COVID IS OVER

We’re not supposed to say “COVID is over,” but that’s about all there is to say when India’s latest breakout has almost nobody getting sick and doctors call it “no cause for concern.”

Caseloads in the major city of Mumbai more than quadrupled in recent weeks, from 300 per month to nearly 400 each week. Despite the increase, “A lone death was reported in Gondhia,” according to The Times of India.

Dr Pradeep Awate told the paper, “Data from genome sequencing shows there is no new variant in circulation and only Omicron’s sub lineages are present in India.”

The city’s positive test rate is only 1%, but they aren’t enforcing a universal testing regime as China has done. Between that and 95% of the known positives showing zero symptoms, it’s likely that Mumbai’s actual infection rate is much higher than just 1%.

It isn’t like India has gotten off easy to date. The world’s most populous country has also suffered the third-largest death toll, behind the U.S. and Brazil. Plenty of sunshine, a younger population, and low obesity rates apparently are better indicators for COVID survival than first-world medical systems are.

Mumbai is not under any kind of lockdown, nor have authorities warned that one might be coming.

Meanwhile, in China, the Communist country’s chief financial, commercial, and shipping hub will remain under lockdown until COVID is “eradicated.”

EFE reported on Friday that Shanghai authorities announced that the city’s “battle against Covid-19 has entered a key phase of stamping out viral infections within residential communities.”

Shanghai’s lockdown is now in its second month, with some distressed and starving residents hurling themselves off of high-rise balconies rather than suffer the lockdown any longer.

Official death tally in Shanghai’s recent breakout? Eleven. Also according to the official numbers, a similar percentage of the infected are completely asymptomatic.

Both the Indian and Chinese COVID vaccines have performed worse than Western vaccines.

There’s a small number of deaths in both Mumbai and Shanghai and massive numbers of “sick” people in both countries who don’t have so much as a sniffle.

And yet…

The people of Mumbai are going about their business, while Shanghai is locked down, causing more supply chain disruptions and at great cost to China’s economy.

Why the massive discrepancy?

If I had to guess, it’s this: India’s government is freely elected and is at least somewhat responsive to voter concerns. Also, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi didn’t stake his and his country’s reputation on a special “Indian way” of completely defeating the COVID virus.

Communist China is ruled by one man, strongman Xi Jinping, who answers to no one, but who did stake his and his country’s reputation on a special “Chinese way” of completely defeating the COVID virus.

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