I lived through this (I live in Wuhan). The scale of the logistical operation to keep a city of 11 million people alive during a two-month lockdown is mind-boggling. And yet on top of that not only did they manage to do this for us, they also built two purpose-made hospitals in a matter of days: Huoshenshan (1000 beds, Jan23-Feb02) and Leishenshan (1500 beds, Jan25-Feb06) not to mention sixteen further treatment centres around the city.
You want jaw-dropping? Here’s time lapse of (I think) Huoshenshan being constructed over ten days: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJUaq6XhdLs
Another video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53nhErXUd9A
But at what cost?
Won’t somebody think of the lost profits when people are cured faster!
A far lower cost than the alternative.
China currently has a cumulative death rate for COVID-19 of ±3.21 deaths per million population. The world’s aggregate death rate is ±722 per million (roughly 225×). North America and Europe are almost tied with North America’s death rate ±2180 per million (679×).
China’s current death toll to COVID-19 is 4636. If they had gone the world aggregate route, that number would be ±1.04 million dead. If they had gone the European/North American route that would be ±3.15 million dead.
So at what cost? Three million fewer dead (plus change) than if they’d been as brain-damaged as the west.
