It's a good question, Ally Pally, but it does not necessarily require a medical answer.
Put yourself in the place of a Chinese political leader. Then ask "Who benefits?" from a strategy that makes no real epidemiological difference but which highlights the distance you have been prepared to go to protect the "broad masses", the comrades for whom you are responsible. No one will say you did not do your best - because clearly you did. It was the backsliders and enemies of the people who did not have the discipline to make it work. Or some such excuse.
[Naturally we shall have no such nonsense here in the UK.]
The latest figures suggest the risks are less than 'flu. That's how I shall view the disease unless and until other information becomes available.
R.
Originally Posted by: Roger Parsons