BANGKOK — Wu Zunyou, an epidemiologist who helped drive the nation’s strict zero-COVID measures in China that suspended get entry to to towns and confined hundreds of thousands to their houses, died on Friday. He was once 60.
An announcement from China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention about Wu’s loss of life gave no motive, however mentioned that “rescue measures failed.”
Wu’s well being were deficient. He disappeared out of the public eye for months remaining 12 months whilst combating most cancers.
Wu, who earned his grasp’s and doctorate from the University of California, Los Angeles, had spent a lot of his early occupation running on HIV/Aids prevention in China.
Wu was once instrumental in growing China’s flagship coverage in the HIV epidemic amongst intravenous drug customers, in keeping with his biography on the UCLA site. In reputation of this paintings, he was once awarded the 2005 International Rolleston Award. Later, he was once additionally awarded a UNAIDS Gold Medal in 2008 for his total paintings.
Yet, as China battled the COVID-19 virus, Wu got here to be criticized through some for his option to publicly voice toughen for the nation’s strict virus keep an eye on measures whilst the weaknesses of the technique turned into extra pronounced.
“Dynamic zero-COVID is appropriate for China’s reality, and is the best choice to control our country’s current COVID situation,” he mentioned in April 2022, all over the peak of Shanghai’s lockdown.
The technique purchased China time in the early days of the pandemic, however through 2022, as the virus turned into increasingly simply unfold, it confirmed indicators of pressure.
The mega town of Shanghai was once unprepared for a lockdown and its citizens scrambled for groceries and fundamental prerequisites, whilst many additionally discovered it arduous to get entry to pressing clinical products and services as other folks had been barred from leaving their houses and even getting into hospitals. Many had been additionally indignant a couple of key facet of virus controls, which concerned mass box hospitals the place other folks who examined sure had been pressured to visit through public well being staff.
In personal, Wu disagreed with the excesses of the zero-COVID technique, however felt powerless to move towards it.
As zero-COVID were given unsustainable in the fall of 2022, he wrote an inside document urging the executive to keep away from over the top measures. But in public press meetings all over the previous few years, he voiced the respectable line.
Wu visibly elderly all over the virus fight. He was once pictured in 2020 with most commonly black hair; through 2022, his locks had long past solely grey.
The news of Wu’s loss of life got here simply hours after the loss of life of former Premier Li Keqiang was once introduced. Li was once the nation’s No. 2 chief all over the pandemic.
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AP creator Dake Kang contributed to this document from Shenzhen, China.
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