mandag 11. april 2022

Public anger grows in China over 'Cultural Revolution-style' disease prevention

Public criticism is growing in China of the authorities' Cultural Revolution-style anti-COVID-19 campaigns after a doctor took his own life over a hospital outbreak and officials killed pets whose owners tested positive for the virus. While most criticism or negative news about the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s zero-COVID policy is swiftly removed by internet censors, reports have surfaced in recent days that Shi Jun, head of neurosurgery at the Jidong County People's Hospital in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang, died by suicide after being arrested and interrogated by police in connection with a COVID-19 outbreak at his hospital.

The outbreak was started by a woman who used her mother's PCR test result to gain admission to the hospital for brain surgery, but who passed the virus on to other patients, causing an outbreak that led to a county-wide lockdown and billions of yuan in economic losses, according to local media reports.