Your trolling persistence is impressive. But you still know nothing about China or life in China under Covid, while the articles you cite are often alarmist and/or misleading.
Ready for some help?Buy Advil at the corner store? The cops know instantly, the "residential committee" will give you a courtesy call, and you may has well march straight into isolation.
Impressive how everything you wrote is wrong:
1) Advil isn't sold here. Tylenol is. Even my Chinese doctor friends have never heard of Advil.
2) The police have nothing to do with this. The gov't knows who buys Tylenol, because while it's OTC, you need to show your ID card/passport and the purchase is entered into the system (with name, phone number, ID #).
3) you can walk straight to any hospital or clinic or probably the neighborhood committee itself and get tested for free. The idea is to encourage people with possible fevers to get CV tested.
Not sure if one negative result restores your green health code status. The reporter is mildly alarmist about people losing their green status, but doesn't bother to explain how easy/difficult restoration is. It might take just a couple hours.
Also, pressuring cold medicine buyers to get tested is an extra measure being applied in Beijing, as BJ deals with both the Olympics and a minor outbreak (40+ cases). So this might apply to 20M people in one city, and affect a somewhat small subset thereof, but isn't national policy.
Days after buying over-the-counter medicine from a pharmacy in Beijing, university student Yu was stunned to find her prized green health code -- the essential rating needed to enter the city's shops, offices and public transport -- was gone.
Health-tracking apps are now required for entry almost everywhere, including offices, transport stations, stores, malls and taxis.
Without it, normal life grinds to a halt.
This is what I mean by misleading. The writer should make it clear that that is strictly a new and likely temporary Beijing policy, which is now extra-stringent during the Olympics (and a minor outbreak of a few dozen cases). In Shanghai, the green health code is only needed to enter gov't buildings. The only time I ever use it is to enter the (gov't) hospital grounds. The subway, office buildings, taxis, stores, bars, etc. don't require a health code.
Bottom line: for 1.3B in China, life is CV-free and close to normal. To maintain that, a few border towns face repeated lockdowns, Xi'an got locked down for 2 weeks, mass testing is implemented when mini-outbreaks occur; Beijing locked down a few neighborhoods, apparently is relying on health codes more, and now is pressuring cold medicine purchasers to get tested.
Maintaining a CV-free environment is not easy, and there will be some inconvenience and hardships, but it's certainly way way better than a million dead and tens of million sickened, the health care system overwhelmed, people's lives disrupted for years, and living with daily fear. I'm unvaccinated and usually mask free (I wear it when required or the rare occasions everybody else is wearing one) and go out in public without worry. Wish others had those same options, freedom and peace of mind.
Poll
