As a point of reference, in the US, about 0.3% of the population has already died due to COVID. Many more are disabled or debilitated. I won't get into that debate over specific numbers -- it can be anywhere from astronomical numbers due to long COVID, or very moderate numbers from people who are hospitalized, don't die, but have significant lung scarring (for each person who dies, several are hospitalized, recover, but have significant permanent lung damage).
Shanghai is just under 2% of China. China has had virtually no deaths.
What's worse?
* Having 2% of the population locked down to maintain COVID zero?
* Or having 0.3% of your population die, and several times that disabled?
That's a rhetorical question. The answer depends on your value system. Both answers are within the norms of cultural value systems around the world. Neither is unreasonable. It gets hard, in part, due to issues like differences in opinion on the importance of personal freedom versus collective good. Those go well beyond just the public health question.
I don't think the value-judgement China has made is at all unreasonable. It's well within how cultures differ. I'm not saying it needs to agree with your values -- just that we ought to accept that different countries and governments have different value systems. This seems well within those norms, rather than grotesque human rights violations as the Western press paints it.
Same thing bugs me reading Chinese press about the West.
It should be possible to tolerate differences like this without contempt for the other side.
Shanghai is just under 2% of China. China has had virtually no deaths.
What's worse?
* Having 2% of the population locked down to maintain COVID zero?
* Or having 0.3% of your population die, and several times that disabled?
That's a rhetorical question. The answer depends on your value system. Both answers are within the norms of cultural value systems around the world. Neither is unreasonable. It gets hard, in part, due to issues like differences in opinion on the importance of personal freedom versus collective good. Those go well beyond just the public health question.
I don't think the value-judgement China has made is at all unreasonable. It's well within how cultures differ. I'm not saying it needs to agree with your values -- just that we ought to accept that different countries and governments have different value systems. This seems well within those norms, rather than grotesque human rights violations as the Western press paints it.
Same thing bugs me reading Chinese press about the West.
It should be possible to tolerate differences like this without contempt for the other side.