Futility of Lockdowns Exposed as Covid Infections in Shanghai Continue to Rise

In further proof of the futility of restrictions in suppressing an infectious respiratory virus, reported Covid infections in Shanghai continue to rise amidst one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. Jared T. Nelson reports on Twitter from the city.

Day 35 of our Shanghai Covid lockdown. Unbelievably, the newly identified Covid cases in Shanghai increased yesterday.

Adding to that trend, friends in several areas reported new cases in apartment buildings and communities that have been under strict lockdown for weeks.

We have the strictest imaginable lockdown conditions in Shanghai, and still have this massive setback of a rise in new Covid cases.

How can the virus, in these conditions, continue to survive and spread?

And if it can, in these conditions, how can our hope continue to survive? Social media in Shanghai has been flooded this weekend with despair, sorrow, and anger…

35 days of Covid lockdown in Shanghai with countless consecutive negative tests. Still not allowed to leave our front door. Still frustrated by food and water deliveries not returning to normal. Still with no idea of when this will end. Still very angry.

The one good development has been that some areas of the city seem to be doing better with fewer cases and less restrictions.

A key thing to remember about our city is that it is huge and the situation is different everywhere – I am only sharing our situation where I live.

There are a number of reasons lockdowns don’t stop the spread of a highly contagious virus like SARS-CoV-2, mostly to do with the fact that the virus spreads through the air (and possibly also via the orofecal route), and people can’t stop interacting entirely – essential work must be done and people must get supplies, medical treatment and so on. Add to that that people will often conceal early symptoms, particularly if they don’t want to be sent to a quarantine facility, and most protective equipment is ineffective, and it becomes almost impossible to prevent transmission.

How long until the Chinese Government admits defeat and joins the rest of the world in switching to ‘living with Covid’?

Read Jared’s full Twitter thread here.

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Rogerborg
3 years ago

How long until the Chinese Government admits defeat and joins the rest of the world in switching to ‘living with Covid’?

Not until Winnie the Flu is defenestrated. Forget the “government”, forget the “Party”: China is de facto an Empire, run by an absolute despot – for as long as he can keep enforcing his will.

Zero Coofs is Flu Bear’s word, and Flu Bear’s word must be law. If it goes, he goes. Until he goes, it cannot go.

snoozle
snoozle
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Well, and Pooh has nailed his colours to the mast of Zero Covid. If he fails, then I think that he’ll go, too, which is why the suppression is so severe.

John Dee
3 years ago
Reply to  snoozle

If Xi thinks Zero Covid is attainable, then his scientists must be even worse than ours.

John001
John001
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dee

Russian Communism included the madness of the Lysenko period.

1) The Soviet Union lasted 74 years, 1917-91
2) The People’s Republic of China has so far lasted 73 years, 1949-2022.

Discuss …

Star
3 years ago
Reply to  John001

Look at economic growth in the USSR 1971-1991 and in China 2002-2022, and the proportions of goods sold in Walmart stores in the USA that were made in the USSR in 1991 and that are made in China in 2022. There is little similarity.

The reported death rate “with Covid” per 1m population (and what a load of utter cr*p that statistic is – but never mind that for the moment) is 800 times bigger in monarchist Britain than in “the people’s republic” of China.

The best analogy with Lysenkoism today is the theory of anthropogenic climate change.

There’s also the rubbish about inherited “IQ”.

The bullsh*t about Covid in the west and the bullsh*t about it in China are both about population control and technofascism. In both countries the rulers have had a lot of success.

Hugh
Hugh
3 years ago
Reply to  John001

Prevously I had assumed it would last a bit longer than the SU tyranny (although possibly not until 2049), but now I’m beginning to wonder.

Rogerborg
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dee

I very much doubt that he does. What matters is whether he can force his vassals to pretend to think it. If he backs down now, he’ll be “retired” in short order

JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  John Dee

Xiro CoVid?

Cecil B
Cecil B
3 years ago

Lockdown harder lockdown longer it’s the only way, Neil says so

Vaxtastic
3 years ago
Reply to  Cecil B

Next is lockdown wider. That’s where the real money is. Or deeper.

Paul B
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

I have it on good authority from the guardian readers that sooner is best.

kitkatppk
kitkatppk
3 years ago
Reply to  Paul B

It is most effective if you start the lockdown well before any cases are discovered. That is the caring, compassionate, civic minded thing to do. You love granny, and the legions of self identified immunocompromised people… Don’t you?

Banana Bananas
3 years ago
Reply to  Cecil B

What an idea! Send him to China.

Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago

In July 2021, I spoke to a lifelong friend. Even at that time, he still believed the COVID BS and told me he was more worried about the consequences of Brexit.

I haven’t spoken to him since, but will let you know his thoughts when I next do.

LOL

DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

Confinement and masks OR fresh air, even cutting the bottoms off doors, windows open to the elements, they can’t decide

Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

They should get Sturge-On in to help, she’s an expert in under-door ventilation solutions. Then they can keep her. Probably won’t want to, though.

Vaxtastic
3 years ago

Now now, she’s a bit harsh for the Chinese. Haven’t they suffered enough?

1614642592419-1640785985.4146-202x300.jpg
crisisgarden
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

A very flattering rendition.

Covid-1984
Covid-1984
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Hang on , the school caps missing?

PhantomOfLiberty
PhantomOfLiberty
3 years ago

The purpose of lockdowns is not to stem the flow of disease but to break the human spirit. The CCP have long experience.

Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago

The New Holodomor.

Vaxtastic
3 years ago

Most people don’t quite grasp the concept of psyops. I don’t mean it in a smug way. The purpose is psychological manipulation after all. But much of this is a means to an end, even if the end is simply exhaustion and the acquiescence it will encourage.

Star
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

People who want a way in should

  • reflect on what school does to children’s minds,
  • reflect on entrainment and rationalisation (for example after posthypnotic suggestion),
  • read Karen Pryor’s “Don’t Shoot the Dog”, Gustave Le Bon’s “The Crowd – A Study of the Popular Mind”, or Edward Bernays’s “Propaganda”, according to taste (they are three different kinds of book, and they’re all superbly educative), or
  • if they only want to spare an hour at first, find out about the Stanley Milgram electroshock experiment – it could be the most mind-freeing hour they’ll ever spend.
RedhotScot
3 years ago

Remind me of the definition of insanity?

Vaxtastic
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

I need an injection to ensure the drug you took works for you.

Do I get a prize?

Star
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Few will be surprised that the wisdom that “the definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing expecting different results” doesn’t come from Albert Einstein. More interesting is where it does come from, which is from the “Narcotics Anonymous” scene. Those guys know what they’re talking about when they talk about addiction, how it drags people down and dominates them, and how to understand and fight it.

RW
RW
3 years ago

I’ve never been in Shanghai but if the usual living situation there isn’t much different from Kowloon, it’s going to be huge tower blocks with lots of small flats in them which will usually be inhabited by families. Forcing everyone to stay inside their flats day and night is thus a very effective way to concentrate a lot of people much more densely than if they were allowed out. No wonder that this doesn’t halt spread of pathogens.

Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Good point. The ideal breeding ground for any virus.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Yes, Shanghai is a sea of highly concentrated tower blocks.
Is it a good environment for the spread of a virus, if everyone keeps inside their own flat?
And how did the virus get in in the first place?

RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

If they’re not allowed to do anything else, they might be keeping inside the building but certainly not inside their flats, especially considering that these will be really small (about the size of single-inhabitant prison cell for our standards per family).
Even when ignoring this, air that’s already inside the building will more easily keep circulating inside of it than move out and be replaced with fresh air.

There are also really funny effects like this one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_plume

RichardTechnik
RichardTechnik
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Family apartments in the more modern tower blocks in Shanghai are closer to European size.

DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Too much information at breakfast time 😒

Life is a journey; are we there yet?
Life is a journey; are we there yet?
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Thank you for the link. Outdoor toilets may make a come back?

Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

“And how did the virus get in in the first place?”

From the bioweapons lab down by the wet market in Shanghai? All we need now is Europe to say ‘cases’ of the ‘Shanghai variant’ are appearing in Europe… and it’s more lockdowns and fines to be handed out for any ‘breaking the rules’.

John Dee
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

In the movies, it’s always an unconvincingly too-large ventilation duct. I’m led to believe they can contain full-size Aliens!

Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

Indeed. This is what lockdowns have “achieved” the world over: more people concentrated in fewer places more of the time.

tom171uk
3 years ago

Love the new avatar Marcus!

Marcus Aurelius knew
3 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

anarchos – without ruler

The anti-tribe

tom171uk
3 years ago

Spot on. My favoured philosophy, along with stoicism.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarchism

Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

How about all these people in Shanghai do something about it? What have they got to lose? I know – they could sign an on-line petition! That’s the tried & trusted way to get things done in the UK!
I expect they don’t even have a forum like this to have a moan about Winnie-the-Pooh.

What happened about ‘Pingdemic’ in the UK? All went quiet on that one. Did ‘they’ turn the sensitivity down? I mean, every second person and their cat was getting ‘pinged’ a few months ago… now… silence. Very strange.

Fiona Walker
3 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

The free sick pay stopped.

Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  Fiona Walker

That’s not much of an explanation.

Ross Hendry
3 years ago

With the dodgy PCR test it’s irrelevant whether they have lockdowns or not.

They think they’ve found new infections (or more likely they determined they would) and the test (unsuitable for diagnosis according to its developer) is the ideal tool to hoodwink the populace.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago

Barricade everything up, stop people getting out for fresh air an then wonder why it spreads more.

DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Insulate your home within an inch of its life, keep heat in, cold out, then chop the bottoms off doors and open all windows to let covid pass through

Vaxtastic
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Perfectly reasonable. What’s your point, caller? Don’t you understand Door Science?

Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Dungford stopped the Welsheeples from going out, and had footpaths strung with police tape to make sure they got no fresh air or exercise.
Dung Shiao Cymruping.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

We’re not going to pretend that we didn’t do lockdowns, are we?

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Some of us took no notice!

Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

We are all being replaced… but it’s ‘racist’ to say so.

“In 2015, then Chancellor George Osborne remarked, “no economy in the world is as open to Chinese investment as the UK.” 
While his words were no doubt designed to impress potential investors, the stats support the fact that Chinese investment in UK property is vast. 
Chinese investors have sunk around £50 billion into UK industries in the past decade. 
But why the UK? 

You may be surprised to learn how much impact China has on the UK economy. 
In May 2021, a report from The Sunday Times revealed that Chinese investors built a portfolio of UK businesses and property worth almost £135 billion.  
This has been the case for several years. Back in 2019, there were around 800 Chinese companies in the UK, which employed a whopping 71,000 people. 
Their revenue was equally colossal, totalling £91 billion.”

https://www.rw-invest.com/uk/chinese-investment-in-uk-property/

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Well just seize their assets if they start being arsey!

aiden
aiden
3 years ago

It’s so transparent that China are just trying to break the back of the world supply chains. These lockdowns have nothing to do with coronavirus. That’s the pretext and nothing more. The Chinese aren’t stupid. They’ve been preparing for WW3 since their century of humiliation. They have food fuel and resources stockpiled. They are ready. The weaker they can make us before actually going to war the better. A few people going hungry in Shanghai is a price they are more than willing to pay.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  aiden

all they’re missing then is a few thousand decent nuclear weapons

Dale
Dale
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Reports that they’re in headlong pursuit of closing the gap.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Dale

we’d know if they were

Dale
Dale
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

I gather that we know. I also surmise that the US is not spoiling to nuke China. For starters, there are far fewer Americans, than Chinese, to kill.

Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Dale

So what? A decent array of nukes will wipe all of the Chinese out regardless of how many there are.
The West should learn its lesson and act sooner rather than wait until it is too late.

Dale
Dale
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

I’m 75% sure the US Navy is not fit to prevent China from taking Taiwan. But, I’m 99.9% sure, that the US would initiate nukes vs China, while imaging that such would not also reduce the US to rubble, at best a shadow of its former self.

RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  aiden

It’s so transparent that China are just trying to break the back of the world supply chains.

International capital is mobile. If doing business with China is no longer profitable, it will be done with somebody else. China can then auto-destruct to its hearts content and possibly restart competing with other overpopulated third-world countries later on.

Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  RW

One way to destroy’the West’ is not to provide it with the means of making computers.

“Chinese dominance over worldwide rare earths production since the 1990s. But for Beijing, assurance of “the stability of production and supply chains” amounts to more than control over the physical production of rare earth metals; it also means the ability to influence their prices, much like the way the OPEC cartel tries to manage the price of oil.”

“The 17 elements are cerium, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lanthanum, lutetium, neodymium, praseodymium, promethium, samarium, scandium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium, and yttrium.”

https://www.fpri.org/article/2022/03/chinas-rare-earth-metals-consolidation-and-market-power/

RW
RW
3 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Countries sell so-called raw materials because they have more of them then they need themselves and less of something else they’d rather have instead. That’s similar to the Russian gas scare: Assuming we don’t buy these stuff anymore, what are the Chinese going to do with it? Eat it, perhaps?

International trade is not based on governments charitably helping others. It’s about transactions for mutual benefit. If these cease to happen, both parties will be hurt by that.

stewart
3 years ago
Reply to  aiden

I’m not one to suggest the leaderships of countries aren’t plagued with psychopaths, but you’re giving these people far too much credit, in my view.

Or too little perhaps, as there must be plenty of other ways to try to cripple the world economy.

aiden
aiden
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

It’s not psychopathy, it’s realpolitik, it’s revenge against those they hold responsible for their temporary demise, it’s war. They’ve infiltrated all our institutions, stolen all our technology, bribed all our politicians to turn a blind eye. They read sun-zu and they take all those principles seriously.

stewart
3 years ago

Aren’t scientists, proper scientists, supposed to be intrigued by how a virus can spread to an isolated community? Don’t questions begin to arise in their minds about how viruses spread?

Is the real story here that we may be discovering something about viruses that we never knew before?

Vaxtastic
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

All we are discovering is how useful they are to authoritarian governments 🙂

JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Vaxtastic

Which is now all Governments.

iane
iane
3 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Well, one thing that has been known about viruses for a very long time (i.e. since at least when I was studying biochemistry) is that they can reside inactively in a human for a long time [see for instance the infections at the south pole of people who had been there, if I recall correctly, for 6 months and then developed covid].

John001
John001
3 years ago
Reply to  iane

Tut tut, we’re not meant to mention the wrong kind of fact, e.g. that separate groups of people at the same latitude in the northern hemisphere seem to develop flu at the same time in autumn/winter.

That’s so inconvenient to the medical-industrial complex. Please don’t mention it ever again.

civilliberties
3 years ago

so we are now meant to believe that china really cares for its people and that’s why its locking them down to save them from a deadly virus? am I right in thinking this is the same china that has quite a few concentration camps, a go F yourself to human liabilities and also a null and void of any semblance of free speech etc. The state would not think once about making their citizens suffer alongside the social credit system.

Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  civilliberties

” Are there bones in the Great Wall of China?
To date, no bone fragments have been discovered inside the wall. In reality, laborers who died were buried in mass graves beside the wall, earning the Wall the moniker “the longest cemetery on earth.” “

tom171uk
3 years ago

They should have locked down sooner and harder!

DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

Still a guest on Mark Steyn GB news saying that the booster works for 3 months (no proof) and that the jab has stopped death!!! The ONS figures show no proof for this, the same number of people on average have died this year

JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

The UKHSA data shows hospitalisation and mortality rate are higher in the vaccinated than unvaccinated and highest in the ‘boosted’ than in those with one or two dose.

Pink Moon
3 years ago

FCff7S1XMAciTuO.jpg
lorrinet
lorrinet
3 years ago
Reply to  Pink Moon

Yes. We stayed in bed and our mums were at home to look after us, and the doctor called in on his rounds. We recovered, and gradually developed a robust immune system.

Then times changed; mum had to go to work, and along came the vaccines. We now have hugely increased cases of autism, asthma – even hay fever. I never knew anyone with hay-fever when I was a child, and asthma was rare. And allergies? To dairy products, to nuts? To gluten?

Something happened to cause all these formerly rare conditions; the chemical cocktail we all imbibe everyday? Vaccines? The huge over-use of antibiotics (which are so precious they should only ever have been used sparingly, yet cows are still being fed them routinely)? Bee colony collapse, anyone?

Scientists will kill us all in the end,one way or another.

chris-ds
chris-ds
3 years ago

I suspect that had the virus leaked from the US or UK the domestic scientists responsible for its development would be pushing for zero Covid too.

barrywinn
barrywinn
3 years ago

What is the 5G situation in the city?

Amari
Amari
3 years ago

What is the motivation of the Chinese government in doing this? They certainly don’t care about the health and wellbeing of the people. Why on earth do such a ridiculous and wicked thing?

JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Amari

They do it because they can?

Amari
Amari
3 years ago

Nothing will stop people getting colds and getting ill. The more stressed and anxious they are, the more likely they will be to get ill. Lock people in glass boxes and I’m sure they will still get ill.

RTSC
RTSC
3 years ago

Fauci must be so jealous!

Idris
Idris
3 years ago

It’s obvious that Covid does not exist and the test is a test not testing for any virus. It’s all a Scam.

Fingal
Fingal
3 years ago
Reply to  Idris

I personally know 7 people who have died from covid (2 of them under 50) and 2 with long covid, one of them still very seriously affected 15months later.

Are you saying I’m dreaming this?

Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
3 years ago

Asymptomatic “cases”, the gift that keep on giving!

JXB
JXB
3 years ago
Reply to  Bobby Lobster

Pandemic of health.

JXB
JXB
3 years ago

It’s almost as if the actions are having the exact opposite effect of that intended – just like the faux-vaccines.

The Chinese, like all Socialists, address all policy failure with: needs longer for it to work; isn’t working because it’s not being done agressive enough, so needs to be done more aggressively; needs more money spent on it.

Grumman
Grumman
3 years ago

When will the Chinese people rise up against their corrupt dictatorial government? When will we!