The real question is not why China is the “Last ‘Zero Covid’ holdout,” but why other governments have pursued murderous policies that continue to cause infections and deaths on a mass scale.
Zero Covid is ideal, but is sadly pretty doomed in a world with such inequality to the point where millions, even billions, don’t have access to basic needs. It’s essentially a universal response in order to be effective. And people like Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson state “it is not possible” when New Zealand’s strategy, for example, was not only possible but actually more friendly to capitalist economics long-term, ironically. I think some of the rhetoric from Johnson et al, then, is probably more based on Social Darwinist ideology.
Zero Covid is ideal, but is sadly pretty doomed in a world with such inequality to the point where millions, even billions, don’t have access to basic needs. It’s essentially a universal response in order to be effective. And people like Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson state “it is not possible” when New Zealand’s strategy, for example, was not only possible but actually more friendly to capitalist economics long-term, ironically. I think some of the rhetoric from Johnson et al, then, is probably more based on Social Darwinist ideology.