On Saturday, a call between an official at Shanghai’s Center for Disease Control and a city resident went viral, as both exasperated parties lamented the lack of medical resources and the opacity of testing and isolation procedures.
“I’ll tell you for a fact right now: Hospitals are very strained, isolation facilities have no rooms, 120 [the emergency telephone number] has no ambulances,” the official said to the caller, who had complained about a discrepancy in his father’s latest COVID test, among other grievances.
The CDC employee said she had repeatedly told superiors to allow those with mild symptoms to quarantine at home, to no avail. The virus had become politicized, and leaders weren’t listening to reason, she added. “We are all in total despair.”
The caller, who confessed to recording the conversation halfway through, asked what could be done without a way to reach decision-makers or express complaints. Laughing, the official suggested he post the recording online.
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