How badly could this go wrong in a country that has experienced impressively few Covid deaths? Omicron is believed to produce milder disease but a billion-plus Chinese presumably lack any of the natural immunity Western populations enjoy. Their government hasn’t allowed them to benefit from Western mRNA vaccines. Recall the catastrophic rampage of Delta through India last year, a country with similarly dense cities and similarly spartan healthcare, but whose population is 10 years younger than China’s (the Chinese age structure is similar to the U.S. in percentage of vulnerable older people).

Naturally, the Communist Party won’t let anything like India’s disaster happen, but the only seeming alternative is ever more stringent, oppressive attempts to suppress outbreaks while racing belatedly to fix its vaccine problems and bring its healthcare up to snuff. Shanghai, with 26 million people, was recently warned by a leading virologist to prepare for “hundreds” of cases. This won’t cut it. Propaganda is revving up again on the benefits of traditional cures. This won’t cut it either.