China’s pandemic playbook will fail with Omicron — Laura Yasaitis

China's zero-COVID strategy was a major success story in 2020-21. But it won't work with the new omicron variant, according to Eurasia Group healthcare consultant Laura Yasaitis.

Over 83 percent of the Chinese population is fully vaccinated with domestic vaccines. However, it turns out these jabs are much less effective at stopping omicron transmission compared to mRNA vaccines like Pfizer's and Moderna's.

The situation in China won’t be a health catastrophe, Yasaitis predicts, but the Chinese government will impose severe restrictions, including lockdowns such as the one in Xian.

“It's going to be like this game of whack-a-mole, trying to stop each small outbreak as it happens.”

What's more, she anticipates that Xi Jinping’s commitment to the zero-Covid approach will cause economic disruption not only in China, but all over the world.

Watch the full discussion here: https://www.gzeromedia.com/events/top-risks-2022-w...