Why so many elderly Chinese are unvaccinated

FOR WEEKS the authorities in Shanghai tried to stem an outbreak of covid-19 with a whack-a-mole approach. Individual buildings were locked down, only for the virus to spread elsewhere. Finally, on March 28th, officials decided to lock down all of the city’s 25m residents in two phases, beginning with the east side of town, home to the main financial centre. People scrambled to buy supplies. Vegetables became scarce. Some bankers began sleeping in their offices.

The lockdown is in line with China’s “zero-covid” strategy, which aims to crush outbreaks before they can spread widely. Thousands of new cases of the highly transmissible Omicron variant are testing this approach. The wave has hit most provinces. Restrictions have been imposed on dozens of cities and towns. The experience of Hong Kong is causing Chinese officials to be extra-vigilant. Not long ago the city had very few cases. Now it has one of the highest daily death rates from the virus. The vast majority of the dead are unvaccinated old people. Around 65% of over-80s in Hong Kong had not been jabbed when the Omicron wave started.