People-first pandemic policy tried and proved: China Daily editorial

The dynamic clearing policy China has adopted is a scientific approach to fighting the novel coronavirus that is in line with its national conditions.

With the largest senior citizen population in the world and a sizable number of people with chronic underlying diseases, such as hypertension and diabetes, China's public health system would face unbearable pressure from a nationwide outbreak of the virus.

In other words, those calling for a change to the policy never bother to think about the death toll that would be the membership price for joining the "herd immunity" club.

Even though the mortality rate of the Omicron variant of the virus is lower than that of the Delta variant, given the Omicron strain is more contagious, which means a larger base of infections if its transmission is not curbed, the overall deaths caused by it will be more than that by the Delta variant, particularly among the elderly who have not been vaccinated, as the experience of some places shows.

That Shanghai has reported more than 200,000 cases, since the flare-up of the virus one month ago, and is yet to see infections peak, is a grave reminder to the country that the fight against the virus remains tough.

Therefore, it is irresponsible for some Western politicians to compare infections of the Omicron variant to a "flu plus", because it is not supported by any scientific evidence, and basically out of the need of covering up their failure in responding to it.

Although the Omicron variant is much more infectious, as some places have demonstrated, as long as the epidemic prevention and control measures that have proved effective in containing the Delta variant are applied in a timely and strict manner to nip any emergence in the bud, both the peak and duration of the Omicron infections in a certain locality can be controlled.

The tightening up of the virus control measures in some developed countries shows that their "co-existence" with the virus was by no means a choice but a fait accompli as a result of their earlier ineffectual responses to the virus.

In contrast, China has done a great job in making the best of what it has to protect its most vulnerable people from the virus.

People-centered and life-first, the dynamic clearing policy is something that the nation should take pride in, as it enables it to take full advantage of its institutional strengths to protect people from the virus at the minimum cost to socioeconomic development.