Coronavirus Week 105: The Grim Reaper reaps away in Shanghai

Once again, Xi Jinping Thought stanners from Margaret Flowers to Adam Tooze look like fucking idiots at best and like Max Blumenthals at worse, as the COVID crisis in Shanghai escalates.

The latest? Last week, Chinese leadership was looking like Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Shanghai's deaths were in a hospital for senior citizens, not nursing homes, but the idea's the same. And, related to that, it's clear that China's lying again about COVID deaths or lack thereof.

But, contra this graf:

Most experts agree that China’s zero-COVID approach was highly successful in keeping deaths to a minimum when there were limited drugs or vaccines. But now that shots are widely available in China, and with the advent of the omicron variant, many say the government should abandon the policy and focus medical resources on the elderly and vulnerable instead.

No, I'm not in agreement.

First, I don't agree that China was that successful; I think it's likely Beijing lied at least as much two years ago as now. Second, contra Tooze, we know that Sinopharm's vaccine isn't as good as the ones developed in the West, so it doesn't have the same options.

And, speaking of suckers or grifters for Xi Jinping Thought? Add Walker Bragman to the list with a truly kowtowing Twitter thread. My thoughts on that?

Walker Bragman's stanning for Xi Jinping Thought over alleged success of COVID control approaches the embarrassment level of Max Blumenthal stanning for Xi Jinping Thought over Uyghurs. COVID or human rights, THIS leftist can call out the US without putting China on a pedestal

— TheRealSocraticGadfly: Friends Crushes Xi Jinping (@real_gadfly) April 10, 2022

Yep.

In a later Tweet, I said that we don't even have to imagine that Xi is lying to cover up a death rate as bad as the US. A death rate HALF as bad would still be 50 percent worse than that of Canada.

He's not alone. The number of non-skeptical leftists who are willing to believe the US government tells lies most the time but Beijing almost never does, including but by no means limited to the two biggies of COVID and the Uyghurs, actually seems to be growing, if anything.

And, speaking in US terms? Xi can't afford the economic impact of locking down Shanghai for two months.

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