New Safe & Sane Poll Points to Possible Covid Herd Immunity for Beijing

Vincent R. Vinci, Managing Editor | Feb 21, 2023 3:34 pm | 2 comments | 249 reads

Editor’s note: The results of the poll in this article sheds a bit of light on how Covid is declining in the capital, but should not be mistaken for a scientifically accurate, demographics-based analysis of Beijing as a whole.

Two months after China dropped its zero Covid policy, there are signs that the capital may have developed some level of herd immunity to the virus according to a recently conducted poll of 868 members of Safe & Sane WeChat groups.

- I contracted Covid in Feb 2023: 0.1 percent
- I contracted Covid in Jan 2023: 1.5 percent
- I contracted Covid in Dec 2022: 68.3 percent
- I contracted Covid BEFORE Dec 2022: 9.6 percent
- I have not contracted Covid at all: 20.5 percent

The poll shows a surprisingly large dropoff from December 2022 and January 2023, presumably because so many people got infected and now have at least temporary immunity from contracting it again.

Though the massive wave is over, we’re not entirely free of the disease – 13 Safe & Sane members reported contracting Covid in January, and one person picked it up this month (so far). Plus, at least 15 people have been infected with variants of concern nationwide since December, including the highly contagious XBB.1.5 and BQ.1 variants, South China Morning Post reports.

Be that as it may, experts like Li Tongzheng, a respiratory diseases specialist at Beijing Youan Hospital, is quoted by South China Morning Post as saying a major outbreak is unlikely at this point in time.

What’s more, as a sign of new confidence and optimism, Beijing’s nightlife and events have slowly come back to life. A few things to look forward to as we approach the weekend (or a few regular happenings worth checking out):

-    Você Não é um Soldado documentary screening at fRUITYSPACE (Feb 22)
-    International Margarita Day specials at Q MEX (Feb 22)
-    Luo Ting Jazz Trio performs at The Bricks (Feb 23)
-    What the Folk!? Is back, happening this Friday night (Feb 24) at Tribute Bar
-    Stevie Mac & the Mac Daddies Final Show at Modernista this Sunday (Feb 25)

We’ll keep you posted with more happenings around Beijing as they come our way, either here or on the events section of our website.

Although our first polls, which took place in December, had more respondents – 2000 of the approximately 8,000 people in our Safe & Sane groups – the numbers for this poll are still high enough to draw statistical conclusions from.

Plus, as with the previous Covid infection polls, we can deduce that it is likely skewed in the following ways: (1) heavily skewed towards the foreign population; (2) heavily concentrated in Chaoyang/eastern Beijing; (3) concentrated on 25-55 year old individuals (relatively few children and elderly); (4) by nature is an English-speaking population.

READ: Post-Zero Covid Travel: Getting to Taipei, Hong Kong & Back Again

Images: Unsplash, The Beijingers

Comments

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Re: New Safe & Sane Poll Points to Possible Covid Herd...
Posted Feb 23, 2023 11:08pm by BauLuo
(Reply to a previous comment)
Giovanni Martini wrote:

I'm saving myself for a more respectable pandemic. One with a fatality rate in the high double-digits. And by buboes bigger'n basketballs and every chem lab from Kiev to Yalta, I'm gonna get one!

In the pipeline no doubt. Meanwhile gotsa keep the Biosecurity paranoia bubbling softly on the back burner,.... a little Monkey Pox here, a little RSV there. Uptick in H1N1, bad influenza season, yadda yadda yadda. That's how the peristaltic transformation works. From 2001 afterwards ya only had to be afraid of guys in robes with long beards and dark skin. Now ya gotsa be afraiid of everyone, eveywhere-- they might be infectious. mRNA vaccine everywhere for everythings. Marburg virus, ..wot!? Enjoy the relaxation while it lasts.

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.

Re: New Safe & Sane Poll Points to Possible Covid Herd...
Posted Feb 22, 2023 6:08pm by BauLuo

I am one of the ones that has never had covid. I am 58 years old. I haven't had a respiratory infection since sometime in my late 20s, working in the bush in BC. So that's at least 30 years. I did have a vaccine once. I think I was 4 or 5 years old, MMR. I don't remember actually getting the vaccine, but me mum told me I did-- before I started kiddie garden. Since then no vaccinations. I was a heavy smoker for about 20 years, and a heavy drinker for more than that. I paid no attention whatsoever to any of the `health measures' , meaning, if it were possible, never wearing a mask, social distancing.... hahahaha, PCR testing the least I possibly could (PCR testing ,,, another fraudulent and meaningless `health measure'). I reluctantly would get a test if it were demanded, or wear a mask, if it were demanded. My line in the sand was vaccination. I let every employer know that if it ever became necessary to receive a vaccination to be employed in China, I would be on the next flight out. But to where? Canukistan at that time was more insane than China in that respect.

Anyways, just past December, when the dreaded Omicron was striking the masses down in huge numbers, every teacher, every student, at my school were required to be tested. Of the 5 teachers that I shared an office with from 7:30 until 5 pm, every day, of the 6 individuals in that office (including myself) 5 tested positive and their health codes turned red. One person was negative, and his health code remained green, as it always had been. . Gee, I wonder who that was?

I am Doktor Aethelwise Snapdragoon.