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Friday, April 15, 2022

Lockdown Diaries: Dystopian Madness

Posts about the covid outbreak in Shanghai, China:

Complete list is here: Index of Posts About the March 2022 Shanghai Covid Outbreak

On the Current Covid Outbreak in Shanghai (March 12)
I'm in Lockdown (March 16)
I'm Still in Lockdown (March 19)
I'm in Lockdown Again (March 25)
Now All of Pudong (East Shanghai) is in Lockdown (March 28)
Lockdown Diaries: Covid Case in Our Complex, and Free Veggies from the Government (March 31)
Lockdown Diaries: Antigen Self-Tests, and Children with Covid (April 3)
Lockdown Diaries: Dressing Up, Free Medicine, Free Rice (April 6)
Lockdown Diaries: I am Okay, Shanghai is Not (April 9)
Lockdown Diaries: Part of Shanghai is Out of Lockdown (April 12)

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Here's the updated timeline:

March 16-21: First lockdown. 6 days.

March 23-now: Second lockdown. 24 days and counting.

Nucleic acid tests (conducted by baymax, ie, the workers in white hazmat suits): 12 times (March 16, 17, 19, 20, 23, 26, 28, 30, April 4, 6, 9, 14)

Antigen self-tests: 9 times (April 2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13 [twice], 15)

(The above info is specific to our apartment complex. Other apartment complexes in Shanghai will have a similar situation but not exactly the same.)

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Read Leona Cheng's account of what it's like in the makeshift hospital

Here's a firsthand account of someone who tested positive for covid in Shanghai and was sent to one of the 方舱 (fāng cāng) which I guess we are translating as "makeshift hospitals" (or, I have been calling them "quarantine centers")- it means places that are not really hospitals but have been repurposed as places to quarantine covid-positive people.

Her facebook post (with a long description of everything that happened, definitely worth reading)

Her twitter post:

(She also posted it on WeChat, but it has been deleted.)

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[content note: this is hard stuff... our government is failing us]

So. I continue to be okay, in terms of having enough food, but I'm mad now. A lot of us are mad. I scroll through WeChat, and there are so many posts about how the system is failing, how people need help and there is no one to help them. How the government is taking more and more steps to control people's lives, and it's wrong.

Here are some of the things I've seen. It's social media, so you don't really know if they are true or not. For each individual anecdote, it might not be true, but the overall pattern shows that something is very wrong here.

Someone posted audio from a phone call between an old man and a community worker. It's now been removed from WeChat so I can't tell you exactly what it said, but basically it went like this: The old man says he is sick and needs to see a doctor. The worker on the phone first tells him to take some medicine, and other things that aren't really helpful, you kind of get the impression he doesn't really want to help, but then the worker on the phone starts talking about how overwhelmed he is, so many people are calling and asking for help, and he's doing everything he can, but it just feels so hopeless, feels like no one wants to help. He says, "I don't know how this happened, how Shanghai has become like this." I saw this shared a lot on WeChat- it shows how the system is breaking down, and we are not okay.

There was a video of a worker wearing the white (baymax) head-to-toe protective clothing, standing outside at night, yelling "You can't put a quarantine center here! This is illegal! 4000 people live here, how will you guarantee their safety?" (She seems to be yelling at a truck driver- it's not clear.) People who shared the video said she is doing the right thing. She knows what the policies are, and that what is happening now is against the policy.

On April 14, a post titled "上海人的忍耐已经到了极限" ("The people of Shanghai have run out of patience") went viral on WeChat. It's one story after another after another of things that have happened during this lockdown: A child that died because she needed medical treatment but wasn't allowed to enter the hospital until the result from her covid test came back. Rain leaking through the roof the Nanhui and Gaoqiao quarantine centers. A 14-day-old baby that was taken away from his/her parents because the parents tested positive. We've done what they told us- we stayed home, we lined up to get covid-tested day after day, but where is the help we are supposed to be getting from the government? (We need to help each other- now a website has been set up where people in Shanghai can make a post asking for help, and other people can reply and offer help. We help each other- the government isn't doing it.) We are still in lockdown- some have been in lockdown for over a month. Medical services not related to covid have been mostly stopped, and people's lives hang in the balance, while doctors and nurses are sent to care for mild or asymptomatic covid patients. And those of us who trusted the government when they said the lockdown would last 4 days, and only bought 4 days of groceries, are now dealing with the problem of getting food. We are told that we aren't allowed to order groceries because there's a risk of getting covid from deliveries. And on and on and on, the problems that people are having here, the failures of our government.

And another post on WeChat, which said the people of Shanghai have stepped up to help each other, and our government does not deserve us.

[They can censor WeChat, but remember everyone, screenshots are forever.]

I also saw videos that were apparently from the Nanhui quarantine center- it was raining and EVERYWHERE the ceiling was leaking. You see people's beds, and water just pouring in from the ceiling all around. The whole floor is wet.

There was a post about a woman who tested positive for covid and was taken to a quarantine center, but the quarantine center didn't have any space for her, so she was sent back home. But when she got there, her apartment management and neighbors refused to let her back in. There are photos of her sitting outside alone, with a fever, with no one to help.

In an apartment complex in Zhangjiang (in Shanghai), people were forced out of their homes so that their apartments could be used for quarantine centers. Apparently some buildings in the complex were partly empty, so the government wants to move all the residents into a few of the buildings and use the remaining ones for covid patients. Oh good, here's an article from SHINE explaining to us why this is apparently fine and everything is okay. I don't like SHINE; it's a propaganda machine.

Here's a joke I saw on WeChat: There was a big meeting to recognize the workers who fought the pandemic. There were doctors, nurses, grocery store employees, delivery drivers... And then at the far end, there was a group of people wearing sunglasses- who are they? Oh, they're the programmers who censor the internet.

(Honestly it's a bit ridiculous- you see articles or videos getting a lot of shares, and then they get censored, but then people will just post new articles and videos. Do you think you can really stop this? This is the literal reality that thousands of people are living in. This is impossible to censor. Personally, I feel the only way to not have people posting about, for example, how crappy your quarantine sites are, is to not send people to crappy quarantine sites.)

Another joke: "So, I calculated- there are 3000 people in our apartment complex. If we have 1 new covid case every week, we will be in lockdown for 57 years."

Okay this one is not from social media, this one I actually witnessed: A school near our apartment complex is going to be used as a quarantine center. Yes, a public school where, during non-lockdown times, kids go and have classes- this is not like an abandoned building or something, this is a functioning school. (A bunch of schools are being converted to quarantine centers now.) People in our complex and the neighboring ones are mad about it, because, first of all, some of them are students or teachers at the school, and also, there is concern that having a quarantine center so close to residential areas is not safe- the virus could spread to the neighboring apartments. (I am not sure how true that is, but people are worried about it...)

So a few days ago, in the evening, suddenly we heard A LOT of cars honking their horns. Continuously, honking and honking and honking. They are having a protest. Also, people are yelling from their windows, over and over: "拒绝阳性中转，守护家园健康！" ("Refuse the transfer of positive cases, protect our health!") This honking and yelling went on for a while, maybe 15-30 minutes? I don't think it can really change anything, but good to take a stand about it.

And this: "Qian Wenxiong, director of the Information Center of the Health and Health Commission of Shanghai’s Hongkou District, committed suicide in his office on April 12, suspected of being overworked during the new crown epidemic."

(Actually I have heard a lot of anecdotes of people committing suicide during lockdown.)

There's a feeling of "How could this happen in Shanghai?" And yeah, I feel that way too. 

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Some international people are saying "now the Chinese government is showing its true colors" and I don't know what to think about that. I feel like, as an American, before I came to China I always heard so many things about how the Chinese government is evil and you don't have rights or whatever, and I've lived in China for 8 years and it's not like that at all, but now suddenly it is.

I feel like, I want to support "zero covid"- for the past 2 years, I have been able to live a pretty normal life, free from fears about getting covid. It's still true that I don't know anyone personally in China who has had covid- though now that there's an outbreak in Shanghai, there are some people in the WeChat groups I'm in who have tested positive.

But what is all this? Now it's like, the government has decided we need to get back to zero covid as soon as possible, at all costs, and like that's the most important thing. This is so wrong. It doesn't have to be this way- surely we can do zero-covid without all these awful things happening. Right?

And the weird thing is... Okay, now it's reported that 9 covid patients in Shanghai are in serious condition [article from SHINE, please glare while you read it because SHINE is a propaganda machine]. That seems like... a small number? The government keeps insisting we have to stick to "zero covid" [also from SHINE, lotta propaganda in this article], or else tons of people will die. I'm so confused about this- is it true that only 9 people are in serious condition? Then, seems like maybe we can prioritize things like food a little higher than stopping anyone anywhere from getting omicron? Or are there actually way more people seriously ill or dying from covid, but they're covering it up (so far 0 deaths reported in this outbreak in Shanghai)? But then why wouldn't the government be talking about that as a way to support their "we need to stick to zero-covid" argument?

Some people are speculating that the Chinese government doesn't have a way to transition away from "zero covid" without losing face. This also confuses me- can't they do a "wow our vaccines work so well and our traditional Chinese medicine works so well, so now we don't have to be so serious about zero-covid, hooray for China"?

So... don't really know what's going to happen. Personally I am still fine; we have reliable grocery deliveries in our complex. But... Shanghai deserves better.

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Links:

How Canadians in Shanghai are coping with strict COVID-19 lockdown (April 15) This is a good video. My life right now is basically like what you see in the video.

With Food Delivery Paralyzed, ‘Microbusinesses’ Step up to the Plate (April 15)

Neighbors Accidentally Start "Free Supermarket" During Lockdown! (April 14 - WeChat link, so it might have trouble loading if you're not in China) This is a heartwarming story about neighbors helping each other. (But also, howwww have we gotten to this situation where we have to barter with each other to get basic groceries?)

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Next post: Lockdown Diaries: 3 Covid Deaths Reported in Shanghai

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