For almost three years, China followed a tough, zero-COVID policy to try to control the

pandemic.

New COVID outbreaks in China have forced 65 million people back into lockdown.

Stores and restaurants that have had just one confirmed case pass through are treated

like a crime scene, roped off and disinfected.

As recently as two months ago, Chinese officials were still stressing the need to keep these strict

policies in place.

If we relax and stop following the dynamic zero-COVID policy, it will inevitably lead to mass

infection.

That's Liang Wan-Yan, one of China's top epidemiologists and an architect of the zero-COVID

policy.

At a press conference in October, he warned that Omicron variants were causing high-access

death rates worldwide and could threaten vulnerable populations in China if strict controls

were lifted.

And that is something we cannot tolerate.

But then things changed.

There was a wave of street protests all over China calling for the government to ease COVID

controls.

Some demonstrators were also openly critical of the ruling Communist Party, a few even

shouted demands for President Xi Jinping to step down.

Just then two weeks later, the government dramatically eased COVID controls.

And now, Liang Wan-Yan is talking about the virus in a different way.

...