By The Numbers - part the twenty third

By now, unless you've been living under a rock with the RRW crowd, you're well aware that the Chinese people are fed up with Xi's 'zero-Covid' protocol. So, let's look at some of the numbers.

Population - 1.412 billion as of 2021
Number vaccinated - "As of June 4, 2022, about 87 percent of people in China had been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus COVID-19."
Number of cases - 25,835/day in last reporting week
Number of cases this date last year - 39/day
Number of cases, Omicron spike 14 April 2022 - 26,469/day
Number of cases, March 2020 to February 2022 - ~100 or fewer per day
Reported deaths - 5,232
Vaccines in use -

Sinopharm BIBP (inactivated virus)
CanSino Biologics shot (viral vector)
CanSino Biologics inhaled (viral vector)
[the wiki has further listings]
Pfizer - not yet approved
Chinese mRNA made but not approved in China

Number of lockdowns since start to 1 June 2022 - ~25
Number of Apple factories impacted by lockdown (as we speak) - 1 (so far, and it's iPhone)

What to make of all these numbers? The Xi protocol of 'zero-Covid' (aka, test/trace/isolate/lockdown) kept cases absurdly low until Covid-ο hit, and even then very low by American/European experience. And now again with the BA variants (it is believed). We know (or think we do) that the B* variants of Covid-ο are less severe than Covid-19 or Covid-ο, so it would be sensible to relax 'zero-Covid', just as the West has done. On the other hand, China does not yet have an mRNA vaccine at all, much less as the principle vaccine. There's been some talk that Xi wants to show he's a real dictator and thus won't budge; might be. Xi, meet Rock and a Hard Place.