SUNDAY, MAY 8 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ SU A21
BY EVA DOU,
CHRISTIAN SHEPHERD
AND LYRIC LIshenzhen, china — On a swel-
tering afternoon in this southern
Chinese city, a young woman sat
at a stand of giveaways aimed at
convincing some of the city’s
r emaining unvaccinated resi-
dents to get their shots.
“You can get a bag of rice,
cooking oil or two bottles of
shampoo,” she said, offering the
tempting choice to passersby.
There are few takers because
almost all of the city’s working-
age residents have been vaccinat-
ed, but across the country and in
Shenzhen, it is the elderly who are
the main holdouts. Unlike most of
China’s coronavirus prevention
measures, vaccination is not
mandatory, and low uptake
among the country’s most vulner-
able groups is a major reason
Communist Party leaders feel
compelled to persist with a
g rueling “zero covid” approach.
As the costs of lockdown in
China have mounted, the need to
vaccinate the entire population
has become paramount. Shang-
hai has suffered staggeringly over
the past month, with residents
trapped by a strict lockdown
u nable to reach hospitals and
suffering psychological break-
downs after weeks-long home
confinement with an unknown
end date. Supply chains world-
wide have been upended.
Despite the mounting criti-
cism, China’s top leaders declared
on Thursday that there would be
no letup on the zero-covid policy,
and that they would fight any
attempts to question the ap-
proach. The committee, led by
President Xi Jinping, said relax-
ation of controls now would lead
to “massive numbers of infec-
tions” and deaths.
They only need to look next
door to Hong Kong, where the
omicron outbreak this year tore
through the high numbers of un-
vaccinated elderly people and re-
sulted in one of the highest fatali-
ty rates in the world.
The head epidemiologist of the
national covid response team, Li-
ang Wannian, said last week that
vaccination rates among the el-
derly and children were not high
enough, and “if we choose the
so-called policy of coexisting with
the virus, medical resources
would be very likely be over-
whelmed.”
But outside the flare-up zones,
it’s easy to see why older residents
might be reluctant to get vacci-
nated. In places like Shenzhen,
city life bustles as normal, except
that pedestrians have to show
proof of a negative coronavirus
test within the past 72 hours to
enter any public spaces.
The vaccination drive has been
mild compared to some of the
other pandemic-control mea-
sures and did not prioritize theelderly. Some younger people
have been required to get vacci-
nated for their jobs, but vaccina-
tion of retirees remains optional.
Incentives like eggs, grains and
other foodstuffs — a staple of
China’s vaccination drive since
last year — are now being
b olstered by home checkups, mo-
bile clinics and the widespread
mobilization of public servants to
ensure the elderly get shots.
“My neighborhood authorities
arranged it,” Yuan Zhen, a woman
in her 70s, said of her three shots
of the Sinopharm vaccine. People
over 60 are the least vaccinated
group in her neighborhood, Shen-
zhen’s Shenshan district, and offi-
cials recently ordered nurses to
make the rounds on a green bus to
try to vaccinate more retirees.
Only 56 percent of residents
over 60 have at least one shot inShenshan, far below the numbers
for all other age groups. Vaccines
weren’t even available for the
elderly in Shenzhen until June
2021, after 88 percent of residents
between the ages of 18 and 59 had
received at least one shot.
On a recent afternoon, a re-
cording played outside the Shen-
zhen public library, asking unvac-
cinated readers to get a shot
around the corner before enter-
ing. Few were interested, howev-
er, even with the offers of free rice
and shampoo.
Civil servants — including in
some instances professionals like
teachers with no public health
role — are under pressure to track
down and persuade elderly peo-
ple to get vaccinated, sometimes
being allotted a quota of house-
holds. Failure to do so could mean
losing out on annual bonuses orhurting chances of promotion.
From the start, China took a
different approach to immuniza-
tion. Unlike many Western coun-
tries, which prioritized the elder-
ly and immunocompromised
groups to minimize deaths, China
targeted people considered most
likely to spread the virus.
At the time, China’s mass test-
ing, contact tracing and quaran-
tine measures had brought cases
down to near zero. The goal for
officials was “preventing import-
ed cases and domestic resur-
gence.” First up for vaccines,
therefore, were workers at cus-
toms and airports, taxi drivers,
overseas business travelers and
anyone else considered a poten-
tial vector to bring the virus into
China and spread it.
Shifting messaging has also
exacerbated the vaccine hesitan-cy. Vaccines were initially ap-
proved only for younger groups,
with officials reassuring older
people that they were protected
by the vaccination of others and
warning of the shots’ possible
risks.
Before the pandemic, quality
and corruption scandals had re-
peatedly shaken faith in China’s
vaccine industry, raising fears of
side effects from faulty jabs.
Early in the vaccination drive,
officials cited a lack of data as the
main reason for delays, explain-
ing that clinical trials tend to
focus on 18-to-59-year-olds to
start before moving on to other
age groups.
But some government medical
experts now worry this initial
caution undermined the rollout.
Lu Hongzhou, who heads Shen-
zhen’s epidemic control advisory
team, told local media outlets this
month that manuals should no
longer warn immunocompro-
mised people against getting a
shot, instead encouraging them
to do so because “they are at high
risk of severe illness or death.”
The decision not to include
them in required national immu-
nization programs reflects uncer-
tainty about whether the virus
will be a long-term problem or
merely a seasonal disease like the
flu, according to Wang Guisong, a
professor of law at Renmin
University in Beijing.
In major cities like Shenzhen,
the unvaccinated elderly remain
a hidden minority, as the streets
are filled with working-age com-
muters and retirees in better
health who could get themselves
to vaccination points. Out of
more than 30 pedestrians over
the age of 60 interviewed by a
Washington Post reporter over
the past week, only two said they
had not received any shots of
coronavirus vaccine.
One of them, a 72-year-old
woman who spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity to discuss med-
ical details, said she had tried to
sign up for a shot from a hospital
but was advised against it due to
her numerous health problems.
“If I could get it, I would have a
long time ago,” she said.Shepherd reported from Taipei, Li
from Seoul. Pei Lin Wu and Vic
Chiang in Taipei contributed to this
report.China’s unvaccinated elderly prevent end to l ockdowns
Leaders said there will
be no letup on country’s
z ero-covid policyEVA DOU FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
A stand next to a vaccination site in Shenzhen offers rice, cooking oil and shampoo as incentives for people to get shots.Ask about
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