Lying flat, dynamic clearing, different pandemic responses, different outcomes: China Daily editorial

With nearly 110,000 novel coronavirus infections reported each day on average over the past week in the United States, six times that of the same period last year, the once clamorous voices in the country ridiculing China's dynamic clearing policy as inhuman, unscientific and ineffectual have become muted, as it is the US' hands-off approach that fits these charges.

The cumulative number of novel coronavirus infections worldwide has hit 526 million, among which 6.29 million died of COVID-19, as of Tuesday, according to the World Health Organization. And the US, with less than 4 percent of the world's population, accounts for 16.3 percent of the cases and 16.4 percent of the deaths.

That means doing nothing with the excuse that herd immunity has been achieved is tantamount to surrendering the vulnerable, particularly the elderly with underlying diseases, and the low-income groups, to the virus. Which is also evidenced by the data.

These countries would never admit that their current appeasement policy has never been a matter of choice but something they do because of their earlier flawed responses to the virus.

By keeping their economies running at the cost of disadvantaged groups, the only choice they have made as a de facto response to the pandemic so far is to rob the poor and aged to aid the rich.

In contrast, although China's dynamic clearing policy seems to produce many unwelcome side effects, most of which are caused not by the policy itself but by it being carried out inappropriately, it has proved to be the most efficient policy to protect people's lives.

With nearly 20 percent of the world's population, the number of deaths in China attributable to COVID-19 accounts for only 0.08 percent of the world total so far, and its economy is once again running on the right track thanks to the reopening of temporarily locked down cities and the strong, targeted macro-control measures it has been taking.

In doing so, China has made indispensable contributions to the world's fight against the virus and maintaining the stability of the global supply chains.

The difference between the world's top two economies has been shown in their different responses to the pandemic. While the US has chosen to protect the rich and attack China, China has chosen to protect all its people and helped others as the largest source of vaccines to the world.

Although the worst of the outbreaks in many parts of China are over, China is well aware that it cannot afford to drop its guard.