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For all intents and purposes, the Chinese government is sticking to its covid policy Abroad | DR It affects the health care system, the economy and the mental health of citizens. For the past two years, the Chinese have been able to look out for a pandemic ravaged in relative security behind closed borders. Now the situation is turned upside down. While the vast majority of countries have chosen to live fairly normal lives with the virus, the Chinese are sticking to their zero-covid policy. Several million cities have been closed for weeks or months since the start of 2022. In Shanghai, the majority of the city's 26 million are locked up in the seventh week without clarity as to when they may come out.The Chinese zero-covid strategy promises no more than the name implies: The limit of covid-19 in China is zero. The balance between fighting covid, public health, the economy and living life is falling out in favor of fighting covid. beds are significantly lower than what is seen in Europe. Another part is that among the 60-year-olds in is only 60 percent, while under 40 percent has been boosted. The Chinese are close to ineffective against omikron if one has not got his booster. This kind of lockdown leads to an increase in depression and anxiety symptoms among the inmates, and it is combined with strong feelings of anger and frustration over being in this situationBrian J. Hall, professor.The low vaccination rates among the elderly are, among other things, a result of the Chinese approach to vaccination, which was reversed by, for example, the Danish one. It started with young men, including soldiers, and then stabbed younger civilians and eventually the old ones. China was for a long time far ahead in the absolute vaccine race, but has been successful in getting needles in the arms of older people three times, and because it started so well that in 2021, large parts of it are now "old vaccinated", which means that they are no longer effective. , Tedros Ghebreyesus, to criticize the Chinese authorities: - We do not believe that the zero-covid strategy is sustainable given the virus. With what we know about the virus now, and with the tools we have at our disposal, it is important to change strategy, Tedros Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday. Michael Ryan, CEO, added that virus control must respect the rights of the individual. a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry again by calling's comments "irresponsible", and he asked "relevant people to assess China's antivirus policy rationally and objectively." Flemming Konradsen can assess the Chinese strategy rationally and objectively in his role as professor in global health at the University of Copenhagen and scientific director of global health at the Novo Nordisk Foundation, and he is also critical: - We in China have reached a level where the negative health consequences of this closure far, far exceed the gain, he says. resources used by health authorities to combat the relatively mild omicron variant are being withdrawn from sites that were supposed to monitor other diseases, explains Flemming Konradsen.- How many have had their blood pressure measured, how many have been screened for diabetes or cancer? What we have seen around the world is that when you shut down in this way, we see large decreases in how many are examined, says Flemming Konradsen. People are diagnosed with cancer too late, they die of high blood pressure, pregnant women become not studied, sexually transmitted diseases do not become premature and become a problem for fertility. These are just some of the consequences of month-long shutdowns, explains Flemming Konradsen. Other negative consequences can be found inside people's heads, which Professor Brian J. Hall has researched at New York University Shanghai in his role as director of the university's mental research group.- This kind of lockdown leads to an increase in depression and anxiety symptoms among the inmates, and it is combined with strong feelings of anger and frustration over being in this situation, says Brian J. Hall from his home in Shanghai.A source of those feelings is the uncertainty and uncertainty about the way in which Shanghai has been shut down. Originally, the shutdown should have lasted four to five days, but the inhabitants are now imprisoned on day 43 without certainty when they will come out. - Our hypothesis is that the longer this lockdown lasts, the stronger the symptoms, says Hall.Oveni the uncertainty about duration also comes from the frequent changes in the policy pursued. In Shanghai, this has meant that green fences have been used to lock people in, and food supplies have been banned, allowed, and then banned again. That approach, combined with rumors about what will or will not happen in the future, is an increased psychological pressure, Hall explains. - People get caught in this spiral of negativity and think about the worst places. It is amplified because people sit at home and spend an enormous amount of time on social, where negative news lives long lives, says Hall. "Catastrophizing" reality, he calls it. It particularly affects younger men and women, according to Hall's research. A light in the mental darkness may be that people are tremendously good at adapting to new situations. Both being imprisoned for seven weeks, but just as much when the situation changes and Shanghai may one day be allowed to go out again.