power out to just mean most people only have electricity for about 6 to 8 hours a day. most football fans have to find cafes with generators to watch the matches for free. and there is also a huge outdoor screen provided by cutter for people to follow the tournament known by some ask them on john herbert for solomon harvey oliver. our aim is to allow the resident of the besieged garza to live the atmosphere of the tournament as if he's in one of catch our stadiums. many of those who can travel can even watch the matches in kathy's because of their financial condition of the somebody else. although the tough economy conditions mean few have money in god. so people are doing all they can to enjoy the event or her arm of the little town as it now the thought we'd made some preparations here. we fired more staff and installed you screens and internet service. so we expect to receive a lot of fans because people can't afford to pay to be in sports or scription to

watch the mileage is a most don't have generators to overcome power cuts, give me a quote. oh spite. oh, challenges. one thing, sir, to me gusta, the love of the gay triumphs. all you can see elsie's 0 got them. ah hello again. this is al jazeera and these are the headlines. health authorities and china have reported the highest number of daily cove in 19 infections. now for a 2nd day, nearly 33000 were registered on friday. that's the most since the pandemic began. fresh restrictions have been imposed on creating locked downs and mass testing. but the government strict policies are leading to discontent. ult. meanwhile, more than 20000 employees have left china's largest i phone factory angry, coven 19 restrictions and working conditions. now, according to the voice of news angel, her tests lead to violence as

a fox con factory enjo. earlier this week, ukraine's president has warned his country's energy situation remains difficult. russian strikes have damaged nearly half of ukraine's power facilities, and electricity has been restored to parts of the capital. but people have also been advised to stock up on essential you members have failed to agree on us price cap for natural gas. it's been a sticking point and efforts to bring down energy prices in europe. the block will hold another round of talk next month. a 90 year old, a catholic cardinal in hong kong has been found guilty for failing to register a now defunct fund to help pro democracy protesters and joseph. then the organization helped protest is arrested during the demonstration. 3 years ago, he and 5 other people were fined for the offense. therapy in union is appealing to israel to end the solitary confinement of 21 year old palestinian prisoner med mal

astra. he was arrested in 2015 at the age of 13, accused of being linked to a stabbing attack. he's having a 9 and a half. he has sentence, has found, he says when australia is suffering from psychological trauma as a result of being in isolation. now for almost a year, and the court has now extended that by another 4 month. well, those are the headlines. i'll have more news for you here on al jazeera. after inside story, stay with us spiraling costs dwindling supplies. the shock is being felt around the world with the war in ukraine, triggering gas supply uncertainty. europeans bracing themselves for an unprecedented winter. al jazeera reports on the human costs of the winter energy crisis. anger and frustration in china's repeated coven 19 locked downs, hurts economic activity, and to isolate millions of people. so why does beijing persist with strict policy? while the rest of the world is moving on?

this is inside story. ah a welcome to the program. it's great to have you with us, i'm 0 venue china 0 tolerance approach to kobe. 19 involves wide spread loc downs, travel restrictions, and mass testing. but nearly 3 years after the pandemic was 1st identified, in one cases have surged to a new high. the outbreaks of forced shut downs, enlarge swats to the country, despite the strict policy being eased earlier this month. and the repeated lockdown have led to rare displays of public anger, including factory workers fighting with security forces. but we'll get to our panel shortly 1st though, this report from michael, so sharif rest scenes of open descent in china. workers had the

world's biggest eiffel flattery, smash surveillance cameras, and fought with security forces already frustrated by co, 19 restrictions, isolating the plan from the outside world. if further angered by reports of payment delays, they employ a fox con has apologized. the protest come at a time when china's login a record number of infections that's been accompanied by lock downs and mos testing . as part of preston, she she pings 0 covert strategy. it was eased earlier this month. and now only affected areas are being locked down and not entire cities. people in beijing say the shut downs are taking a toll or not, don't harness all one over and gone by the other 2 other only by isn't covered 19 curves. crim people live a normal life, otherwise everything is halted. how many people have savings to support them if things continue willing to hold it. and even if you have money to stay at home every day,

that's not true. living that's lingering on the last breath of air. lo walks the nation rates among the elderly are a major hurdle. china's national health commission says 66 percent of those $880.00 and above a fully vaccinated and only 40 percent have got a booster. while in the us, the vaccination rate for seniors is more than 90 percent. with actually another measures, slight rental strength ring health care system, measuring up tingler, vaccinated or low. then essentially, they're just kicking the camber road. the international monetary fund is urging china to increase its vaccination rates. it's as persistent gaps in inoculations are leading to frequent clock downs and hurting economic activity. and financial analyst said no more estimate areas accounting for one 5th of china as cross domestic products are under locked down a share, bigger than the british economy. when we consume, surely for inside story,

ah, that's bringing our guests. i know a tang and a senior fellow at the ty her institute to think tank based in beijing in taipei, alyssa garcia, hero, chief economist for asian pacific at the french investment bank. net exists and in london, oksana pisec. you are at university college london where you leave the global citizenship program on outbreaks of infectious diseases. thank you all so much for being with us. first question to you are, the rest of the world is learning to live with cove. it is the time for china to do the same well, china's been fairly successful at what it's been doing. i mean it, it ranks like 80, it's number one in the world in terms of population, but ranks 89th in terms of the number of deaths. i'm, you know, if you start looking at the a, you know, at the current situation, yes, they have $30000.00 cases, an absolute huge spike for china's standards. but right now

a many nations arnie been keeping track in japan, 3rd largest economy in the world. it had over 60000 cases and about a 130 decimal pair, 23, and in china. so china has a lot in terms of it's passed. the question is, what is a do about the future? people keep saying, let's move on. that's like saying, let's move on from climate change. the viruses, the virus, you're seeing over $300.00 variants out there plus long cove. it is really hitting a lot of people hard about 3 percent still have symptoms one year afterwards. the chinese government is concerned about being overwhelmed with its medical system, having people dying in the streets. you know, this is a socialist country. they tend to put up people 1st. i obviously, and i capitalist economy. they put the economy 1st. so it's, it's, it's a difference of opinion in terms of policy and culture. well,

you say they put people 1st, but a lot of people are fed up. that's something we're gonna have to explore. but i want to go to it's on a 1st x on it from a public health standpoint. what happens if china relax is it's anti coven measures? well, there are several things in 1st of all, the elderly population. there's a big vaccine gap there. and also just the types of vaccines that are being used. so we do see that the m r a name, pfizer, type vaccine is more efficacious. so there is a reduced, let's say, protective element. i think there's really important our next step is to to drive out that vaccination rate, particularly in the most vulnerable sections of society and switching which public health tools they are using and to protect their people. so there will be, again, a bit of an immunity vulnerability gap in this area just because they have through a quite extreme measures and able to compare to other countries,

keep her cases relatively low. however long term, we do see that who it is and demick. so any, it does mean that there's going to be a situation in which we, there i've, unless there are other tools used, you can't go on locking down permanently. you have to balance public health measures. public health is not just about coded. public health is about other diseases to that people's health start to suffer because there's an obsession with just covered. that's not a healthy public health policy. okay. i think there's a key word and what you just said, which is balance. and that's what this entire conversation a on many levels is going to be about. let's bring in another aspect that needs to be balanced and factored into all of this lease, or what is 0 covered? what are beijing? 0, po, coven policies? doing the china's economy? well, as the 2022,

we have estimated your corporate policies. i restrictions in mobility, basically kind of lockdown or other measures to have wiped out as much as 2 or 3 percentage points of growth. in other words, you've china in the year, which is likely around 3 percent, you would be in id all girls boss, if he hadn't in much closer to the official packet. it would have been 5 point kill avenue, get close to 5, went by 3 plus the target. so in a way, one could even say that because of the call me and jen has missed that growth tag. but i can understand that that might be less important than, than saving lives and everything else. so, but i'm the same, it is costly that say gear. all right, so at the outset of this conversation, we see that there are competing factors that need to be balanced. there's economic growth, of course, there is how you do it. there's how people feel about it. all of these need to be factored in and i know you, you said that in a socialist system,

people are prioritized over the economy. i want to read to you a quote. this is just something that we pulled off the chinese social media network, wible. it was written today was written on november 24th. it says this quote. it's been 3 years. i've never questioned our policy, but now looking at how everything is still the same as 3 years ago, endless locked downs, awful hospital food. and i turned around to see the cheerful crowd at the world cup . not a single person was wearing a mask. i can't help it. ask. is china the only place on earth with cove it outbreaks? now? i know how do you, how does beijing say to the 1400000000 chinese look some of you, many of you millions amongst you are having to suffer lock downs that had decided overnight. that can be really drastic. and the rest of the world has somehow find a formula to avoid these. well, they haven't found a formula. i mean,

the u. s. has lost 3 years longevity since 2019. so there's been a cost, there's a $1000000.00 and so over 6 and a half 1000000 people dead, i think that's also a cost. or you can literally just say, well, you know what the heck, you know, everyone else is dying. who cares? and that's, that's rather callous. attitude in terms of the frustration, it's real, i can tell you, i'm in beijing right now. i'm under locked out. mean that this is the reality of, of the different system. now you can say, oh, i don't like it, china should do this, but china's done pretty well through this entire period early country that's been consistently growing during this whole period. they manage the things fairly well. so saying that, oh, we don't like what you're doing because it's hurting us because we've been irresponsible and you know, our approach to this kind of nonsense. we know. yeah. there has to be some sort of question is about i hear your argument about how china has done so far and about

limiting the number of deaths. but i think the question now is ok, we're 3 years on from you know, the moment when issue initially the virus was detected in china. how do we move on to the next phase of virus containment? because this is not going away and that i think, i think everyone would agree that it's possible to move to the next phase. well, yeah and, and that's what china's trying to do. i mean, what a, the reason they had more cases because they haven't used these blunt instruments. the sledge hammer approach they had before, where they'd locked down an entire city until they had isolated every single case and stamped it out. right now they're trying to be more surgical in their approach . in beijing, they resisted from having wholesale locked downs. they would go to communities and say, you locked down for 5 days that you know, they usually 3 weeks and they,

they've been trying to adjust. but it hasn't necessarily been producing the same results. but, you know, i'd like to ask you what, why is it that everyone's talking about china with 30000 cases. when japan has 60000 cases a day and literally, you know, 50 times, nose, 30 times more udette's a doesn't seem to bother anybody out there and it's not an topic for conversation. so from beijing's point of view, they're struggling to do this. you think that they don't want economic growth. mean this has been the main hallmark of the entire chinese economy for the last 40 years . so, i mean, this idea that they're doing this to frustrate their, you know, their citizens is nonsense at the fact that, you know, we're discussing this now as if it's a major issue. when there are much larger ones out there is kind of kind of indicates a media bias such think, well, what i think is i think one reason we're discussing it is because we're seeing what

you might describe as unprecedented social unrest across the country. it's not just one city, it's not just 2 cities, it's several dozen cities where and you're in a country where, where people in a country where people not lose to a big employer. oh, i respect you, but the specific you're talking about jen, joe, we're a taiwanese company, fox. yeah. or i did not have the agency that it promised and you had a ride there. so what other social unrest, how are you talking about? i know these are not just fox going on. we've seen pictures emerging out of china from multiple cities in a clear that doesn't normally allow air what cities and look what cities are you talking about? i, i my follow the news. i haven't seen it. well, i do have a vpn, so i follow everything. i follow the news to and i've seen it and i'm not going to be able to remember the cities not owing to the not owing to the fact that they don't exist owing to the fact that i don't remember. long lists of trainees bounce with media. i would agree with that there's frustration across the board and social

media. ok, but being frustrated is not the same thing as denying it. it's like saying, i'm frustrated about global warming. i want to move on. the global warming is a fact just like the pandemic is a fact. so, and as you know, as our expert in medicine pointed out, this is going to continue. the question is, how do you continue? china does not have the medical resources that you have in the us or even in japan and south korea. this my 2nd question i want to know response that you're having in japan. so let's get that point of view from santa, from a public health point of view. how do you quote, unquote, move on. how do you start addressing this in a different way in 2022 than you were doing in 2021? 0, well, there's a lot of time pick here, but, and one of the things to also highlight is that no one on one hand, we are just saying many countries, yes. have let's say dropped the ball and other ways that you can slow down

the spread of cov it. so i'm worry that the narrative of the conversation we're having right now is that either we're all cold hearted and we don't care and it's all live and we're happy for people to die because they're less off there on to the stage. take them to call you and walk down right at that, but there's more, if you don't only have the option of draconian lockdown, you can have air filtration. you can have a ensuring that there are other types of treatments available. you can still encourage people to have support when they isolate you can still use things like a face mask, et cetera. those are all the tools that are available to us. so i think that's where the balance lies. it's not saying at cove, it's totally overdue, nothing. i think some countries have done a really good job of ensuring that in addition to now having this booster campaign over the winter with the bi vaillant booster, to add up that

a boost in unity, that's a really important and then vaccine floss. so again, we don't need to completely polarize it to say, if you're not locked on, you're not doing anything because that's not fair to a lot of other countries, but it's really a blended approach. so i think that in terms of, again, the, the unrest that we're seeing that's a result of that kind of more extreme ways to deal with health issues. but one thing that's interesting is that all over the world, even in countries where there's more, let's say state media, censorship, the issued anti vax has not gone away. so there is some distrust of the vaccines in china just as we have seen that distrust in every other country. so i think this is a moment to try and learn from each other in terms of how do we continue to build trust within really experts in science medicine. so that's

a coming together point around really using the tools that are available to us. and since, since you talk about the tools that are available, you mentioned the importance of vaccination are currently 18 year olds, 66 percent, just under 70 percent of 80 year olds in china, fully vaccinated. compare that to and only 40 percent of how to booster compare that's about 90 percent for the same age group for sorry, for seniors, for seniors in say the u. s. how important is it to increase vaccination coverage in china? well, it, it, that would, again, we have, i believe, 1400000000 people who, who are vaccinated. but there are 2 elements of this, the efficacy. the vaccines are used also, as you said, that most vulnerable age gap, where they're most likely to have the most severe consequences of co that there is this lack an uptake or other vaccination delivery failure.

and that needs to be again, and that's a big vulnerability spot within the coven strategy. and it could be why the rationale for the types of responses that we have seen. however, i think the site need to switch to m r n. a vaccines which you seem to be alluding to earlier that make a significant difference in your view. i think so. certainly, i mean there that, that is one a what you said when i don't understand. ok, where are you coming from with this idea that these vaccines, i mean lance, a new england journal medicine, they've all come out and said that if you've had 4 instances either had coverage or you've had any mix of vaccines and you've had 4 of them. they have the same advocacy, whether they are the chinese, rac seen or other countries, or m r and a. so where are you getting this idea that somehow are superior?

yes, we do see that there is a number to a w h o and he's, he's assured me that this is corrected and i also read it up on the journal. so which journal are you referring to? which study are you referring to? when you say that m r n a is in total after for more effective than a mixture of these well certainly the bible and booster that has become more available . there has been recent publications with the jan there, there's a publication in jama. well yeah that, that highlights the english, the gap. now it is difficult, i will say, because there has been some transparency surrounding issues around this. i novak and sino farm. so she have more of the we would love to have more transparency on that aspect. but there are studies that indicate there's the m r and a is the superior vaccine, a lease, if you have a minute, i want to bring in

a lease. yeah. been denied access. sorry guys i, i'm going to jump in here and i'm going to cut this just a little bit short, respectfully, i want to bring in a lease from the economic standpoint because this is the 3rd major pillar that you really got to factor in here to provide a country wide response, most of the economic forecasts are forecasts that are basing their forecasts for chinese growth in 2023 on the assumption that china is going to open up. and, and most forecasting houses believe that would happen in the 2nd half of 2023. now why, why do you make that assumption? or there are there factors there that you believe that's going to be the case where you just assume that that would be a, a reasonable response from the chinese government? well, i mean, most alleles are expecting the chinese government to, to engage in m. s is a vaccination campaign basically, and then because independently owned on the efficacy of the vaccines let's just

think of increasing them at the the the vaccination ratio. yeah. especially for elderly. so it, it seems to me in no brain there that this is jana can do fast. and i think when comparing the number of best to be frank, i think at an am an economy say, but the only thing i have to say them. they said before and then after and that's when vaccinations were ready and even there's been additional akash from this after the vaccination rating. there of course, less so i guess china will have to cope with that as everybody else. but we have to be after the vaccination rate is as high as it has been elsewhere. said list a single were or, or, or any you know, many, many countries in the world. so i guess the underlying assumption vaccination a time or it's so alyssa,

you were saying vaccination rate is one aspect the economist looked at to see what measures vision might take that would impact the economy. what other measures or economists looking at basically the degree of mobility. so what we've learned very clearly in the european case, 2nd wave i dealt and much more. so we only crone is that you could have much more targeted measures. i even do use mobility, much less and still have an efficient cobit policy. so i think that's the other thing. can china find ways in which still keeps cases at bay, but in a way develops immunity because that's another important issue. you need to get to that immunity level and, and therefore avoid that. but at the same time a harm the economy less. that's the question in or do you expect 3rd in 2023 to

expect that next year china and choosing ping might finesse their policy. mixed to deal with coven. i still think they're, we're dealing with it from a scientific perspective and, and they are not without fault. why a year ago, last fall. and they took their foot off the gas in terms of getting people vaccinated. and the fact is that regardless of what vaccine you get, 6 months after you've had your last booster or your original 2 shots, the advocacy has gone down dramatically. and you can check that with the science side. and so you have to have basically every 6 months, and the booster and china hasn't had that, the people did get it. it's in many cases here, year and a half since they've had their original shots. they need to get boosted. so china's internal target, i believe, is 60 percent vaccinated within the last 6 months either whether booster or original ones. obviously they're going after the low hanging fruit in terms of the

elderly. there's about 24000000 ah, elderly, who have not ever been fascinated and absolutely what alicia has referenced this mobility issue very much on their mind. that's why they've been trying not to have these wholesale locked out. it's a tricky thing. as i said, if they have to kind of medical facilities to deal with it, they would do it. but, you know, the reason i was being difficult, cyril, is that right now you have 7 other countries that have many more deaths, including austria, with a fraction of the population. you have south korea, japan, taiwan. no one's talking about that. they have far more deaths. in that case, taiwan, 30 times more debt, 20 times more deaths. i mean, it just seems odd that china is always the one that's being blamed as somehow the villain is when they been in the past more successful. yes, i agree. they have to adjust. all right,

we'll look. thank you very much. absolutely. nobody here is calling or framing china as a villain. and you will have noticed that coven policies around the world in all countries, not just china, and not exactly something that we under report. it's something that we look at pretty forensically across the world, but i know we heard all your arguments and we always appreciate a robust conversation here on al jazeera. so i want to thank all our guests. i, nor tang, and lisa garcia, hero and exxon pisec. and thank you for watching as well. you can see the program again, any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com to further discussion. good. our facebook page, that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha. inside story. you can also join the conversation on twitter or handle a j inside story from me several than yeah, in the entire team here in doha life now. ah. when clouds with west struggle gives birth to true passion

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