Can China Quit Covid Zero Policy Cold Turkey?

The first rule of the Zero Covid Club is that you cannot be a member forever. In the nearly three years we’ve been in the pandemic, we’ve seen countries that have managed to control the entry of the coronavirus come to terms with the inevitability of coexistence with a new respiratory virus. In some places they did it for good, after vaccinating vulnerable populations, for example in New Zealand. In other places, they did it the hard way, despite years of preparation, for example in Hong Kong. Now China faces an opportunity to stop being the last bastion of the Covid Zero policy, pull down the blinds and close the club for good.