A top Australian doctor has warned that the world is facing the most perilous moment of the Covid pandemic as the virus runs out of control in China because of its draconian zero-Covid policy.
The controversial zero-Covid policy to try and eliminate the virus through harsh restrictions and quarantine measures has failed because of the Chinese government’s inability to get elderly residents vaccinated and because of its decision to use inferior local vaccines over superior foreign ones.
‘China has had a particularly stringent Covid Zero policy but unfortunately that hasn’t been accompanied by an ability to convince elderly Chinese to get vaccinated.
‘So we have a situation now where in a country of 1.4 billion people, only 40 per cent of over 80s have received a third dose of Covid-19 vaccine.’
‘I mean we talk about pandemic fatigue in Australia, this is on a completely different scale, obviously in China, but if you’re going to adopt that policy, you better make sure that you’re convincing your population to get vaccinated?
‘Whatever the reason, they have not been able to convince elderly Chinese to get vaccinated and of course they are going to bear the brunt of this wave sweeping across China at the moment.’
And Dr Coatsworth warned: ‘the virus eventually dictates what you have to do as a policy maker.