An elderly resident receives a shot of COVID-19 vaccine at home during a medical service for senior citizens in Dongcheng District of Beijing, capital of China, May 10, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Zhonghao)
BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Life is returning to normal and mobility is rebounding as China's COVID-19 response has entered a new stage -- a boon for world economy.
However, some Western media ignore the facts, choosing instead to apply double standard and even spread misinformation, while making unwarranted accusations against China's epidemic fight, confusing the public and misleading the world as a consequence.
Some foreign media outlets claimed China's epidemic response was a failure. However, in the face of facts and data, their smearing reports are completely untenable.
During the past three years, China launched a war against COVID-19, effectively handled more than 100 cluster outbreaks, and protected the lives and health of more than 1.4 billion people to the greatest extent.
Every country would and should adjust its anti-COVID-19 policies according to the changing situation of the epidemic and go through periods of adaptation following such adjustments.
The pathogenicity and virulence of the Omicron strain have weakened significantly, while China's medical treatment, pathogen detection and vaccination levels have all improved significantly -- which means that it is indeed scientific, timely and necessary to proactively optimize anti-epidemic measures.
The elderly are the key population group being targeted by health services. During the battle in Wuhan in early 2020, medical workers cured more than 3,600 COVID-19 patients over the age of 80. In the past three years, a number of infected centenarians have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. Similar stories are still unfolding during this new wave of infections in China.
Tian, a 100-year-old woman from Hefei, Anhui Province, was diagnosed with novel coronavirus infection after she showed symptoms such as fever and coughing for three days, and was sent to the hospital by her family.
Her doctor said that fortunately, Tian had been vaccinated and showed no severe symptoms such as chest tightness and asthma, although she had some underlying health issues. After 11 days of treatment including anti-virus, anti-infection, improved immunity and nutritional support, she was discharged from the hospital.
An employee works at a clothing company in Nanchang, east China's Jiangxi Province, Jan. 4, 2023. With production lines humming and machines running in full swing, factories across China have resumed busy operations after the country's latest optimization of COVID-19 response and a series of measures to accelerate production resumption. (Xinhua/Zhou Mi)
China has managed to keep its severe cases and death rates of COVID-19 among the lowest in the world. Deliberately distorting the adjustment of China's anti-COVID-19 policies highlights the double standard and hypocrisy of some in the West. If China's COVID-19 response failed, what about some countries where the death toll far exceeds that of China? In fact, the label of failure should be attached to those countries whose incompetence, inaction and chaos in epidemic response had caused their people to suffer.
Striving to effectively coordinate the epidemic response with economic and social development, China had won the tough battle against poverty on schedule and finished building a moderately prosperous society in all respects, getting off to a good start in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), and the average life expectancy of Chinese people increased from 77.3 years to 78.2 years.
Some Western media rarely reflect profoundly on the chaotic COVID-19 situations in their own countries. But when it comes to China, they always hold a stereotypical view and focus only on finding fault, which underlines their attempt to distort, exaggerate and fabricate.
"In fact, China has innovated control methods, improved them, and demonstrated their efficacy by saving millions of lives," said Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University. The professor noted that some countries look at China through a perverse lens: they fail to acknowledge the country's successes because they politicize everything about China ideologically.■