https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-01855-7
China risks a “tsunami” of coronavirus infections resulting in 1.6 million deaths if the government abandons its long-held Covid Zero policy and allows the highly-infectious omicron variant to spread unchecked, according to researchers at Shanghai’s Fudan University.
The Fudan study’s modelling also suggests that once effective antivirals are readily available and can be used to treat most Covid patients, the country will see cases and severe infections drop significantly
Therapies such as the antibody cocktail from Chinese biotech Brii Biosciences Ltd. and Pfizer Inc.’s Paxlovid can significantly cut deaths and intensive care admission, provided they are used widely among symptomatic Covid patients, according to the study.
Still, the researchers argue even such a reduction won’t get Covid-related deaths down to the 88,000 level China reports annually for influenza
(https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-05-10/china-risks-virus-tsunami-if-covid-zero-abandoned-study-says)