And yet the logic is inescapable: At some point the risk must be taken because there’s no other way to escape the zero-Covid trap. Add the fact that vaccine protection wanes, and the question pointedly becomes, “If not now, when?” Is Beijing holding out for the day when 1.4 billion Chinese can be hooked up to a continuous vaccine drip?

By every report, Shanghai healthcare is already strained by a government requirement that anyone testing positive and their close contacts be hospitalized or, more recently, placed in a special quarantine facility staffed with doctors and nurses. Exhausted medics are standing guard over tens of thousands of healthy patients who have nothing to do but share their aggravation on social media.

Another problem has finally begun sneaking out of the corner of Chinese officials’ mouths: 24 months of zero-Covid propaganda has caused millions of Chinese not only to exaggerate Covid’s deadliness, but to be on the edge of panic about potential lockdowns, having heard repeated reports of hunger, missed medical treatments and the inability to bring help to loved ones.