 wrote

The core issue is the vaccine they have is highly ineffective. They have yet to carbon clone the west’s vaccine yet. So they have no real defense against Covid ravaging there people. This is a pure political issue as the west would gladly license them the tech for a moderna style vaccine. They like Russia demanded it be home grown.

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VastSpot1450 t1_iufkefo wrote

Remember when they were taunting the west by pumping out propaganda pictures and videos of their young people having huge parties while the west was still in "lockdown"? Now they look like a bunch of idiots.

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UnderworldCircle t1_iue0c8j wrote

I would have expected it was because people in China distrusts the vaccines/the government and may not instead resort to bullshit like Chinese Traditional Medicines to prevent/cure COVID leading to lower than expected vaccination rates, making the government resort to alternate preventative measures such as Zero-Covid to prevent further additional hospitals and healthcare sectors being overwhelmed with covid patients.

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TheTwinSet02 t1_iuf8idl wrote

You know when I used to go to China for work 10years or so ago no one I met had ever had acupuncture because they didn’t trust anyone and also thought the Chinese herbal medicines were covered in pesticides so didn’t use those either

The levels of distrust go deep

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GoodAndHardWorking t1_iufs4ub wrote

Traditional Chinese Medicine doesn't have much of a tradition.. it's basically a meme discipline that incorporates some folk wisdom, pushed by the government to deny how far behind they are in actual medicine.

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UnderworldCircle t1_iufv2hz wrote

Wikipedia states that anything resembling Traditional Chinese Medicines originated some 2000+ years ago, though I’d agree, the Chinese government would appropriate it to hide the fact during their reign their healthcare system at the time might not be up to scratch and pushed TCM to cover their asses in places they’d fall short on in public healthcare. Similar to how many kings, emperors, caliphs and popes throughout history would appropriate religion in order to give their constituents justification to go to war and kill ‘x,y,z’ people.

But no, I’d disagree, TCM factually has been around for far longer before the CCP even came into existence. I’d say it has a tradition

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GoodAndHardWorking t1_iufwwxh wrote

TCM as it's understood/taught today was basically invented in the 1970s with a veneer of antiquity (these herbs have been used... since prehistory..)

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Phssthp0kThePak t1_iugv041 wrote

Wasn't a lot of the knowledge lost during the cultural revolution? Burned books, jailed teachers.

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UnderworldCircle t1_iugy5mj wrote

A lot of people today overestimated the reach and destruction that resulted during the C.R, the C.R movement was basically the reflected version of the January 6th riot in the capital multiplied 5000-fold, with Mao Zedong in lieu of Donald Trump; not everyone in society or in the CCP government agreed with them. You got people high up in the echelon like Zhou Enlai who ordered for PLA soldiers to guard the Forbidden City from the Red Guards (the reason why the Forbidden City & other religious buildings and monuments still exist in China today)

In addition, the destruction of the C.R happened most commonly in the big towns and famous cities, whilst most of the poor, remote and rural towns and villages were far away from the chaos, and it is there that the majority of the old information, cultural norms and customs still managed to survive to be passed on, TCM included. The people inhabiting these places would be more focused on agriculture, putting food on their table and not starving to death than wasting their time on book and statue burnings. The circumstances of poverty and remoteness of these Chinese villages and towns would have ensured the survival of TCM practices considering these places probably still did not have anything remotely close to infrastructure or public health care.

EDIT: Also included Chinese diaspora who fled to other countries with cultural and traditional customs and knowledge then returned back once the C.R died down, also ensuring its survival.

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UnderworldCircle t1_iufvydz wrote

I am of Chinese descent who grew up in a Chinese household, my parents and extended family turn to TCM for the complete OPPOSITE reason you described, in the fact they believe Western/Chemistry-Pharmaceutical based medicine are synthetic, contain unnatural chemicals that may have bad/long term unforeseen side effects to the body, disrupt ‘Qi’, big-pharma monopolization on production methods etc. and would instead resort to TCM because it’s natural, have been around for far longer and where governments and private corporations have no monopoly control over its manufacture and distribution. If it isn’t up to the seriousness of pneumonia, limb loss or cancer, they’d try and go with TCM first before upping the ante to Western medicine.

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TheTwinSet02 t1_iugolxx wrote

That’s why I was so surprised by everyone I spoke to. I’ve had acupuncture many times, brewed Chinese herbal medicine on my stove and had pretty good results esp acupuncture here in Australia

I’m always curious and found it so strange none of the locals used it and it was down to no trust in practitioners or even the quality of herbal medicine. These were in big cities like Ningbo maybe that’s why

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Dudedude88 t1_iugb9vt wrote

their vaccine only had like 50-60% efficacy against delta. its probably worse for omicron

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[deleted] t1_iudzx4s wrote

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[deleted] t1_iue0w5f wrote

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musashisamurai t1_iue44lz wrote

With the congress over, Chinese officials might start buying foreign vaccines to use if locals would use them. No one wants to be the one who admits that the domestic vaccines are useless, against the Party line, and buy from the "enemy" before the Party Congress where folks get promoted or kicked out.

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TrumpDesWillens t1_iue2q5z wrote

It's backwards to care about the lives of your people at the expense of the economy? 1 million+ dead is backwards.

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IronEngineer t1_iue8mya wrote

It's backwards to refuse to use another country's vaccine because they won't admit their vaccine does not work as well.

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[deleted] t1_iues7hw wrote

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IronEngineer t1_iuey22o wrote

Nah that's because of idiots refusing to take any vaccine. Can't fix stupid, regardless of nationality or race.

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jbjam t1_iueai4a wrote

The uyghur would like a word, but according to official numbers China currently has and had minimal Covid deaths. Even when the virus was prevalent. If one believes their numbers.

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