Our Fellow, Howen Yu has had the opportunity to interview his own father–a Beijing based volunteer worker acutely impacted by the zero-covid policy during his stay in Tibet. The OICP have compiled a series of personal accounts from him during the 3-month long lockdown. Through these accounts, we attempt to illustrate the impacts of China’s strict covid restrictions towards normal civilians.

Nearly three years into the pandemic, China is sticking with strict COVID-19 containment policies that have led to a string of lockdowns around the nation, economic damage, and widespread frustration among Chinese citizens. As reported by researchers at Oxford University who developed the Oxford Coronavirus Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT) to measure the strictness of government policies, China currently has the strictest containment measures. The Chinese government has yet to announce when or how it will ease its restrictions; how will China exit its zero-Covid policy?

The Covid-19 pandemic has undeniably impacted virtually every society across the globe physically, psychologically, socially, and the far reaching, powerful effects of the pandemic render its study as perhaps the most relevant and comprehensive political issue of this generation. By comparing the American and Taiwanese governments and their respective public responses with Covid-19 data, we can analyze the effect of government influence on people during a pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than four million lives to this day, making the global supply and distribution of vaccines critical to the health and safety of all civilians. The project discusses past and current trends in vaccine allocation as well as multilateral initiatives that address issues surrounding the equitable distribution of doses. Furthermore, the project also emphasizes the importance and benefits of vaccine multilateralism over vaccine nationalism in order to meet global vaccination needs.