COVID-19 ⁽⁷²⁾

As outbreaks in Shanghai and Beijing come under control, the hardest days of this year are behind us. Universal routine nucleic-acid testing should, for a long time to come, effectively contain large-scale spread of COVID variants within China, although small local outbreaks will keep recurring.

This wave of Beijing's epidemic has lasted a full month with no improvement; if anything, the situation has worsened. My district, Haidian, has entered full-district home-office upgraded controls. After a month of this, I am tired—not just everyone else, but I myself. My son has…

This wave of Beijing's outbreak has lasted nearly a month, and new cases in recent days are actually higher than they were twenty days ago. Fengtai was placed under upgraded controls yesterday; today Haidian joined in. Together with Chaoyang, Tongzhou, Fangshan, and Shunyi from earlier,…

Skills, knowledge, and organizations all change, but human vulnerability to disease does not. Infectious diseases, which existed before the first humans, will always be with humankind and, as ever, remain one of the basic parameters and determinants shaping human history. ——Adapted from William H. McNeill,…

When I got up this morning, I saw my son's homeroom teacher post a notice in the class group: in Haidian District, except for the few subdistricts and towns where cases have appeared, which still need continued testing over the next two days, daily testing…

Yesterday was the first day of universal nucleic acid testing for all residents across twelve districts of Beijing. This morning, before my result had even come out, I had to queue up to be tested again. What is the point of such testing? This shows…

As the climate warms, scientists have observed some animals migrating toward cooler regions. Continued temperature rises are forcing animals in tropical forests to seek new homes, and their first contact with other species will greatly raise the risk that humans contract new viruses and that…

Today I took the second round of citywide nucleic acid testing in Beijing's Haidian District since this outbreak. Before I took the first test the day before yesterday, my Beijing Health Kit showed that my last nucleic acid test had been more than 660 days…

At midnight last night, community workers knocked on our door to notify us of a citywide nucleic acid test today. This is the first time Beijing has conducted universal nucleic acid testing since the Wuhan outbreak, and it will be repeated three times in a…

Omicron is a watershed that divides the pandemic into two eras, before and after. Of course, some may feel this is not rigorous enough, but that is fine—time will prove it. No matter how unwilling humanity is, we now and in the future have to…