Amid a massive surge in Covid cases in China, an epidemiologist has warned that over 60 per cent of the Chinese and 10 per cent of Earth’s population are likely to get infected over the next 90 days.
Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist, in a series of tweets on Monday, said the situation in China was alarming that the country was underreporting the deaths due to Covid. He said deaths are likely in the millions in the next three months.
Eric is the Chief of the COVID Task Force at the New England Complex Systems Institute, co-founder of the World Health Network, and the Chief Health Economist for Microclinic International.
The massive surge in Covid numbers has overwhelmed the healthcare infrastructure in China. The infection numbers shot up after Beijing lifted restrictions following widespread protests against the lockdown. While China reported only two deaths on Monday, reports coming from Beijing say the number was much more than what officials were putting out.
Eric said hospitals were completely overwhelmed in China ever since restrictions were removed. "Epidemiologists estimate over 60 per cent of Chinese and 10 per cent of Earth’s population is likely to get infected over the next 90 days. Deaths likely in the millions," he said.
Sharing a video of a hospital, where bodies can be seen, he claimed the dead bodies were piling up in a single night. He said the summary of the CCP's current COVID goal is: “Let whoever needs to be infected - infected, let whoever needs to die - die. Early infections, early deaths, early peak, early resumption of production."
The expert said doubling time for the infection cases in China may not be days anymore, it is now possibly 'hours'. He also said that R-naught - a value that represents the number of people a single infected person can transmit the disease to - is hard to calculate if the doubling rate is less than a day.
"Because it’s hard to PCR test that fast. The point is China and the World is in deep trouble," he said.
The epidemiologist claimed the deaths in mainland China are being hugely underreported outside of China. A survey of hospitals, funeral parlors, and related funeral industry chains in Beijing suggests there is a recent explosion in funeral services caused by the sharp increase in deaths, he said.
In another tweet, Eric, who served as a faculty member and researcher at Harvard Medical School and Harvard Chan School of Public Health between 2004-2020, said that cremation in Beijing was nonstop and morgues were overloaded.
"Refrigerated containers needed. 24/7 funerals. 2000 bodies backlogged for cremations. Sound familiar? It is spring 2020 all over again — but this time for China, emulating a more Western-mass infection approach," he said.
The epidemiologist also shared a video in which people can be seen lining up. Eric said people, who can be seen queueing up, were at a pharmaceutical factory in Zhuhai city to buy Ibuprofen because it is completely sold out elsewhere.
The health expert then said what happens in China doesn’t stay in China. "Wuhan was our lesson 3 years ago. The global fallout of this 2022-2023 wave will not be small," he said.