Hello, welcome and thanks for downloading the More or Less Podcast.

We focus on numbers in the news or elsewhere in everyday life that ear stick out like

soren and throbbing thumbs or they hide, hoping to go unknowst.

This week, many believe it's more the former than the latter.

China.

Since the pandemic took hold, the government there imposed a zero COVID policy that aimed

to contain the virus through mass testing and strict lockdowns.

But in early December amidst widespread public protests and the spread of the Omicron variant

to more than 200 cities, those draconian highly restrictive measures were scrapped almost

entirely.

For the first time in just under two years, the majority of the countries near one and

a half billion citizens were free to meet, mixed to mingle, where they pleased.

Figuring what experts believe is a gargantuan exit wave of COVID infections and related deaths.

But as a so often the case with Chinese data, it's been well, you know, difficult to confirm.

We still do not have complete data.

We believe that the current numbers being published from China under represents the true

impact of the disease in terms of hospital admissions, in terms of ICU admissions, particularly

in terms of deaths.

That's the World Health Organization's executive director for health emergencies, Dr. Michael

Ryan speaking at a virtual press conference this week.

Since China's zero COVID policy came to an abrupt halt, authorities there reporting

five or fewer deaths a day, but Dr. Ryan and many other experts believe the real number

...