The different responses of the two Chinas to covid have been interesting. The restrictions in Shanghai have tightened. Some districts that had met the conditions set for the loosening of restrictions have now been told that won't happen. When they say "zero-covid," they mean it. The goal in the People's Republic of China is to eradicate the coronavirus. Busloads of people have been taken to quarantine centers including some outside of the city, centers said to be akin to prisons. Families are being split and sent to different centers. Still, they say there have only been 36 deaths in the past week.
Taiwan, meanwhile, will not go into lockdown as 99 percent of the cases there are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. Their vaccination rate is higher than that in the PR of China, with 80 percent of the population double-vaccinated and 60 percent having gotten a first booster. They say they are gradually moving into a "new Taiwan model" and learning to live with the virus. The premier explains, "We will gradually deal with it and won't be like Shanghai and go into lockdown, but we won't immediately stop wearing face masks and not take anti-pandemic measures."
Vaccination rates are stalling in most low-income countries. Some public health experts think the momentum may never be re-acquired. WHO's goal was to fully vaccinate 70 percent of the population in every country by June 2022, a goal that will fall well short. Only a few of the 82 poorest countries have hit the 70 percent goal including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, and Nepal. Many countries have less than 20 percent of the population fully vaccinated. Only two-thirds of the richest countries have hit the 70 percent goal, not including the US. We remain stuck at 66 percent. The vaccination situation does not look good when one considers possible future variants.
As readers might have guessed, I'm somewhat paranoid about masking and trying to limit my possible exposure to covid. Today I read a new reason to remain so. An article in the Lancet reports that one year after hospitalization with covid for a cohort of over 2,300 patients, only one in four had fully recovered. I don't like those odds and would hate to add some new members to my family of underlying conditions.
Moving on to the social side of the coronavirus, a survey conducted by the National Literacy Trust showed that early learning suffered as parents talked and read less to children in 2021. A full one-fourth said that they did not chat with their child every day compared with only 10 percent in 2019. Only 53 percent said they read to their child daily compared with 66 percent in 2019. Finally, 72 percent of parents played with their child daily in 2021 compared to 76 percent in 2019. I have to admit that playing with a child might be seen as easier than chatting with or reading to a child, but that's no reason not to do those other two things. Interaction with children dropped even as time spent with children rose. The experts say that children experience frustration at not being able to communicate, which is where the chatting, reading, and playing really matter. Some speech-language therapists currently have waiting lists nine months long.
The coronavirus gets you coming and going. If it can't hurt you medically, then how about socially.
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