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COVID immunity gap could spell disaster for China — global health expert

January 18, 2022
GZERO Staff
COVID Immunity Gap Could Spell Disaster for China — Global Health Expert | GZERO World

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China’s homegrown COVID vaccines were once crucial — but they're not as effective against omicron as mRNA jabs.

What's more, with with local cases near zero for the better part of the pandemic, most Chinese have no natural immunity. That could spell disaster for Beijing as omicron surges.

Yanzhong Huang, senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, warns that the highly transmissible new variant will make zero COVID harder and harder to sustain.

If China’s current strategy fails, it’s likely that Xi Jinping will have to pivot to one that favors living with the virus.

Watch Huang’s interview with Ian Bremmer on GZERO World: Omicron & the undoing of China's COVID strategy

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