I've been mulling over this, too. Here are my latest thoughts, why Beijing is doing the 180 degree change on Covid now: it was exports that rescued the economy through the consumption recession in since the Wuhan lockdown. this year, consumption recession is everywhere in mainland as can been seen by the number of empty and abandoned shops and restaurants. But lately, exports plunged as well. Beijing probably does not expect a quick recovery of global demand (and it would be hallucinatory to expect this or even to expect a continuation of the steep export growths). With lockdowns and semi-lockdowns widespread, neither demand can recover nor does Beijing's old playbook of infrastructure debt spending work. Thus, recession is inescapable. That's the moment when Xi and inner circle might have thought, well, if the choice is between recession and discontent on the one hand, and letting the virus rip through society and high death numbers on the other, then the latter is at least a short pain, the former a pain without ends. This could explain why there is little to no preparation of the healthcare system or on the vaccination front. Fhe decision was not driven by health and epidemiological considerations, but purely economic and social stability. what do you think?