comment: >
  
  People weren't protesting (or supporting) the COVID restrictions, stop acting like this was some casual mask mandate in your local rural county.
  People were forced by the military to stay inside. Never mind if you needed groceries. Never mind if you needed medicine, or a medical emergency occurred.
  They forced people to LIVE AT THEIR WORKPLACE. Can't leave. Sleep on the floor. Relatives at home? Too bad.
  The people were protesting the awful response tactics of their government, not COVID as a whole.
  The fact that you can't even see the difference is troubling.
context: It started in China with those deadly scenes from overcrowded hospitals.
  It's mind boggling how utterly unprepared Cina is and COVID is hitting back at them exactly 3 years later.
  Guess the Coronavirus refused to stick to the government plans. >
  
  ? 
  havent been paying attention to china news lately?
  China was undergoing unprecidented nationwide protests over its "zero covid" policy. some of the largest protests it has seen in recent memory. Eventually the government relaxed the policy finally about a month or two ago. 
  Because Xi and the chinese government highly politicized and propagandized against western vaccines early on when Sinovax came around. most Chinese citizens absolutely refuse to trust western vaccines. this is ontop of a natural reluctance to get vaccinated especially by those living in the countryside, and the elderly.
  It turns out Sinovax is FAR less effective than whats found in the west. as such many chinese citizens lack immunity and are especially vulnerable to all the newer strains that developed since the beggining of the pandemic...
  this has created this "perfect storm" that china now finds itself in. with 37 million new cases being diagnosed per day. China lacks the medical facilities to deal with this level of infection as well. so were quite possibly seeing the beggining of another humongous health crisis.
  edits: grammer and some extra sentances. >
  
  
  this is ontop of a natural reluctance to get vaccinated especially by those living in the countryside, and the elderly
  
  Add multiple issues with domestic produced vaccines >
  
  The frustrating thing is that China waited until it got hit hard by a Covid wave to decide that now is the time to relax a lot of its travel restrictions ... which is hard to read as anything but a move to placate domestic unrest, which has begun to simmer recently, at the expense of the health of many people worldwide.
  They could have relaxed their zero covid policies domestically and wait until the wave got reasonably contained while ramping up vaccinations before opening up travel but ... here we are, and it's hard to see it as anything but a cynical play for the domestic audience.  And then of course, now that countries are asking inbound travelers for Covid tests, they get to play the discrimination card and gin up more public support. >
  
  It's almost like there was an outbreak in China, China tried to contain it, the people protested the lockdowns and wanted the restrictions lifted, so the government lifted them.
  Did you forget how this very same sub cheered on those protestors and told China to give them their freedom?