China reports zero local symptomatic Covid-19 cases for first time in weeks

55 comments on “China reports zero local symptomatic Covid-19 cases for first time in weeks ”

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1. francesca 1

   24 August 2021 at 11:01 am

   Love to know a bit more about the early treatment, drug therapies, supplements, success rates etc.

   That could be a game changer.
2. Anker 2

   24 August 2021 at 11:18 am

   • Early lockdowns are the best way. With the other early strategies of course
3. Gypsy 3

   24 August 2021 at 11:19 am

   There is plenty of material suggesting the Chinese authorities have lied about many aspects of Covid. This is an authoritarian regime, and any data they release is hard to take seriously.
   • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1

     24 August 2021 at 11:50 am

     The Covid-19 genome sequence 'China' revealed on 10/Jan/2020 was taken seriously.

     Baric hopes this virus’s discovery and the response to it illustrate the speed at which scientists can move by working together. “One of the things that’s sad is that the public doesn’t realize how incredibly competent the public health and the basic science community are at going from a newly discovered virus to a tremendous amount of capacity to trace and try to control its spread,” Baric says.
     https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/chinese-researchers-reveal-draft-genome-virus-implicated-wuhan-pneumonia-outbreak

     https://www.asianscientist.com/2020/02/topnews/china-coronavirus-covid-19-study/

     https://journals.lww.com/cmj/Fulltext/2020/05050/Identification_of_a_novel_coronavirus_causing.3.aspx
     • Gypsy 3.1.1

       24 August 2021 at 12:54 pm

       That's all good, but the PRC have lied their way through this from the outset.

       https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/30/asia/wuhan-china-covid-intl/index.html

       https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/coronavirus-crematorium-data-indicates-china-was-lying-about-covid-19/E3Q22K72VFSX55LO3WVJGRBIFI/

       https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55355401
       • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.1.1

         24 August 2021 at 2:22 pm

         I was suggesting that the idea “…any data they [the Chinese] release is hard to take seriously” might be misleading, but I understand the impetus to simplify.

         From the first link:

         But even if they had been 100% transparent, that would not stop the Trump administration downplaying the seriousness of it. It would probably not have stopped this developing into a pandemic.

         From the second link:

         The preprint study, which is yet to undergo the scientific quality-control process of peer review, was published on the medRxiv early release service.

         Not questioning the research, but has anyone else, i.e. has that study been peer-reviewed yet?

         From an author of the third link:

         "It's very different to what we've seen here in the UK, and the factors we had to consider – the economy, health, care homes – lots of things. In China they only considered one thing, and that was shut down now."

         I suppose that might seem a reasonable response if you considered keeping citizen safe to be an important function of government.

         I believe that some Covid-19 data from China contains inaccuracies, and that some of these inaccuracies are likely deliberate. But, if you believe that "all politicans lie", then that's only to be expected, no?
         • Gypsy 3.1.1.1.1

           25 August 2021 at 10:13 am

           "I believe that some Covid-19 data from China contains inaccuracies, and that some of these inaccuracies are likely deliberate. But, if you believe that "all politicans lie", then that's only to be expected, no?"

           IMHO there is ample evidence that there has been misinformation, and that it has been deliberate. Of course your last sentence is true, but here's the thing. In a functioning democracy there are checks and balances. There are opposition parties, a free and independent media, and a free exchange of ideas amongst it's citizenry. In China the state is the single source of truth. There is little counter opinion, and what there is ruthlessly suppressed.
           • Drowsy M. Kram 3.1.1.1.1.1

             25 August 2021 at 3:43 pm

             IMHO there is ample evidence that there has been misinformation, and that it has been deliberate.

             Agreed; plenty of evidence of deliberate misinformation, and that this misinformation has been quite effective, at least within China.

             In a functioning democracy there are checks and balances.

             Yes, agreed – checks and balances such as "The Hollow Men" and "Dirty Politics – How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment"

             Just as well Hager lives in a functioning democracy, free from intimidation, eh.
             • Gypsy …

               25 August 2021 at 4:16 pm

               I take your point, but in the end the functioning democracy delivered:

               On 12 June 2018, Hager accepted an apology and compensation for "substantial damages" from the New Zealand Police for the 2014 raid on his home during the investigation into the hacking that led to the Dirty Politics book. The settlement also included the police acknowledging that they had accessed Hager's personal banking data.

               Can you imagine that happening in China?
               • Drowsy M. Kram …

                 25 August 2021 at 4:59 pm

                 Good point – Hager did have the opportunity to opine on his treatment.

                 I'm still gobsmacked that the police thought that it was reasonable to arrive like Rambo and spend 11 hours doing over my house where they found nothing they wanted.

                 It was completely and utterly over the top and it would've been depressing for everyone who works in this field if they'd got away with it.

                 I hope what this means is that people won't be more scared to be whistleblowers and more scared to be sources in the media.

                 Still have to wonder why police at the time considered this appropriate; no doubt there are plenty of reckons.
                 • Gypsy …

                   25 August 2021 at 6:23 pm

                   No amount of reckons made or makes that ok.
   • Brigid 3.2

     24 August 2021 at 12:49 pm

     'plenty of material'

     Such as?
     • Gypsy 3.2.1

       24 August 2021 at 12:58 pm

       https://thestandard.org.nz/china-reports-zero-local-symptomatic-covid-19-cases-for-first-time-in-weeks/#comment-1811090

       Here's a few more:

       https://www.livemint.com/news/world/china-continues-to-deceive-about-covid-19-outbreak-say-experts-11612656469297.html

       https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/wuhan-lab-coronavirus-leak-world-health-organization-biden-20210805.html

       https://www.timesofisrael.com/china-wasnt-alone-but-it-took-lead-role-spreading-lies-about-covids-origins/

       https://www.itv.com/news/2021-01-18/wuhan-medics-undercover-we-were-told-to-lie-about-covid-19-outbreak

       That's just a few.
       • Brigid 3.2.1.1

         24 August 2021 at 7:58 pm

         I'm not sure why you've linked to Mike's article because it's the only place any link is offered that reports from China.

         You've offered nothing but msm fiction e.g. "Professor Stanley Rosen told Fox News"

         How can you be so gullible?
         • Gypsy 3.2.1.1.1

           25 August 2021 at 10:38 am

           Professor Stanley Rosen:

           "China is very opaque when it comes to transparency, so it's always hard to know how accurate their reported statistical data is, and there seems to be little question that when Covid first broke out in Wuhan, and for a considerable time afterwards, the number of deaths from Covid was seriously underreported," he said.

           Dr Stephen E. Hawes, the chair of the University of Washington's epidemiology department expressed that China was "rightfully criticized for withholding information globally" early on in the pandemic "and also for suppressing information and being slow to respond to the outbreak within China."

           Now a new study of Chinese medical, media and bureaucratic reports points to a massive cover-up of the outbreak's severity. A new study accuses Beijing's reported number of infections and deaths from the pandemic of lacking any credibility. And that will have had a severe impact on how the world responded to the outbreak.

           Amid all the confusion, it became clear that one man's voice had been silenced where it shouldn't have been. Li Wenliang has become known internationally as the "whistleblower" doctor who tried to warn colleagues about a Sars-like virus. Dr Li died on 7 February after it came to light that he had been investigated for "disturbing social order" by "making false comments".

           The Committee to Protect Journalists notes that in Wuhan, the authorities "arrested several journalists for coverage that threatened the official narrative of Beijing's response". CPJ says three are still in prison. And given YouTube is blocked in China, few in the country know of their impact.

           Chinese medics have been filmed undercover for the first time admitting they realised coronavirus could be transmitted between humans but were told by the government to keep quiet

           Yep, they've lied all right, pretty much from the outset. And they have suppressed their lies with the brutal application of a state apparatus that is pervasive and a threat to not just the people of the PRC but the rest of the world.
   • Unicus 3.3

     25 August 2021 at 9:16 pm

     All MS needs to do is convince the remaining 99.9% of the worlds population who think the Chinese government are a pack of cynical liars
4. Ad 4

   24 August 2021 at 11:31 am

   Each country, with each national pandemic response different, is ranked according to the success of their response here:

   https://www.endcoronavirus.org/countries
   • Drowsy M. Kram 4.1

     24 August 2021 at 12:13 pm

     Interesting link – thanks Ad. I wasn't a fan of Sweden's Covid-19 pandemic strategy, but they're now in the "Countries that are nearly there" group, whereas Denmark, Finland and Norway are all in the "Countries that need to take action" category.

     Interesting too that Peru, the country that has by far the highest official number of Covid-19 deaths per million (5,908 deaths per million, i.e. ~0.6% of the population), is currently in the "Countries that are nearly there" group.

     What group a country is in will change over time. It's up to NZers whether NZ moves from the "Countries beating Covid-19" group to join Australia in the "Countries that need to take action" category.

     Unite against COVID-19
     https://covid19.govt.nz/
   • francesca 4.2

     24 August 2021 at 12:15 pm

     How is it that China, with 35 new cases,is one of those countries that are almost there trailing behind NZ (winning)with 15 new cases, and where China has fewer overall cases than NZ?
     Worldometer numbers so not strictly accurate for today

     And where the population numbers are so vastly different.(China being the most populous country in the world)

     China has 3 deaths per million , whereas NZ has 5
     • Ad 4.2.1

       24 August 2021 at 12:20 pm

       Rather points to the foolishness of holding up China as any kind of useful comparator to New Zealand's situation, doesn't it.
       • francesca 4.2.1.1

         24 August 2021 at 12:40 pm

         I dunno , the four earlies look like a good strategy for anywhere, plus an efficient vaccine rollout.
         We do well to learn from others’ success.
         • Ad 4.2.1.1.1

           24 August 2021 at 12:45 pm

           Our strategy looks better, and with better results.
           • francesca 4.2.1.1.1.1

             24 August 2021 at 1:19 pm

             Yeah?

             We have a higher per capita rate of death
             • Ad …

               24 August 2021 at 1:39 pm

               A pretty meaningless comparison given New Zealand's population fits into that of China 260 times, with vast differences in background population morbidity.

               How many days has China been without Covid19 infection since January 2020, when compared to New Zealand? That's the obvious inference of the post.
               • francesca …

                 24 August 2021 at 2:24 pm

                 I'm more interested on how each hotspot in such a vast country responds to each outbreak

                 I'm interested in their strategies, and their results.

                 Given their population and their geography, I'm not surprised they have localised outbreaks and localised lockdowns

                 They've had amazing success in containing and dealing with those outbreaks

                 Being so huge population wise and geographically with 14 bordering countries is not an advantage when dealing with covid

                 All credit to them
                 • Ad …

                   24 August 2021 at 3:22 pm

                   Except for China not containing and dealing with the outbreak that caused the entire global pandemic in the first place.
                   • Brigid …

                     24 August 2021 at 8:09 pm

                     Let us refer back to the original argument and see what the Lancet says

                     "In a press conference in September, Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, offered “deepest congratulations…to the front-line health workers in China and the population who worked together tirelessly to bring the disease to this very low level”."

                     As far as containing and dealing with the outbreak,

                     "“The speed of China's response was the crucial factor”, explains Gregory Poland, director of the Vaccine Research Group at the Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota, USA). “They moved very quickly to stop transmission. Other countries, even though they had much longer to prepare for the arrival of the virus, delayed their response and that meant they lost control”. "

                     https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30800-8/fulltext
   • McFlock 4.3

     24 August 2021 at 2:22 pm

     At almost a thousand new cases a day for Sweden being "almost there", that site is a study in why charts need labelled axes.
5. Byd0nz 5

   24 August 2021 at 11:42 am

   I know people are sceptical about China with their anti bias, but China can beat it by paying the peoples expenses in lockdown and providing them with food just as a good Communist Country can do , definately not like fend for yourself Capitalists. Nothing wrong with benign authoritarianism. Suck it up.
   • Ad 5.1

     24 August 2021 at 12:18 pm

     Ahh the foolish left who just beg for 'benign authoritarianism'.

     Which rights under New Zealand’s Bill of Rights would you surrender to be more like China, and please be specific? Just cross off those ones you don't like which are specified in our Bill of Rights:

     • The right not to be deprived of life
     • The right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, degrading or disproportionately severe punishment
     • The right not to be subjected to medical or scientific experimentation without consent
     • The right to refuse any medical treatment
     • Democratic and civil rights including the right to vote, right to be elected
     • Freedom of thought, conscience and religion and adopt opinions without interference. That also goes for religious belief.
     • The right of peaceful assembly. The right of association. The right to freedom of movement and residence in New Zealand. The right to leave New Zealand.
     • The right against unreasonable search and seizure, the ability to instruct a lawyer, and the right to have the validity of your arrest tested without delay.
     • When deprived of liberty, the right to be treated with humanity and respect for inherent human dignity.
     • Whole bunches of rights that ensure a fair trial.
     • A whole independent state funded entity who will stand up to defend your human rights.
     • Byd0nz 5.1.1

       24 August 2021 at 12:25 pm

       Where's the right not to be exploited by corrupt capitalists including the right not to be used by 5 eyes and American bullyism
       • Ad 5.1.1.1

         24 August 2021 at 12:49 pm

         Almost none of the human rights we enjoy are available in China.

         Now, I know you're up for the mental challenge you've been set.

         Get your red marker pen out and cross the ones you want out.
         • Byd0nz 5.1.1.1.1

           24 August 2021 at 1:39 pm

           You just stick to your anti Communist stance. I will always support Marxist/ leninist Communism. China may have wandered away from that for now but eventually may return, but even China today is way ahead of any Capitalist multi party/ one system state of exploitation, like I said, suck it up, case closed.
           • Ad 5.1.1.1.1.1

             24 August 2021 at 1:40 pm

             If you are living in New Zealand and are not prepared to show which human rights you would sacrifice to sustain your ideology, then you are simply a coward.
             • Byd0nz …

               24 August 2021 at 2:07 pm

               No need Marxist/Leninist has all those and more. You call me coward, I call you Dickhead. Who will get moderated?
               • Ad …

                 24 August 2021 at 3:17 pm

                 Let's see.

                 45 million dead from Chinese Communist Party resource direction. All painfully documented over many years.

                 https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/sep/05/maos-great-famine-dikotter-review

                 要完成计划，就要大减项目。1078个项目中还应该坚决地再削减，削减500个。平均使用力量是破坏大跃进的办法。大家吃不饱，大家死，不如死一半，另一半人吃饱。

                 To complete the plan, we need to drastically cut projects. The (existing) 1,078 projects should be further, determinedly cut, by another 500. Using our power (resources) averagely is a way to sabotage the Great Leap Forward. “When there is not enough to eat, people starve to death. It is better to let half the people die so that others can eat their fill.”
               • weka …

                 24 August 2021 at 4:18 pm

                 You call me coward, I call you Dickhead. Who will get moderated?

                 You will. Ad's an author, different rules apply. Whereas a commenter calling an author a dickhead will get moderation attention because it looks like flaming and that leads to us having to waste our time sorting it out. If you think Ad's argument is that of a dickhead explain how it is.
                 • Byd0nz …

                   24 August 2021 at 6:12 pm

                   Very democrapit
                   Ad is sucked in by western
                   Anti China propaganda which can be refuted if you bother to look at an opposite point of view, which he doesn’t, makes him a dickhead.
                   • Incognito …

                     24 August 2021 at 10:28 pm

                     Very democrapit

                     Wrong tree.

                     Maybe a good time to re-acquaint yourself with About (https://thestandard.org.nz/about/) and Policy (https://thestandard.org.nz/policy/).
           • Gabby 5.1.1.1.1.2

             24 August 2021 at 2:19 pm

             Always?

             Ok..
         • Chris 5.1.1.1.2

           25 August 2021 at 12:16 am

           As soon as NZBORA was passed the Crown set out to obliterate its application by vigourously defending breaches in the courts. Geoffrey Palmer's White Paper recommended an entrenched BOR and system of supreme law, but we ended up with a half-arsed piece of standard legislation that allowed the government to take regular swings at through strong advocacy from the biggest and most resourced law firm in the country, not to mention NZ being so small that all those fuckers from crown law, the judiciary and the politicians would hang together at the Wellington Club deciding cases the night before. NZBORA was held out as our great protector against the excesses of the State. The reality is that governments would see it as the rogues' charter and so take every opportunity to cut it to pieces. As soon as Lord Cooke of Thorndon left the scene it became the wild west. People think NZ's this wonderful example of a country embracing concepts of democratic freedoms and protections. Sure, the Act's still there, but governments, with the help of the judiciary, have dealt to it so badly it's barely recognisable today.
     • Brigid 5.1.2

       24 August 2021 at 12:48 pm

       As for being specific, could you quote (with credible links) which of these rights Chinese are denied?
       • Ad 5.1.2.1

         24 August 2021 at 1:30 pm

         It’s a remarkably similar question to those lefties in the early 1950s who continued to support Soviet Russia after Khruschev denounced Stalin, and all the frank evidence of starvation, massacres, brutal camps and liquidation of human rights went on there.

         You get a pretty good comparison of how much better our western human rights protections are from China, through their fast and resolute removal Hong Kong over the last 24 months, with the law set out here:

         https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/30/controversial-hong-kong-national-security-law-comes-into-effect

         and the violations detailed here – as well as in every non state-controlled media outlet for multiple years:

         https://www.cecc.gov/publications/commission-analysis/rapid-deterioration-of-human-rights-in-hong-kong-after-passage-of

         Go through those step by step and see how we compare.

         You can check out their crimes against human rights in multiple editions of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International which publish annual reports on China. You can look those up for yourselves.

         These and hundreds more reports are simply detailed in the footnotes here:

         https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_China

         Bunches more are detailed in the Journal of Health and Human Rights:

         https://www.hhrjournal.org/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwjo2JBhCRARIsAFG667XZxoarER4k7fo6W1vlOEb_UTEz9XRImX8h1Ajgolg85RKA9AuP-ycaAmJPEALw_wcB

         And you can see the alternative history of what could have happened, if you read the memoirs of Zhao Ziyang who was the senior CCP leader meeting with the Tianenmen students:

         https://foreignpolicy.com/2009/05/28/an-alternative-history-of-china/

         Instead we have this, the worst period for human rights in mainland China since the Tianenmen massacre.
         • Brigid 5.1.2.1.1

           24 August 2021 at 8:11 pm

           I said credible.
           • Ad 5.1.2.1.1.1

             24 August 2021 at 8:44 pm

             If you have that level of catatonic laziness you should just stop commenting.
             • Brigid …

               24 August 2021 at 9:10 pm

               And when you find you can only resort to attempted insults it's time you went to bed.
               • Drowsy M. Kram …

                 24 August 2021 at 10:13 pm

                 Brigid, Ad has misspelled Tiananmen, but he's no 'massacre denier'.

                 There is “credible” evidence that a state-sanctioned massacre of Chinese citizens occured in response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Your " There was no 'massacre' " stance/belief undermines your credibility – don't understand why you have this blind spot. Absent evidence for no 'massacre', we can agree to disagree.

                 A massacre is the killing of multiple individuals and is usually considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when perpetrated by a group of political actors against defenseless victims. The word is a loan of a French term for "butchery" or "carnage".

                 The 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
                 The protests started on April 15 and were forcibly suppressed on June 4 when the government declared martial law and sent the People's Liberation Army to occupy parts of central Beijing. Estimates of the death toll vary from several hundred to several thousand, with thousands more wounded.

                 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_events_named_massacres
6. dv 6

   24 August 2021 at 11:46 am

   Apparently 34 cases yesterday Stunning.
   • Ad 6.1

     24 August 2021 at 1:51 pm

     41.

     https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-41-new-community-cases-total-now-148/OTY5RC4RPD4XKPC45LMYEBPAS4/
     • dv 6.1.1

       24 August 2021 at 7:36 pm

       Sorry Ad that 34 was for china, not nz

       https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries
   • Incognito 6.2

     24 August 2021 at 7:52 pm

     I love this graph! One image can speak volumes.

     

     https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/full-list-total-tests-for-covid-19?country=NZL~CHN
     • dv 6.2.1

       24 August 2021 at 8:02 pm

       
7. Jenny how to get there 7

   24 August 2021 at 1:18 pm

   From the earliest days when Mandarin speakers with an ear to Chinese social media, heeded the warnings of Mainland whistle blowers like Dr Li Wenliang, at a time when China was still trying to ignore and suppress all news of the outbreak.
   If there is one country that takes the virus seriously, (other than China)*, it is Taiwan.

   Taiwan's President kicks off rollout of island's first domestically produced Covid-19 vaccine

   

   

   By Ben Westcott and Eric Cheung – CNN, August 23, 2021

   ……Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen received her first shot of the island's homegrown Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, a public show of support for the new drug which is central to plans for inoculation self sufficiency amid low immunization rates and struggles to obtain vaccines from overseas.

   Monday's island-wide rollout of the Medigen Covid-19 vaccine, developed by Taipei-based Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corporation, comes after the drug was approved for emergency use last month by Taiwanese authorities for anyone above 20 years old, with at least 28 days between the two doses.

   The vaccine has yet to complete phase 3 clinical trials and no efficacy data is available……

   https://edition.cnn.com/2021/08/23/asia/tsai-ing-wen-covid-vaccine-taiwan-intl-hnk/index.html?

   *(which only began acting after whistle blowers like, Li Wenliang exposed and embarrassed the communist authorities, paying the ulttimate price, for his courageous stand.)
8. barry 8

   24 August 2021 at 3:04 pm

   Yes, you can follow the daily numbers published on the Chinese NHC site

   http://www.nhc.gov.cn/xcs/yqfkdt/gzbd_index.shtml

   Remember, they only report symptomatic cases (so not directly comparable to our numbers). There was a new case yesterday in Henan 本土病例1例（在河南）after no local cases nationwide the previous day. They still have some time to go, before they can consider themselves out of the woods.

   It has been a huge effort, involving lockdowns and mass testing. It was the worst outbreak since early last year and spread to many cities.

   From that, and also from the effort expended in Taiwan we know that squashing this outbreak is possible but it won't be easy.

   New Zealand can't follow exactly China's model (or Taiwan's). There is good reason to expect that our level 4 settings along with our beefed up testing and tracing capability will work well, and we should see the numbers peak this week.
9. pat 9

   25 August 2021 at 6:30 pm

   "And just as the Ningbo container terminal re-opens fully after a pandemic shutdown, Shanghai's main airport is closing for the same pandemic-exposure reasons. This too will roil cargo freight to and from China, although there are plenty of alternatives. And there seems to be no end in sight for the cost of shipping."

   https://www.interest.co.nz/news/111913/world-trade-record-levels-us-factory-prices-inflate-higher-commodity-prices-turn-back

   Pays not to get ahead of yourself….the situation is fluid

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