E-mail from China: COVID Costing US$28B/week In Lost GDP!

Lorimer Wilson May 11, 2022 1 Comment 378 Views

My business partner is working in China and corresponds with me regularly as to what is happening there with the COVID-19 resurgence and the impact the country’s zero-COVID policy is having on its citizens and its economy. Go here, here and here to read the previous 3 emails I have received from him in the last 6 weeks.

By Lorimer Wilson, Founder & Managing Editor of munKNEE.com and a frequent contributor to eResearch.com, usfinancepost.com, bitgrum.com and talkmarkets.com.

Hi Lorimer,

“China appears to be at a turning point. People in Shanghai and Beijing are holding their collective breath, not knowing what will happen next. Shanghai has gone into a “quiet period” and all residents have been told to remain in their homes and not to leave them and there is a total ban on all deliveries, groceries included.

On the positive side Tuesday’s COVID data shows a big drop. China splits its COVID reporting between symptomatic and asymptomatic cases with symptomatic cases dropping about 10% and asymptomatic cases by almost 50% – mostly reflected by improvements in Shanghai – suggesting that Shanghai will be able to proceed to re-open gradually once this quiet time has passed. The numbers for Beijing are also down substantially.

Hopefully, if the numbers continue to drop, China can begin to relax it’s lockdowns and partial lockdowns around the country and begin to return to some semblance of normalcy, but only time will tell. Currently, I have am required to do a PCR test (a nucleic acid test as China calls them) twice a week and that appears to be settling in as the new normal. It seems fairly consistent with those few people I have spoken to in other areas that are not in lockdown.

The logic for applying the zero-COVID policy is dumb! It is a policy that has outlived it’s usefulness and the lockdown is costing the country RMB 190 billion (US$28 billion) in lost GDP contributions per week and that’s before we consider how many people have died or had their health severely compromised by the inability to access regular health care over the past 6 weeks.

I just hope that somewhere someone in the Chinese government is actually planning how to exit zero-COVID, because every infectious disease expert around the world is saying COVID is not going to go away anytime soon.

That’s all for now. Until next time.”

Related e-mails from China:

1. Email From China: COVID-19 Lockdown In Shanghai China Further Exacerbating Supply Chain Issues Around the World

The proverbial…hit the fan here and it is going to result in reduced shipments out of China, further exacerbating supply chain issues around the world. In addition, the economic and social impact on China’s population is becoming severe. Here is what has been happening here for the past few days.

2. Email From China: COVID-19 Situation In Shanghai Could Be Catastrophic!

The next few weeks in China should be interesting: if a COVID-19 break-out occurs in mainland China like it already has in Hong Kong the effect could be catastrophic!

3. Reaction from China Regarding Their Zero-COVID Policy

If you were to translate the U.S. experience to China, it would have experienced around 5 million deaths instead of the few thousand they have seen without zero-COVID. From that viewpoint, zero-COVID has been a huge success.

Another Article From the munKNEE Vault:

Internet Censorship: Are Your Favorite Sites Being Blocked in China? Check it Out Here (+5K Views)

Many internet sites are censored (i.e. access is blocked) in mainland China and I have often wondered if munKNEE.com was one of them let alone all those other much more provocative sites out there. If you are curious as to whether or not any of the sites you visit are, in fact, censored in mainland China then check out the following site where you can find out immediately. Words: 1382

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E-mail from China: COVID Costing US$28B/week In Lost GDP!

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