• cfgaussian
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    9 months ago

    Well yes, of course one of the main reason that the West opted to focus heavily on vaccines instead of lockdowns was to get people back to work as soon as possible. All part and parcel of the logic of capitalism. China was able to take its time in not just developing their vaccine but in building up the confidence of the people in their efficacy, because their lockdowns and vigilant zero Covid policy greatly delayed the point at which the infection would start to run its course through the population. By that point most people were already vaccinated, the disease was much better understood, and better treatments and therapeutics had been developed. Every additional day that China waited before they opened up literally saved lives. Under capitalism this could never have been done because “muh economy”. China knowingly sacrificed economic growth for the sake of saving millions of lives. And despite the apocalyptic predictions of western analysts that China would never recover from the economic consequences of zero Covid, they not only did not economically collapse but are now on track to make up all the growth they missed out on and more since they did not let millions of workers die as a capitalist government would have.