NO QUARANTINE FROM JANUARY 8

"Temporary beds are added in the emergency department of Beijing Chaoyang Hospital on December 27." Image source.

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

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Hi everyone, here's this week's update about covid in China.

I still don't have covid, so, that's good. :)

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The biggest news for immigrants (like me) in China: No more quarantine for international arrivals, starting January 8

SHINE: No quarantine for incoming arrivals from January 8 (December 27)

CNBC: China to scrap quarantine for international travelers in an essential end of zero-Covid (December 26) My favorite quote: "He noted the number of available flights in and out of China has to recover. 'I don’t think the U.S. carriers or the international carriers will immediately go back to normal because those airplanes are already flying other routes,' Hart said. 'It may be different with Chinese airlines, because the airplanes are just sitting on the tarmac doing nothing.'"

Sixth Tone: With Borders Reopening, Many Chinese Are Ready to Travel Again (December 27)

This is great. I cannot even tell you. This is, this is what the international community has wanted, ever since early 2020. It has been so hard to get into China, and the biggest reason was the quarantine. The policy changed a few times- 14 days, 21 days, 14 days, 8 days. It's currently 8 days, but from January 8, 2023, there will be no quarantine at all. This is huge, you guys, this is huge.

(Please note, getting into China these past 3ish years has been difficult for other reasons besides the mandatory quarantine. For a while in 2020, only Chinese citizens could enter China- I know international families where one parent was stuck outside of China for months and months. Also, for a while there was a blood test required, related to covid antibodies, in addition to the PCR test. And there were requirements about you have to fly direct, you have to be in your departure city 7 days before your flight, for testing. And then the requirements relaxed a little and you just had to get PCR-tested twice in the 48 hours before your flight. Then they changed it to one PCR test, and removed requirements about your testing location being in the same country as your flight departure city. And on top of that, the circuit-breaker policy said that airlines had to cancel flights if a plane arrived in China with a number of covid-positive people above some certain threshold- so you have people trying to get into China, traveling to the departure city 7 days in advance, doing all this covid-related testing, and then their flight gets cancelled and they have to start all over. Yeah. I mean, in my opinion the quarantine was the biggest inconvenience, but WOW there have been a lot of different versions of these rules over the past 3 years, with an incredible amount of hoops that people needed to jump through to enter China.)

A bit of personal news from me: Actually, I've bought plane tickets. I'm planning a trip to the US. I bought them before zero-covid ended, actually. I thought "It's been 3 years since I've seen my family. I'm just going to do the 8-day quarantine. Yes, I choose to be stuck in a hotel room for 8 days with a small child." At the time, I thought we'd be doing zero-covid for a lot longer. And now, wow this is great, I can go and come back and I won't even need to quarantine.

When I was planning the trip, I thought "we'll have to really really do our best to not get covid in the US- we've never been in an environment before where there was an actual realistic chance of getting covid." But now I'm like "let's try really really hard not to get covid here in China before the trip."

Well if I had "do a hotel quarantine in zero-covid China" on my bucket list, turns out I'll never actually do it. Which is fine with me, lol. Ya know, though, I really expected I'd end up doing it sooner or later.

Also, hopefully China will start issuing tourist visas again. Recently I've seen some people asking "so my mom/dad/whoever has a 10-year tourist visa for China, issued before the pandemic- does this mean they can now use it to enter China again?" So far seems like the answer is no. But probably soon that will change.

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Other countries put testing requirements on travelers from China

Well, it seems the other countries have realized that every single plane coming out of China right now is full of covid-positive people.

NPR: U.S. will require travelers from China to show negative COVID test before flight (December 28)

Al Jazeera: Growing list of countries imposing COVID rules on China arrivals (December 29)

This is a good thing. I don't want to be on a plane with covid-positive people. 

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The Chinese government is telling us everything is fine, which is NOT COOL

NPR: China has stopped publishing daily COVID data amid reports of a huge spike in cases (December 25)

(You may remember that last week I mentioned that China is counting covid deaths in a weird way that doesn't seem to make sense- well now they're not counting them at all...)

People still die of covid, but the Chinese government doesn't want you to know that. This is the story they're telling: When covid emerged in 2019/2020, it was very deadly, and China did the right thing having lockdowns and putting the zero-covid policy in place. And during these 3ish years, China has done the right thing, and has saved millions of lives. And now, our scientific experts very carefully analyzed the situation, and they have concluded that covid is not really that bad any more. It's not like it was in 2020. Don't think of it as a pneumonia. It's really more of a flu. So, China has successfully sheltered all of its people until the danger passed, and now the pandemic is over. Good job everyone!

That is, um, how shall I put this, not true.

Like, no rules at all! Everything is fine! No huge push for "flatten the curve" or "now we have to REALLY GET SERIOUS about wearing masks" or "no indoor dining." 

Instead it was just "hey everyone, you don't have to scan the codes anymore, you don't have to get tested anymore" and everyone was like "hooray, we don't have to scan the codes anymore, we don't have to get tested anymore!" There should have been a big "AND THEREFORE, covid is going to spread, so everyone should take a serious look at your life habits and decide how to reduce your risk." None of that. It was just "whateverrrr, covid doesn't matter any more! try not to hoard all the medicine!" It was just the same "masks, social distance, don't gather in groups" which we've all heard a million times and we pay no attention to.

(Okay, Shanghai did close the schools, and the Chinese government is once again pushing the elderly population to get vaccinated, and they announced that new fever clinics would be opening everywhere- so, I guess they at least did that...)

And people here are like "covid is basically just a flu, we got it, now we have recovered, so, everything's fine, back to normal!" Chinese people are saying this, and I'm mad about that, but international people have been saying this for even longer ("covid doesn't matter, China needs to open up like the rest of the world"), so I'm mad about that too.

Anyway, I *think* that a lot of elderly unvaccinated people are dying of covid in China. (We don't have data, all we can do is guess.) I think if we all tried to "flatten the curve," less people would die. Why isn't anyone talking about this?

I feel like... this whole time, under zero-covid, I've been like "well, in a lot of ways this sucks, but overall it has saved a lot of lives, so..." and "if they end zero-covid, that doesn't mean just do nothing at all", and feeling like the Chinese government was prioritizing saving lives, and the Chinese people did have a healthy fear of how bad covid could be from a society-wide perspective (honestly a little too much fear, a little unrealistic in certain aspects) and now it's like, everyone just forgot all those things??? Suddenly covid doesn't matter/ it's just the flu/ everyone's going to get it sooner or later.

Maybe I'm overstating this... surely there are a lot of Chinese people who are doing what me and my husband are doing- staying home as much as we can, wearing N95 masks if we ever need to go anywhere in public, etc. I was at work at the office for most of the week, and it was very empty. Malls have also been very empty. Restaurants have been extremely empty recently- just a lot of delivery workers picking up food to go. So most people are staying home- but is that because they already have covid, or is it because they are trying to avoid covid?

But, anyway, the people who are avoiding covid, like us, are not loud about it on social media.

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No more stigma about getting covid

Here's something good, though: There's no more stigma over having gotten covid. This has been a real issue in China for the past 3 years- people who had covid and recovered from it were discriminated against. Employers didn't want to hire them, their apartment management wouldn't let them return home, etc.

But now that everyone is getting covid, and proudly sharing their experiences on social media, well, no stigma anymore. I have heard a few anecdotes recently about "I met someone who said she had gotten covid in May during the Shanghai lockdown, but never told anyone until now. Now she feels like she can tell people." 

Please note, when they say "never told anyone"- the government certainly knew about it, and put those people in hospitals or makeshift quarantine facilities, some of which had terrible conditions. I remember during the lockdown, I saw a lot of posts on social media about how bad it was, and I was also aware that A LOT of those posts were being censored by the government. (My advice: If you don't want people to tell everyone that you sent them to a covid camp with inhumane conditions, then maybe don't send them to a covid camp with inhumane conditions.) But now I'm realizing, there were probably also a lot of people who tested positive and were taken to quarantine and just never told anyone about it, because of the stigma and discrimination around it.

But at least now they feel like they can tell people. Now it doesn't have to be a secret anymore, if you got covid in Shanghai in March-April-May 2022. Because now most of your friends and coworkers and everyone has had covid too.

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You'll be shocked to hear I'm mad about western media coverage of this

I keep seeing articles predicting some huge number of covid deaths in China, worrying about new variants emerging from China, fretting over the whole situation in China... as if all these other countries didn't just spend the last 3 years letting covid circulate everywhere, having tons of people die, and creating new variants, while China did none of that.

Like, yes, it is bad to add 1.4 billion people to the group of people who have been spreading covid everywhere, yes. Aren't you glad these 1.4 billion people weren't participating in it from the start, like the rest of y'all?

Ughh, seriously! Every time there was an outbreak in some Chinese city- an outbreak of, say, 100 cases, and the whole city locks down- the western news sites would be like "wow, when is China going to get with the program and just let everyone have covid, like all the other countries? why don't they lighten up about this?" and now they're like "tsk, tsk, tsk, look at how many covid cases there are in China." Like WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US?

Like yes, there are a lot of covid cases in China right now. Because we are catching up with all the other countries. But most people here are vaccinated, so actually, this is not as bad as what all the other countries have gone through.

Tons of people in China get covid, and it's news because before this, basically no one in China got covid. Tons of people in the US get covid, and no one says anything because that's just normal for the US now.

Here are a few of my previous blog posts on that:

WTF, CNN? (April 2022)

Wow, the Anti-China Bias in Western News Media (January 2022)

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Links

Sixth Tone

As COVID Surges, Chinese Turn to Black Market for Antiviral Drugs (December 28) "Scalpers are reportedly selling Paxlovid for as much as $7,000 per box."

China’s 2022 in Photos (December 29) 

As Cities Ride the Surge, How Rural China Can Brace for Covid Impact (December 30)

SHINE

Ambulances and emergency departments coping with rise in patients (December 25)

Peak of critically ill COVID patients arrives in 2-3 weeks (December 29) Good to see that the government is at least aware of this problem...

The US hits over 100 million COVID-19 cases (December 29) LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL, wow this is hilarious! Because, yes, this is a fact, the US has hit 100 million covid cases. You know who else hit 100 million covid cases? You know who blew past 100 million in a matter of days, likely hit 200 million, 250 million, and still going? Wow, somehow SHINE failed to mention that.

China to stop testing chilled, frozen foods for COVID from Jan. 8 (December 30)

Citizens who have recovered from COVID share their experiences (December 31) This video is good, in and of itself... it's interviews with Chinese people on the street who have recovered from covid, and their various opinions about it. But since it's posted by SHINE, I glare at it very suspiciously, like, this is obviously propaganda, but what message are they trying to send exactly?

CNN

Zero-Covid was supposed to prove China’s supremacy. How did it all go so wrong for Xi Jinping? (December 28) The headline and intro to this article are a bit over-the-top, but the rest of it is very good.

The Gap Between Fantasy and Reality

Expectation vs reality. The "Expectation" image is a beautiful cake with layers in a rainbow of colors. "Reality" is a cake that looks like a mess. Image source.

I want to analyze the concept of sexual attraction and how it connects to reality. Or, rather, not sexual attraction exactly, but feeling like you're attracted to someone and on some level you have a desire to have sex with them. I have feelings like that, but I don't think they are actually sexual attraction. We'll get to the reasons why.

So, if part of you says "I want to have sex with this person" and part of you says "but I'm not really going to" that's what I want to analyze. In some sense wanting it, but in another sense knowing that it wouldn't actually be a good thing if it actually happened in reality.

(Disclaimer: I feel like I have to put a disclaimer here... I use a lot of "you" pronouns in this post, and usually I try not to do that. In general, I don't think it's good to tell people "you feel like this" when actually I feel like that and I'm just hiding behind the "you" to make it less obvious, and perhaps nobody else feels like that. But this is difficult to talk about, and I haven't managed to write it in a way that's careful about the "you" pronouns like I usually would. Really it's about me or about hypothetical situations that I've heard about or that I can imagine. Perhaps not like anyone else at all, even though I say "you.")

There are several levels to this, with more and more narrow gaps between fantasy and reality.

Level 1: Morals

So, you feel like you have a desire to have sex with someone, but you believe it's a sin. Or you're in a monogamous relationship with someone else. So even though you feel sexual attraction (or whatever it is) to this new person, you know it's just never going to happen; it's just totally out of the question.

So you don't think about any of the practical aspects of what it would really be like if it really happened. The whole thing is fantasy. Nothing about it is real at all.

Level 2: Consequences

So, you feel like you have a desire for sex with someone, but you know it would be a bad idea because of what kinds of consequences it may cause. 

We have physical consequences: pregnancy, STDs. We have emotional consequences: you may develop more feelings for this person, feelings that don't fit the actual type of relationship you have in reality, and that will set you up for heartbreak when this person turns out not to be the ideal that you wanted them to be. We have social consequences: what will other people think of you if they know you had sex with so-and-so?

These are basically the things that they warn you about in sex-ed class.

This level still has quite a big gap between fantasy and reality. Or, at least for me it does...? These negative consequences are not things that I have actually experienced, but I see that they are certainly big issues and need to be taken into account if you choose to have sex.

Level 3: Setup

Okay, say you're not concerned about the issues mentioned in levels 1 and 2. The next barrier to having sex is the setup. How would you actually go about getting it to happen?

First of all, how do you even tell a person that you're interested in having sex with them? Okay, there are only certain settings in which you can bring this up, otherwise you're being creepy. I guess the appropriate circumstances are: if you're already dating the person in question, or if you're flirting with them at a bar or a party or something (??? apparently this is a thing people do? have sex with someone they just met at a party?).

For simplicity, let's assume this is a person you're already dating. That's the typical situation where sex happens. 

Okay, but, seriously, I'm trying to even imagine how to bring this subject up, and it just feels so extremely awkward. I guess maybe like if you're already kissing them...? Then it would feel less weird to bring up the topic of doing sexual things? I don't know???? 

Uhhh... now you may be saying "But Perfect Number, aren't you married, and you have sex with your husband? So how can you act like this is so awkward that it's totally impossible- clearly you have figured it out, right?" Well, yes, because we had a foundation of knowing each other and understanding each other and sharing our lives, and then within that context we could little-by-little do these things without being awkward. But I just totally can't imagine attempting to have sex with someone that I didn't have that level of trust with. It would just be SO UNBELIEVABLY AWKWARD.

(Like... yes, I know it's a real thing, hooking up with people you don't know very well. I know it's a real thing. I am not judging. I am just trying to make sense of it. I feel like it's hard to express what I mean about this because it sounds very similar to how conservative Christians judge people for having sex. I'm really not judging! Have as much sex as you want! It's great! And please explain it to me, I don't get it!)

And there are some other setup-related issues: You need to bring a condom, you need to have a location where you can be alone, etc.

So the gap between fantasy and reality here is like... you feel like you want to have sex with this person, but the overwhelming awkwardness of how to actually communicate that to them in order to make it happen just completely shuts down any possibility of it actually happening. Like you think "wow wouldn't it be great if I had sex with this person" but then you realize that in order for that to happen, you'd have to, you know, somehow talk to them about sex, and obviously you don't want that, oh hells no. So, in reality you don't want to have sex.

And, don't misunderstand me- don't take this to mean "asking for consent is awkward, therefore it's better to just go ahead and do sex things without asking for consent" because OH GOODNESS that would be even more awkward. Oh holy crap, what if someone just like, starting sticking their hands under someone else's clothes, without even asking first? Oh my goddd that would be so much worse. Whoa, not cool.

Level 4: The process

All right so let's say you have communicated with this attractive person and you have agreed that you both want to have sex. Now the next issue is the actual process.

Like, you have to take your clothes off? In front of another person? Oh wow that sounds so awkward. Or maybe just take off some of your clothes? Maybe kinda dim the lights, does that make it less awkward? Oh my goodness, the whole thing just sounds so awkward, I can't even imagine it.

And then there's the issue of, is this person going to judge your body? Is this person going to judge what kind of underwear you wear?

And then you have to discuss what sex position you want to do... and figure out how to move your limbs around... and also it's kinda cold... and the blanket doesn't cover your feet...

Like, a lot of very practical issues that would make sex weird and unpleasant and completely different than whatever perfect fantasy you have.

OH WAIT, I just realized, maybe uh... for most people, arousal is what makes this whole weird thing seem like something that's actually realistic and desirable...? Ahhhhh maybe arousal is what typically bridges the gap between the idea of wanting to have sex, and the actual action of doing something with your genitals. Ohhhh... (For me, arousal is not really connected to attraction, so I forgot to consider it in this context.)

Level 5: The actual sex

Okay so what if you get past all of those previous levels, and you actually are having sex, and you realize, the actual physical act of putting your genitals together with someone else's genitals is confusing and painful...?

Like, at this point, there shouldn't be any more gap between fantasy and reality. There shouldn't be any more "I have a desire for sex, but I'm not going to actually do it because of all these other issues surrounding it"- we've gotten past all those issues (or, perhaps, decided to ignore them because we just think the sex will be SO GOOD it's WORTH IT), and all that's left is the actual sex, the actual genital stuff.

Important note: Masturbation can help with this... this problem of being totally caught off-guard by the reality of what sex really is. My advice is, do NOT attempt to have sex with another person if you've never tried masturbating before.

So... this is what led me to start wondering if I'm asexual. Because I felt like I wanted sex, but then when I actually had sex, it was nothing like I expected. What I actually wanted had a lot more to do with the feeling of being desired and passionately touching each other- and none of that has anything to do with anyone's genitals. Why bring genitals into that at all? Just because that's what society says it means when you're attracted to someone and want to be all over them... So this whole post is kind of about sexual attraction, and kind of about something that I thought was sexual attraction but now I don't think it is.

But, also, it turns out I had vaginismus, so that's why penis-in-vagina (PIV) sex was painful. That's why I was like "why would anyone have a desire for THIS?" So, maybe we have to redo level 5:

Level 5, again: The actual sex, if you don't have vaginismus

Hooray, I don't have vaginismus now. I was pleasantly surprised to find that now, PIV sex actually feels good.

So, now do I still have a gap between fantasy and reality? I'd say it's more like, the "fantasy" part has changed... now the "fantasy" part is more like, remembering good experiences I've actually had with sex. So because those are real things that really happened, there's not a gap there any more. 

(That's specifically about my husband, though. Sometimes I feel attracted to other men too, and in those cases, all of the above levels would apply, and there would be those same huge gaps between fantasy and reality. That same "in my head it sounds desirable, but in reality it wouldn't be good because of all these very practical aspects.")

So, I have wondered if, back when I had vaginismus, that was such a different situation than now... that it doesn't really even count as having sex. Like, that was painful, and it was impossible to believe that it could feel good or be something that people would desire. My experiences now fit a lot better with what people say sex is like... so could someone make the argument that that wasn't "really" sex?

In other words, maybe someone would make the argument "you say 'I wanted to have sex, but then I found out sex was painful and confusing, so no I don't want that' but actually that's not how sex really is, so actually you still do want sex, it's just that what you've experienced isn't sex, and the actual experience of real sex isn't accessible to you because you have vaginismus."

I mean... I got pregnant from it, so... yeah... and then giving birth vaginally is what cured the vaginismus. So can't really say it wasn't "real" sex...

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So... I guess the reason I'm writing this is it helps me to have all of this laid out here. Organized. As a teenager I was always warned that "one thing leads to another" and people are always having sex accidentally because they "fell into temptation" even though they were trying to "wait for marriage." I really thought I was at risk of... just... accidentally having sex. I thought to myself, "but, to have sex, don't you have to like, be naked with another person? I cannot imagine any realistic set of events that could lead to that." So it was hard to really believe there was actually any risk of having sex. But I didn't trust myself, because the good Christian role models said this totally happens to people when they least expect it. I should have trusted myself.

It helps to have these all categorized here like this... I think it helps show something about my asexuality. Because, I'm sure most people have feelings like "I have a desire for sex with this person, but obviously I won't do it because it's a bad idea for many reasons"- and analyzing those specific reasons, I think maybe my feelings on them are different than for allosexual people ("allosexual" means not on the asexual spectrum). Specifically, level 5 was what led me to figure out I'm asexual. 

If, for example, you're at level 2, and you say "I want sex, but I am not going to really do it because there's a risk of pregnancy" then that seems like a pretty normal thought process that a lot of people would have. But if you're at level 5, like "I want sex, but I don't like the part where you do stuff with your genitals" uhhhh you're probably asexual. (Possibly-related term: autochorissexual.)

I'm kind of curious what other people think of levels 3, 4, and 5. Levels 1 and 2 are what everyone talks about when they teach kids sex-ed, but to me those are not the main barriers to sex. For me, the main concern is how extremely weird it is to show your body to another person. 

Whenever people seem to be interested in sex, I want to ask them, "Do you know sex means, like, being naked with another person and doing stuff with each other's genitals? Just want to check- that's what you're interested in?" As if I'm gonna give them a reality check and they'll realize "oh, right, that's what sex is in reality, it's totally different from this fantasy I have in my head, so actually I don't really want sex." Well, what can I say, I'm asexual.

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And here's another exercise: What about kissing? In my opinion, levels 1-2 would have basically the same concerns for kissing as for sex, level 3 would be fine with no issues if it was someone I was dating, and a bit awkward but doable if it was just some attractive person in a romantically-charged setting, and levels 4-5 I would have no issues at all. Curious what other people would think about how the levels of "I want to do it but I don't want to do it" would differ between kissing and sex.

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Related:

So this is new

How Pregnancy and Childbirth Changed My Asexuality (or, actually, A Post About Vaginismus) 

What Sex Is Like (According to Purity Culture)

On Purity, Asexuality, and Timing

Blogaround

1. Was Jesus Homeless? Yes, No, and Kind Of (December 2) "When I worked as a housing case manager, part of my job was to determine if clients were literally homeless, according to the HUD definition."

Also from the same blog: “I Think I Might Not Die Now” (December 22) "I am blessed to work for an organization that believes in Housing First.  What that means is, once a person’s housing is taken care of, suddenly their medical needs and expenses go down."

2. Can the Star of Bethlehem be scientifically verified? (November 28) Part 1 of a blog series critiquing the video "The Star of Bethlehem," a documentary providing a scientific explanation for the star from the Christmas story in the bible. I actually have seen this video before (a long time ago, when I was evangelical). Perhaps some Christians would, after seeing the video, sum it up as "they found the star." [I just rolled my eyes so hard.] I now view it more like "here's a fan theory about what the star could have been." It's just somebody's idea, and there's nowhere near enough "evidence" to be making claims that this really is what the star actually was. (Honestly, for any date in history, you could probably look at the constellations and make up a story about how it totally means something.) Fun to make fan theories though!

Part 2: The Star of Bethlehem, a real event?
Part 3: Critique of ‘The Star of Bethlehem’ video
Part 4: Jupiter, Venus, Regulus, and Revelation: the fireworks of a real Star of Bethlehem?
Part 5: How did the Star of Bethlehem move like Tinker Bell?

3. A Few Math Problems for Mothers (July 13) "Felix had an accident during nap time and doesn’t have a spare pair of pants at school. If Felix’s father is listed as the primary point of contact on all documents, how many times does the school call his mother?"

4. Star Wars Christmas Parodies - "Padme Did You Know" and "I'm Dreaming of a New Death Star" (2015) This is AMAZING.

5. One Of The Most Astonishing Sudokus Ever (December 15) 1-hour-37-minute sudoku solve video. I love it.

6. Mary and Jesus in the Eyes of Chinese Painters (December 24) "He reinterpreted Da Vinci’s famous 'Last Supper' in traditional Chinese style, featuring a table, stools, tableware, windows, lanterns, and clothing unique to China."

7. Noncon Porn Taught Me About Rape (2016) "When I was a young fan, I remember reading a bunch of posts that said something like this: 'When you write fanfic, warn for rape if you’re treating the subject seriously as something that traumatizes the victim. Warn for noncon if it’s treated as sexy or if the victim starts consenting part of the way through. Warn for dubcon if the characters’ ability to give consent is dubious– for instance, fuck-or-die, sex pollen, one character being another character’s boss, emotional coercion, or sex where one character is extremely drunk. Of course, in the real world, all of those are rape!'"

Also from the same blog: The Thrill of the Chaste, or Why Dawn Eden Should Not Have Casual Sex (2015) I love this, because it takes an argument like "you shouldn't have casual sex because xyz" and changes it to "if you are the sort of person that would have xyz result if you had casual sex, then you shouldn't have casual sex." It's about knowing yourself. Know what you want or don't want. Not about making rules about "this is how EVERYBODY feels."

8. So, at the beginning of December I posted Square Root's Advent Calendar, and said I would give an update on Square Root's opinions on it. Here's the update: He was very interested in the puzzle, and could do parts of it by himself. He seemed to totally ignore me when I read the bible verses to him. But hey, little kids do pick up on things, so maybe he listened even though he didn't act like it. *shrug*

Does Anyone in China NOT Have Covid?

Entrance to a children's fever clinic. Image source.

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

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Well, the title of this post is a bit of an exaggeration. Me, my husband, and son haven't had covid. We've been hunkered down at home the entire week. I'm sure if I asked around I could find a few more people who haven't had covid. 

But, I mean, wow. Scroll through WeChat, the entire thing is people talking about how many days they've had a fever, how many self-tests they've done, what their temperature is, how long they stood in line at a pharmacy, etc. Every mom group is a constant stream of "my baby has covid, at what point do I take her to a doctor?"

Food deliveries are much slower than normal, because so many of the delivery workers have covid and aren't working, plus there's a much larger number of people ordering than normal. Restaurants are understaffed because their employees all have covid. Yesterday we ordered a food delivery- it said it would take 1 hour to arrive, but it took 2 hours. The delivery guy told me it's because when he got to the restaurant to pick it up, the food wasn't even ready yet.

Getting packages delivered is also much slower than normal. Usually when I order something online, if it's shipping from Shanghai, it arrives the next day, and if it's shipping from somewhere else in China, it takes 2-3 days. But right now so many delivery workers are out sick. A lot of the Christmas presents I ordered were delayed several days.

The Shanghai subway system has reduced the number of trains running because so many staff are out sick. (And also, most people are staying home- way fewer passengers on the subway than normal.)

My husband and I worked from home the entire week. And our son's school is closed- all the schools in Shanghai are closed. I heard from my coworkers that very few people were at the office this week.

Our son had a fever this week- I'm pretty sure it's not covid, because we tested him a bunch of times with the rapid-antigen self-test kits and he was always negative. And my husband and I have just a little bit of a cold- if it was covid, I think the 3 of us would all be doing much worse. But, the thing is, we wish we could take him to see a doctor, but probably everyone there has covid. We're not gonna go anywhere near a fever clinic. I'm scared to even ask what the situation is at the hospitals/ fever clinics in Shanghai right now. I heard rumors that there are people standing outside the hospitals selling children's ibuprofen for thousands of RMB per bottle (hundreds of dollars), because the hospitals have run out of medicine. Yikes.

Oh, and also a new policy was announced: If you have covid, you can still go to work. I guess because businesses just couldn't handle it when so many employees were out sick. But, uhhhhh, telling people they can/should/must go out and interact with people when they're covid-positive is just a really bad policy.

Doctors and nurses are continuing to work even though they have covid.

So, uh, that's how it's going here. On December 11 I wrote Zero-Covid is Over. At that point, I didn't personally know anyone who had had covid. (Remember my December 2021 post, I Don't Know Anyone in China Who Has Had Covid? Well, as of 2 weeks ago, I did know a few friend-of-a-friend's who had had covid during the past 3 years. But nobody that I knew personally.) 

And now, 2 weeks later, probably the majority of my friends here in Shanghai have gotten covid. (I don't know if it's the majority, but it certainly feels that way. It certainly feels like "everyone has covid." Obviously, as a math person I have to tell you, you can't get a sense for actual percentages just from reading anecdotes on WeChat- you would have to get a representative sample and ask everyone if they got covid or not in the past 2 weeks. So I have no idea about the actual percentage.)

Here's a bunch of links from SHINE, to serve as a timeline for how things have developed. Go ahead and read between the lines and see how it gets worse and worse:

What you should not do with medicines in COVID treatment (December 19)

Hospitals gear up to handle fever patient surge (December 19)

Shanghai opens thousands of fever clinics in local communities as infections surge (December 19)

China's Guangzhou increases fever clinics to brace for COVID-19 peak (December 19)

Everything you need to know about home quarantine (December 20)

Online food delivery services struggle with staff shortages (December 20)

Employees with mild or no COVID symptoms encouraged to return to work (December 20) Oh my god.

What you need to know about COVID treatment and recovery (December 20)

Shanghai Metro alters service plans amid infection surge (December 20) 

No PCR report required for outpatients, emergency (December 20) Hospitals* no longer require a PCR result when you come to the outpatient or emergency department.

China producing 60 million COVID-19 antigen test kits daily (December 20)

Testing booths turned into fever clinics as China battles COVID-19 (December 21) This is about Shenzhen- I don't know if it's also happening in other cities too.

Amid crowded fever clinics, patients urged to use Internet service, grassroots facilities (December 21)

Hotels encourage COVID positive guests to remain in rooms and notify hotel staff (December 21)

How to use 'mutual aid' platform to get COVID medicines (December 21) The hospitals and pharmacies are running out of medicine- so now there's an app where you can try to find someone near you who has extra.

Free anti-fever drugs distributed in cities to combat COVID (December 22)

China promotes booster shots with variety of vaccine choices (December 22)

Health experts shed light on key COVID-19 concerns through FAQs (December 22)

China work at full steam to boost medicine supply for epidemic control (December 22)

Reduce unnecessary social gatherings! Health experts recommend ahead of the holiday season (December 23) Note: "the holiday season" here doesn't mean Christmas, it means January 1 new year and Chinese New Year (late January).

No PCR, antigen test required to end home quarantine (December 23) So, literally no restrictions or enforcement of covid-positive people doing home quarantine.

Multiple factors cause rise of severe COVID cases in Beijing: health experts (December 23)

*Note about the term "hospital" in China: In China, basically all the doctors work at hospitals. When you go for a completely normal doctor's appointment, it's at a hospital. It can be alarming for friends in the US when you say "I was sick, so I went to the hospital" because in the US, you only go to a hospital for something really serious; for a normal boring sickness you just go to the doctor's office, not a hospital. In China that's not the case- basically all the medical care happens at hospitals. So I am aware that sometimes I might be accidentally making things sound more serious than they are, because to Americans, "going to the hospital" is WAY more of a big deal than it is in China. 

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Quarantine for international travelers

The policy for people entering mainland China is still 5+3 (ie, 5 days of hotel quarantine, plus 3 days of home quarantine, but in reality it seems to be 8+0 actually). At this point, this policy makes no sense, because covid is EVERYWHERE in China. 

I'm in some WeChat groups about international travel, and there have been LOTS of rumors shared in those groups. I forgot to put this in last week's post, but: On December 10, there were rumors that some people had arrived on international flights at Pudong airport (in Shanghai) and were covid-tested and sent home- NOT sent to the quarantine hotels. I don't think this rumor is true, though, because in the travel groups people were asking around to see if anyone in the groups had arrived in Pudong and could tell us what happened firsthand, and no one was found who had actually had this experience.

And then on December 12, there was a screenshot shared around in the travel groups- it was a screenshot of an article in Chinese, which said the Chinese government has announced that on December 19, the quarantine policy for people arriving in mainland China will change to 2+3, and then on January 9 it will change to 0+3. (Which is basically the same as no quarantine at all- nobody is enforcing those 3 days of home quarantine at this point. Nobody's enforcing anything at all.) When this was shared, a lot of people questioned the source- all we had was this 1 screenshot- if it was a real policy announced by the Chinese government, wouldn't there be, like, news articles from actual news sites about it...?

(And then December 19 came and went and no changes were announced. The policy is still 5+3. There are people in the travel groups saying "I'm in the quarantine hotel now, the policy is still 5+3.")

And then, on December 20, there were reports that international travelers arriving in Chengdu were only asked to pay for 2 days in the quarantine hotel, rather than 5. And people in Chengdu being let out of the quarantine hotel after 2 days and allowed to go home. So everybody started saying that they're "testing" a new 2+3 policy in Chengdu, and soon it will become the policy in all of China. But again, none of this is really certain... We know that some people in Chengdu really were let out of quarantine after only 2 days, but we don't know if this applies to all the quarantine hotels in Chengdu, we don't know if there were some other requirements that people needed to meet in order to be let out after only 2 days (for example, having a residence in Chengdu)- we just don't know all the details. To say "they are testing this new policy in Chengdu" is kind of jumping to conclusions too fast.

And then, on December 21, there was an article from HKS, a Hong Kong news site: 中国将于2023年1月3日全面开放入境措施 ["China to fully open entry measures from January 3, 2023"- meaning, no quarantine at all]. Screenshots of this article were shared in the travel groups, and some WeChat accounts for international people in China also shared this news. Bloomberg has also shared it (though their article is paywalled). But... this is also not really a credible source- why is this 1 Hong Kong news site the only source? If this was a real policy, the Chinese government would have made a real announcement about it.

So anyway, rumors flying around EVERYWHERE about the quarantine policy. It obviously makes no sense to keep quarantining people when they enter mainland China, now that covid is running around everywhere here. We all know the policy will change soon to reflect this reality. And when that happens, all the international people who haven't been able to go home and see their families will jump on planes and go. (I've already heard that ticket prices have increased because of these rumors.)

It's going to happen soon. But I don't believe any rumors I see on WeChat.

Here's a good article from Sixth Tone on it: China’s Inbound Travelers Confused Over Quarantine as COVID Spreads Unchecked (December 23)

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Shady reporting on covid deaths

Umm, what is this: Doctor allays fear over elderly deaths due to COVID-19 (December 21)

Very few elderly people actually die from the novel coronavirus, a doctor said on Tuesday, as the country reported five new COVID-19 deaths for Monday.

Wang Guiqiang, director of the Infectious Disease Department at Peking University First Hospital, made the comments at a press conference in response to recent discussions on social media about overload at funeral homes in China.

"The main cause of death is the underlying disease," he explained. "Only the deaths caused by pneumonia and respiratory failure after contracting COVID would be classified as COVID-19 casualties. Heart attacks or cardiovascular disease causing death of infected people will not get that classification."

Beijing reported five COVID-related deaths on Tuesday, following two on Monday, which were the first fatalities reported in weeks. In total, China has reported 5,242 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, central Hubei Province, in late 2019, a very low toll by global standards.

I feel like this is not how it works? If someone with covid dies and they have "underlying diseases", then China isn't going to count that as a covid death?

Okay, so... I'm not sure how this compares to the definitions used in other countries, but it sounds very shady to me. From now on, we can't trust China's data about the number of covid deaths.

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Feelings about the end of zero-covid

This is bad. Society is falling apart right now. So many people are sick, there aren't even enough staff for businesses to stay open and do essential things like make food.

This first wave will last maybe 1-2 weeks, and then people will recover and society will be okay. I guess...?

I'm trying not to get covid, and I don't want my son to get covid... and this terror I feel, like covid is just EVERYWHERE and I can't just keep working from home because HR is giving me a hard time about it and I have to figure out childcare because the schools are closed, and how long is this going to go on- this is exactly what everyone outside of China has been dealing with for 3 years. Man, you guys, this sucks.

So here's a question: Is this better or worse than being in lockdown?

Ughhh. Well... I want to say this is better... because the constant stress of following all those zero-covid rules (about how often you have to get tested, etc) and the fear that you could suddenly get locked down... and the trauma we all have from the Shanghai lockdown (2 and a half months)... it was so tough to live with that, and I didn't want it any more. And, also, I knew that if zero-covid ended, I would be able to go back to the US and see my family.

And covid itself... if it's just feeling terrible for 1 week and then you're okay, well that's less bad than living under the threat of lockdown. But covid can be a lot worse than that, for some people. People do still die from it, even though omicron is "mild" or whatever (I personally don't think it's accurate to say omicron is "mild"- I have heard from friends the past 2 weeks saying it's the worst flu they ever had), and people can have long-term health problems from covid.

It feels like I've moved from one psychological nightmare to another, but at least this one is the same nightmare the rest of the world is already living in- so it won't stop me from going to see my family.

And part of me is saying, "I wonder how history will look at the zero-covid policy. Will historians of the future say 'China saved millions of lives, China handled covid better than most other countries' [which I think is true]?" But part of me already knows the answer- at least for US news sources and US history books, everything the Communist Party does is automatically evil. History isn't going to actually look at zero-covid objectively and judge it on its own merits. History won't even give it a chance- it's obviously bad because we all know how Communist China doesn't care about human rights, and that's that.

And thinking about comparing lockdowns to the current situation- I'll never forget how bad the news reporting from western media sites has been. These past 3ish years under zero-covid, reporting on an "outbreak" in this or that Chinese city, making it sound like a similar situation to what one might call an "outbreak" in the US. Makes me so mad. In China, under the zero-covid policy, an "outbreak" was like, 10 cases, and the main thing that happened was everyone in the city got locked down and/or tested, and then after a few weeks the numbers were back to 0 and everyone could resume normal life. Whereas, in the US, or any other country, covid spread out of control- it's been spreading out of control for almost 3 years.

I'm still mad about when I was in a goddamn lockdown and I had to spend my time blogging about how CNN was misrepresenting the specific ways that it sucked to be in Shanghai right then.

Another thing about lockdowns: Lockdowns don't get you any closer to herd immunity. You have a lockdown, you sit at home until the numbers are back down to 0, then you end the lockdown, but you're at the exact same place you were before. Another outbreak could happen and cause another lockdown. You're just delaying the inevitable.

Whereas, letting covid spread through the whole population... after that, you still will have additional "waves" in the future... and people do still die from covid, or get long-covid... I want to say this is better, but I don't know.

From a human psychology point of view, there's something that feels better about having your fate in your own hands- I can choose whether to go out or not, I can choose whether to wear a mask- rather than being blocked by the government. (Though this oversimplifies it, because there are people whose jobs require them to interact with a lot of people, there are people with chronic illnesses who now no longer have the "choice" to live in a society where people aren't spreading covid everywhere, etc.) To some extent it is a good thing for it to be in your control- because the government doesn't actually care about you as an individual. But, also, there are big society-wide problems that can't be solved through individual people choosing to "do the right thing" or whatever. (Paying taxes to maintain societal infrastructure like roads/bridges, fighting climate change, etc...) There really are situations where the only way to solve the problem is for the government to make rules that restrict everyone to some extent. I personally think covid was one of those situations- and the US government completely failed at it. The Chinese government... well, yeah there are a lot of things to criticize about the zero-covid policy. Let's definitely criticize it. But it's better than what the US did.

Yeah...

And one more thing: The Chinese government has totally botched this transition. Like, why wasn't there any propaganda about "flatten the curve"? Why were all the testing restrictions removed, and no new restrictions added, like for example, no indoor dining allowed? Why was it just the same advice we've been hearing for 3 years- masks, social distancing, wash your hands- which we all tune out because we've heard it so much? 

I've been saying for a long time on this blog, it doesn't have to be all-or-nothing. Ending zero covid doesn't mean we have to 躺平 ["tǎng píng" - "lie flat" - this is a slang term that means completely giving up]. I really didn't expect China would suddenly go from "zero covid" to "ALL THE COVID." The Chinese government really did 躺平 [tǎng píng]. (And maybe someone will say, omicron is so infectious, it wasn't possible to avoid this kind of spread. I don't really agree with that- I think there were a lot of things that could have been done better.)

So... yeah those are my conflicting feelings on it. 

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Links

Sixth Tone

With More People Getting Sick, China’s Restaurants Are Struggling (December 20)

Winding Down ‘Zero-COVID’: The View From an Urban Village (December 20)

Shanghai Races to Vaccinate Older Residents as COVID Runs Wild (December 21)

As Couriers Fall Sick, Chinese Cities Ask Residents to Fill In (December 21)

Staying Negative: New Covid Policies Bring Memes Aplenty (December 23) Lol, I love this! And yeah, covid-positive people are called "sheep" because both are pronounced "yang."

SHINE

Expert predicts increase in COVID cases but threat lower (December 17) Lol, love to read this propaganda about how the Chinese government very carefully considered the changes in the death rate from covid, to decide when to end the zero-covid policy, and did so at just the right time. Come on. Multiple cities were having omicron outbreaks with lockdowns that stretched on for months, and people were mad as hell, with protests breaking out across the country. That's why they ended zero-covid. They couldn't get it under control, and continuing to try only made things worse.

The benefits and pitfalls of learning to live with coronavirus (December 17) OMG, this article is hilarious! Well, the content of the article itself is fine- it's basically "here are the practical ways that ending zero-covid is affecting the average person, and how they feel about it" but this is after almost 3 years of telling us how covid is SO BAD we need to PUT OUR LIVES ON HOLD and LOCK DOWN MILLIONS OF PEOPLE and zero-covid is THE BEST EVER.

The New York Times

As Cases Explode, China’s Low Covid Death Toll Convinces No One (December 23) Yep.

"Muppet Christmas Carol" Is My Religion

Christmas dinner scene from "The Muppet Christmas Carol." Scrooge and a bunch of muppets are having dinner together. Image source.

[content note: spoilers for "The Muppet Christmas Carol" (1992 movie) and I guess the original story by Charles Dickens]

So I introduced my son to "The Muppet Christmas Carol". And, wow, so happy to watch that movie again! I love that movie.

At the end of the movie, after Scrooge has a change of heart and is going around being generous and celebrating Christmas with everyone, I had a lot of feelings. Like, trying to describe it, I'm like "I feel religious" but obviously "religious" has a lot of different meanings so let me try to explain it more.

Basically, what I want to say is: I'm a Christian, and this is what I think Christianity is about. Being a Christian is very important to my identity, so when I see a portrayal of the most essential core parts of it, it's really emotional for me. I love it. 

And, obviously, I have to put some caveats here- this is about what Christianity means to me, it's about what I think the main point is, but of course other people will have completely different opinions about that. Which is fine. This is just about my own feelings about religion.

And also, obviously, these concepts (being generous, caring about others, etc) don't have to be related to Christianity at all. For me they are related, but obviously anyone can have those values, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. I don't even think Christianity is like, uniquely connected to these virtuous concepts, or anything like that. I think anyone can take any major religion/ philosophy/ belief system and use it to do good or evil. To find inspiration in your beliefs to fight for a better world, or to find excuses for why you get to make the rules to control everyone else.

And, also, I can imagine that some Christians would criticize "The Muppet Christmas Carol" for not being Jesus-y enough. There are a few mentions of Christianity in the movie, but they're really just cultural indicators rather than being important to the plot. (For example, it's mentioned that Kermit the frog went to church on Christmas Eve.) I used to be evangelical, so I know there must be evangelicals out there saying "this movie is BAD because it's about CHRISTMAS but it doesn't talk about how JESUS is the ENTIRE MEANING of Christmas" blah blah blah. I thought about that criticism, as I watched the movie, as I was overwhelmed by how extremely Christian the ending felt to me.

And... oh man, I feel like I can't even say what I want to say without adding more and more caveats, because what I mean by "Christian" isn't ... like... what it's typically used to mean. Typically it means "explicitly about Jesus" or "claiming that we're right and everyone else is wrong". But what I mean here is... this is what Christianity is really about, to me. (Sometimes on this blog I use the phrase "the kingdom of heaven is like..." to describe this sort of thing.)

You can see I'm still kind of floundering here with the words. So... well, in summary, "The Muppet Christmas Carol" is my religion, and we'll leave it at that.

Other things that are also my religion:

• anything written by Martin Luther King Jr.
• "The New Colossus" ("Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...")
• the song "Praying" by Kesha
• the scene in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" where Ego reveals that he caused the cancer that killed Starlord's mother, and Starlord takes out his blaster and repeatedly shoots Ego, no questions asked
• Micah 6:8
  "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
      And what does the Lord require of you?
  To act justly and to love mercy
      and to walk humbly with your God."
• Bree Newsome climbing the flagpole to remove the Confederate flag, while quoting 1 Samuel 17:45, Psalm 27:1, and Psalm 23
• the scene in "Spiderman: Homecoming" where Tony Stark steps out of his Ironman suit, totally surprising Spiderman because he thought Tony was operating it remotely and didn't care enough to even be there

Readers: Do you have any examples of things that are "your religion" (whatever that means)?

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Related:

"You Weren't There, the Night Jesus Found Me" 

Worship Songs Round-Up

It Was Beautiful When Star-Lord Rejected the Gospel 

"The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special" is About Being an Immigrant

Blogaround

1. Chicago’s “Race-Neutral” Traffic Cameras Ticket Black and Latino Drivers the Most (January) This is really interesting, because a very superficial view of the situation might say "it's actually true that Black and Latino drivers in these areas are running red lights/ breaking the speed limit at higher rates than white drivers, so yes they should get ticketed more; there is no problem here." But actually, the real issue is that the layout of the roads in Black and Latino areas of the city encourages drivers to break traffic laws (which can cause fatal accidents) while the layout of the roads in mostly-white areas naturally causes drivers to slow down/ drive carefully. So it's not just about "you, an individual, shouldn't be speeding"- though yes that's true- but there's more to it than that.

2. Feminism with YIMBY Characteristics (July 7) "But there is another picture here, one visible in the negative space of the above statistics: the people who don’t leave, or who can’t. The ones for whom the threat of homelessness functions as a chain, tying them to their abusers. This is queer kids, but it’s not just queer kids. It’s everyone stuck with a partner they can’t leave because they need to make the mortgage, or because they can’t afford rent alone. It’s everyone stuck in the closet because their partner would show them the door the minute they came out. It’s everyone who settles for patriarchy because we have made freedom unaffordable."

3. The Incarnation or the Resurrection? (December 13) I love this!

4. No, The Bible Does Not Say “Fear Not” 365 Times (December 13) Fact checking. Very important.

Also: The Great Laminin Hoax (2017) "Uhm…Err…uh…yeah. Well, that’s not very cross-like is it?"

5. Gov. Kate Brown commutes sentences of all 17 people on Oregon’s death row (December 13) [content note: the descriptions of the murders that these people on death row committed are pretty horrifying]

6. 12/14 Flashback: Thrice-told tales (December 14) "Now Moses is again being confronted, but not by clan leaders and respected well-known men. He’s being challenged by five sisters. The law, these sisters tell Moses, is not fair. God’s law is not fair."

7. The Repugnant Conclusion (April 18) This is a short story about a character who has vaginismus. (Also I read her as asexual.) Linking it here because I was so surprised to happen upon a story about vaginismus. Those parts of the story feel really spot-on.

8. Why Infinite Coin-Flipping is Bad (December 2) "But that’s very far from true if you’re donating millions or billions. When donating at large scale, you’re structurally changing the organizations you donate to. There aren’t plausibly organizations that will literally sop up a billion dollars just doing more of the exact same thing they were doing earlier."

9. Leopards, faces, etc. (December 17) "I only wanted to stop the indefensible forms of abortion that exist in my head. I didn’t intend for that to have anything to do with ectopic pregnancies, or with forcing responsible married women to carry dead fetuses to term, or with requiring an 11-year-old rape victim to bear a child her body is incapable of bearing safely!"

I Guess I Shouldn't Be Surprised How Fast Omicron is Spreading in China

"Medicine orders on a table at the entrance to a pharmacy in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, Dec. 9, 2022. VCG" Image source.

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

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Hi everyone, here's this week's update about covid in Shanghai, China.

So in my previous update, Zero-Covid is Over, I said:

We live in a different world than we did 1 week ago. Now covid could be anywhere. It's coming. It will come in a huge wave. We're going to see a lot of our friends get infected- and hopefully it's not that bad, but... I mean, gosh, you definitely don't want to catch it during the first wave, when society hasn't really figured out how to handle it in those numbers yet.

Well the "it's coming" phase is over. It's here. Tons and tons of people have covid.

It's actually astonishing to me how fast this spread. It was like "okay the government is no longer requiring people to get covid-tested" and then in a matter of days, suddenly we all started hearing about friends and coworkers and everybody getting covid.

It reminds me of when omicron was first identified, about a year or so ago, and then within a matter of days lots of friends in the US suddenly had it. (The variant in China now is omicron.) Like suddenly, everyone knows several people who have covid.

Last Sunday I heard that someone from work had covid. And then I heard that someone at the event I'd gone to the day before had covid. And then every single day since then, a few more friends, a few more coworkers, a few more social media contacts posting about having covid.

Like wow this got real so fast.

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About the government policies

So in last week's post I said it was still unclear to what extent the government is going to be involved in managing the covid-positive people. (Like, if you have covid you're supposed to do home quarantine for 5 days, but is anyone going to enforce it? That kind of thing.) Well turns out the answer is you're totally on your own! Whatever! Nobody is keeping track of who has covid, you're not required to report it anywhere, no lockdowns are happening, none of that.

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Statistics (?)

December 17 article from SHINE: Chinese mainland reports 2,229 new local confirmed COVID-19 cases

To which I say: LOLOLOLOLOLOL. Two thousand covid cases? Come on. I could scroll through my WeChat right now and probably find 50 covid-positive people. This thing is EVERYWHERE. There are way more than 2000 new cases per day in China.

Ah, but here's the explanation: China no longer publishes number of asymptomatic cases (December 14) So, the idea is that the "asymptomatic" people are staying home and taking care of themselves, so it's impossible to get an accurate count of them, so China isn't going to report any data about that.

To which I say: LOLOLOLOL. I mean, on the one hand, yes it's true that it's impossible to get an accurate count now. But calling them "asymptomatic" just because their covid case isn't bad enough to land them in the hospital... I mean, yeah, for a long time I've been saying the term "asymptomatic" in Shanghai's data on covid cases is meaningless, because it doesn't mean "doesn't have symptoms", it means "doesn't have pneumonia symptoms." So it's a bit ridiculous that now China is saying we just don't need to count them at all when we publish our data on covid cases.

Like, what's actually being reported now, in China's "local confirmed COVID-19 cases" is more along the lines of, people whose covid was so severe that they required hospitalization. This is a completely different thing than just the number of covid cases.

For 3 years, people (outside of China) who don't understand how zero-covid works have been saying "look at China's numbers, does anyone believe these numbers? no!" and I've been saying that I do believe China's numbers (but with the caveat that the distinction they're making between "confirmed" and "asymptomatic" makes no sense). But now, mark down the date, December 14, 2022. This is the date after which we should not believe any of China's reported numbers on the covid case count.

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Working from home

This week I worked from home for part of the week and I was at the office for part of the week. The office was pretty empty- probably more than half of the people at my job were working from home. Some of them were home because they had covid, some were home because they were close contacts (and you're supposed to quarantine if you're a close contact, not that anybody's enforcing it though), some of them were staying home with their kids because students in the same class as a covid-positive student had to stay home from school, etc etc etc.

Less people on the subways than usual. Also, a lot of people I've seen out in public are wearing N95 masks. (As a wild guess, maybe 30% of people are wearing N95's and 70% are wearing surgical masks? It's a wild guess, don't take it too literally.) Before this, very few people wore N95's. I often saw waiters or other kinds of employees who interact with a lot of customers wearing N95's, but it was rare to see any random person on the street wearing one. Because back then, there wasn't really any actual risk of getting covid. Just wear a mask, but it doesn't matter what kind, because you won't get covid regardless. But now it's different. Now it actually matters if you wear an N95.

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Panic-buying and hoarding medicine

Suddenly, everyone is buying up all the ibuprofen, all the cold medicine, all the cough medicine, all the fever medicine, to keep it at home "just in case." This is, uh, not good. It's a good idea to buy a reasonable amount of medicine, maybe estimate how much you would need to take for 5 days if you got covid- but people are buying WAY MORE than that and it's NOT COOL.

Like, every single pharmacy is totally sold out of any medicine related to fevers/colds. If you order medicine online, it won't ship yet; it will ship when they have some in stock.

And I've even seen people asking "where can I buy paxlovid" like they're gonna just buy a bunch and keep it at home "just in case." Argggh. That's something that should be prescribed by a doctor. Not something everyone should just have. (And no, it's not available for random people to just buy, fortunately.)

And then people started saying "vitamin C protects you from covid" so then all the vitamin C sold out, and then everyone was buying all the oranges and canned peaches they could get their hands on... it's just ridiculous here.

All the N95 masks are sold out. All the rapid antigen test kits are sold out.

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US consulates

ALERT: UPDATE FROM U.S. MISSION CHINA CONSULAR SERVICES FOR DECEMBER 15, 2022

Well the US consulates in different cities around China have cancelled almost all visa appointments. Word on the street is a lot of the staff at the consulates got covid. 

This is really not cool because people had visa interviews planned, to travel to the US during the holidays, and now it's looking like they won't be able to get visas in time.

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Flights out of China

In the past few days, I've heard several anecdotes about "I just flew from Shanghai to the US. The airport in Shanghai isn't requiring a negative covid test. There were people coughing all throughout the plane. Not wearing masks." Yikes... Used to be, the flight out of China was the safest in terms of covid risk. You could be sure that nobody coming out of China had covid. But now it's the worst flight.

I was kind of surprised... but also, this really shouldn't be surprising. Should have been obvious that this would happen.

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Schools

There was a notification from my son's teacher that said "a student tested positive, but not in our class. Parents can decide if they want to send their kids to school tomorrow or not." We decided to send him to school because it's a pain trying to work from home with a kid running around. The next day when I dropped him off at school, there were way less people than usual. Seems like most kids weren't going to school.

And then on December 17 there was this announcement: Shanghai education facilities shift to online from Monday. Oh great.

But, yeah, Square Root going to school was the biggest area of risk for our family. My husband and I have been wearing masks at work, and not eating with other people, but the kids at school don't wear masks.

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What's the long-term plan?

Okay, maybe a little embarrassing that this is the first time I've had to think about that question. Everyone outside of China has already been grappling with that for several years. But in China, it's been all-or-nothing: Either you're in lockdown and you can't go anywhere at all, or there are zero covid cases and you can go do whatever you want without worrying about it (but still need to follow a lot of tedious rules about testing and wearing masks). But now that zero-covid is over, we all have to figure out where we want to be on that spectrum between "all" and "nothing." 

If I have to wear a mask in public, okay, that's fine, I can do that. If I decide I'm not going to restaurants, uh that's annoying because restaurants are fun, and also a key part of my social life with friends, but... okay I guess during the most high-risk times I can stop doing that temporarily. If the schools are closed, uh... no I can't deal with that long-term. How long is this going to last? What's the plan?

The first wave will probably last several weeks. (I've seen some articles predicting when the "peak" would be for all the big Chinese cities.) It seems doable to me to avoid getting covid during this first wave. (I can tell you that so far, me, my husband, and my son do not have covid.) But then what?

And some of my friends who got infected have said "we're all going to get it eventually, it's kinda nice to be getting it out of the way now" but I don't think I agree with that. I really do want to avoid getting covid. But, I need to send my kid to school. This is impossible.

And, yeah, obviously, yes, these are the exact problems that everyone outside of China has been dealing with since early 2020. And yes, I did want zero-covid to end. So... anyway, here we are.

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Links

Sixth Tone

China’s Elderly Care Homes on Guard to Keep COVID Out (December 16)

Life After the End of China’s COVID Restrictions (December 15) "The abrupt policy shift left ordinary Chinese not only feeling a sense of joy from their newfound freedom, but also confusion toward their new life in which they would have to co-exist with COVID." Very good article. Also it has a bunch of photos.

Beijing’s COVID Surge Stretches City’s Delivery Workforce (December 15) It's really bad in Beijing right now. It's not quite this bad in Shanghai, but it's a matter of time.

Fearing Infection, Many Chinese Grab Unproven Items to Prevent COVID (December 14) "Canned peaches and electrolyte water have been flying off the shelves amid unsubstantiated claims that they defend against the coronavirus."

SHINE

Where to make online pharmacy deliveries (December 15)

How to disinfect your home with a positive COVID case (December 14)

How to dispose trash during home quarantine (December 14)

Online panic buying of medicine from other provinces causes shortages (December 14)

Beijing sets up fever clinics in all community health service centers (December 13)

How to protect you and your family against COVID-19 (December 13)

COVID-19 itinerary card to be abolished from Tuesday (December 12) This is the "travel code app" that I've discussed here and here. It no longer works, and everyone is like "good ****ing riddance."

Bye-bye to venue codes, high-risk areas in Shanghai (December 12)

Hospitals run smoothly after city loosens COVID management (December 11) Lol look at this propaganda. Hey, maybe it is true that the hospitals are handling this just fine- but writing an article like this just makes me more suspicious.

CNN

Hong Kong scraps some restrictions for travelers, ends contact tracing (December 13)

"The Only Moral Virgin Birth Is My Virgin Birth"

Mary and baby Jesus. Image text: "Abstinence 99.99% effective." Image source.

Thinking abut Mary, and how a big deal is made about how she was a virgin when she became pregnant and gave birth to Jesus. I always thought her virginity was so important because it meant she was "not like other girls." But now I think actually, the important thing is she is like other girls.

One way to read Mary's story is this: She was pregnant and unmarried. And normally, being pregnant and unmarried is BAD. Women who are pregnant and unmarried are BAD and SINFUL. Sex is DIRTY. To bring the Son of God into the world, God needed a good girl who wasn't like those bad girls who have sex. Mary was special and different. She was the good one, so God choose her. Yes, you absolutely should judge women who get pregnant outside of marriage, but in this one special case, she is good and shouldn't be judged.

(Note: I had premarital sex and it was a good decision for me, so please read any statements in this post like "women who have sex outside of marriage are sinful" with a heavy dose of sarcasm.)

And though I never really put it in those words or thought about it explicitly, that's basically what I thought about the virgin birth, back when I was evangelical. I remember reading a blog post that said "the Christmas story is about believing women" and it made no sense to me. "What?" I thought. "It's about how Mary was so good because her circumstance was unique and different from everyone else. This has nothing to do with believing women in general. The exception proves the rule."

But... Thinking about what it was actually like for Mary, back then, being judged by everyone. Yes, for those of us reading the story 2000 years later, we all know that she really was a virgin, that an angel came to her and told her she would be pregnant, that she obeyed God. That she did nothing wrong, according to the "sex is dirty" standard. (Okay I used the phrase "we all know" but obviously this is a religious belief and not something that can actually be known to be true. What I'm getting at is, inside the universe of the story, we readers know these things are canon.)

So we know that she is good and shouldn't be judged. But how does that help her? Her neighbors/ friends/ relatives didn't know anything about that. Do you think she tried to explain herself to them? Or did she just let them judge her, because she figured no one would believe her if she said an angel visited her?

Well, look at Joseph's reaction. He found out she was pregnant, and obviously assumed she had had sex with some guy, and decided to divorce her quietly instead of making a big public scene about it- which was nice of him. The way I read it is, Mary didn't try to tell Joseph the truth. She didn't give him the chance to believe her or not, because the idea of exposing her whole complicated traumatic personal life to him and then not being believed was just too awful. (Fortunately, an angel came to Joseph in a dream to tell him to stay with Mary.)

So, sure, we readers know the details, and we can judge her based on accurate information and conclude that she was indeed a good person and not a sinful women who had sex outside of marriage. But none of that makes any difference in her actual life, because people around her didn't have that information- and probably wouldn't believe it if she told them- so they still saw her as sinful and dirty.

So there's this surface-level stereotype that random people will apply to her, and there's the complicated reality underneath. Her own complicated, emotional, imperfect, incredible path that led her to this point- but the only thing they see is she's unmarried and pregnant, so they assume the worst.

But isn't that how it always is? This isn't a "she's not like other girls" thing, because this is what happens to women all the time.

There are stereotypes about what kind of woman has sex outside of marriage. What kind of woman lives with her boyfriend. What kind of woman gets pregnant outside of marriage. What kind of woman dresses immodestly. What kind of woman has casual sex. What kind of woman uses contraception. What kind of woman is a single mom. What kind of woman has children with different fathers. What kind of women has an abortion. What kind of woman gets raped. What kind of woman accuses a man of rape. What kind of women uses emergency contraception. What kind of woman gets the HPV vaccine. What kind of woman gets divorced. What kind of woman stays with an abusive partner. What kind of woman works as a sex worker.

Just from observing 1 small aspect of a person's life, random strangers will imagine what kind of person she is, and what bad choices she must have made, and why she should be judged and condemned. 

And I don't think the solution to this is "explain why your circumstances are special and different so you don't deserve to be judged like that" (ie, believing that Mary was good while all the other unmarried pregnant women are bad because Mary was a virgin with a miraculous pregnancy). If you take that approach, it reinforces the idea that, yes, random strangers should be judging you and making wild assumptions about your personal life and your morals. It reinforces the idea that yes, it is right to judge women who are unmarried and pregnant, yes, most of them are bad, but not Mary! It requires people to open up their personal lives and show everything to random strangers, as the only way to avoid being condemned. To show everyone their emotions and trauma and mistakes, things they've experienced that they don't even know how to process yet- they're required to do this; otherwise random strangers are correct to assume the worst.

That wouldn't have worked for Mary. Even if she told people the truth, would anyone believe her?

So no, this "explain why you're the exception" approach isn't right. Instead, the random strangers should stop judging people's personal lives. People are complicated. They're not one-dimensional stereotypes. Have some compassion.

Mary was a virgin when she was pregnant, but she got the same judgment and condemnation as women who got pregnant from unmarried sex. I used to think it was hugely important that she was different... but it's not. Being unfairly judged by random people based on incorrect assumptions about your personal life is something that women everywhere experience.

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Related:

It wasn't like that for Mary. Maybe it's never like that.

Mary's Choice

Merry Christmas From John Piper

Someday Dave Ramsey will have to stand before God and explain why he fired a pregnant woman. Never forget that Dave Ramsey would have fired Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

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The title of this post was inspired by this: “The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion”