WEBVTT - Wuhan Reopens 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.759 Hi. I'm Carol Masser and I'm Jason Kelly. This week's 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:07.520 cover story. It's all about life in Wuhan post virus. Carol, 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.319 It's an amazing read. It is an amazing read, Jason. 0:00:10.360 --> 0:00:12.600 It's been described as a letter from the future to 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.040 describe life, as you said, after the coronavirus, and for 0:00:16.120 --> 0:00:18.360 that we do look to Wuhan. It's the city in 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.840 China where it all began. It's now also taking its 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.920 first steps towards normalcy. And what's interesting, Jason, they are 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:28.319 hesitant steps right as a city reopens. Some might say 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:33.000 those steps are taking on a dystopian field with temperature checks, masks, 0:00:33.040 --> 0:00:38.120 social distancing, and eating divided and alone in company cafeterias. 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.080 It's a story it's by Sharon Chen and Matthew Campbell 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.040 that raises a lot of questions, some scary questions for 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.000 those of us outside of Wuhan, thinking about what our 0:00:47.040 --> 0:00:51.479 lives maybe like as things returned to some semblance of normal. 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:55.400 Check it out. Wuhan reopens, the city where it all 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.840 began takes its first hesitant steps toward normalcy. By Sharon 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.360 Chen and Matthew Campbell with Claire Shay and Sarah Chen. 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.440 Every work day at Lenovo's tablet and phone factory on 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.320 the outskirts of Wuhan, Arriving employees report to a supervisor 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.679 for the first of at least four temperature checks. The 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:19.160 results are fed into a data collection system designed by staff. 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.759 Anyone above thirty seven point three degrees celsius is automatically flagged, 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:27.800 triggering an investigation by an in house anti virus task force. 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:32.720 Daily routines at the facility, which reopened on March after 0:01:32.760 --> 0:01:36.160 stopping for over two months because of the coronavirus pandemic 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.679 that began in this central Chinese city, have been entirely 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:44.280 re engineered to minimize the risk of infection. Before returning 0:01:44.319 --> 0:01:46.880 to the site, staff members had to be tested both 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.280 for the virus and for antibodies that indicate past illness, 0:01:50.800 --> 0:01:53.080 and they had to wait for their results in isolation 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.840 at a dedicated dormitory. Once cleared, they returned to work 0:01:56.880 --> 0:01:59.320 to find the capacity of meeting rooms built for six 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:04.120 reduces to three, and the formerly communal cafeteria tables partitioned 0:02:04.120 --> 0:02:07.840 off by vertical barriers covered in reminders to avoid conversation. 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:13.079 Signs everywhere indicate when areas were last disinfected, and robots 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:16.720 are deployed wherever possible to transport supplies so as to 0:02:16.760 --> 0:02:20.919 reduce the number of people moving from place to place. Elevators, too, 0:02:21.080 --> 0:02:24.519 are an artifact of the before times. Everyone now has 0:02:24.560 --> 0:02:27.400 to take the stairs, keeping their distance from others all 0:02:27.440 --> 0:02:31.239 the way. Presiding over all these measures, one Sunday in 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:34.800 mid April was Chi Yeah, head of Wuhan operations for 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:39.160 Beijing based Lenovo Group. Chi, who's forty eight with closely 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.080 cropped hair and a sturdy frame, had been visiting his 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.800 hometown of Tianjin in China's north when the government sealed 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:48.000 off Wuhan from the rest of the country on January. 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:51.680 It had taken him until February ninth to get home, 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:53.960 and he was only able to make it by buying 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.400 a train ticket to chang Shah further down the line 0:02:56.600 --> 0:02:58.919 and begging the crew to let him get off in Wuhan. 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:02.280 His up was now to bring the factory slowly back 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:06.200 to life, while emphasizing vigilance compared with keeping the virus 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:08.760 out of the plant, He said, how much production we 0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:12.400 can deliver comes second. G is one of millions of 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.360 people in Wuhan trying to figure out what economic and 0:03:15.400 --> 0:03:19.120 social life looks like after the worst pandemic in a century. 0:03:19.240 --> 0:03:22.399 In some respects, they're in a decent position. The outbreak 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:25.880 in Hubei Province peaked in mid February, and according to 0:03:25.919 --> 0:03:29.480 official statistics, there are now almost no new infections occurring, 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:33.960 though other governments have cast out on China's figures, but 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:38.160 scientists warned that the novel coronavirus is stealthy and robust, 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:42.040 and a resurgence is still possible until there's a reliable vaccine. 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.480 How to balance that risk against the need to reignite 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:48.440 an industrial hub of more than ten million people is 0:03:48.480 --> 0:03:52.080 a formidable dilemma one governments around the world will soon 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:56.320 be facing. So far, Wuhan's answer has been to create 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.120 a version of normal that would appear utterly alien to 0:03:59.200 --> 0:04:02.360 people in London, Milan, or New York, at least for 0:04:02.400 --> 0:04:06.640 the moment. While daily routines have largely resumed, there remains 0:04:06.680 --> 0:04:10.640 significant restrictions on a huge range of activities, from funerals 0:04:10.680 --> 0:04:15.800 to hosting visitors at home, Bolstered by China's powerful surveillance state. 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.760 Even the simplest interactions are mediated by a vast infrastructure 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:23.159 of public and private monitoring intended to ensure that no 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:26.839 infection goes undetected for more than a few hours. But 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.440 inasmuch as citizens can return to living as they did 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.440 before January, it's not clear after what they've endured that 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.440 they really want to Shopping malls and department stores are 0:04:37.480 --> 0:04:41.560 open again, but largely empty. The same is true of restaurants. 0:04:41.960 --> 0:04:46.120 People are ordering in instead. The subway is quiet, but 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.640 autos are selling. If being stuck in traffic is annoying, 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:54.520 at least it's socially distanced. Chief figures he's probably on 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:58.279 the right side of this economic rebalancing. Tablets are in 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.520 high demand as schools around the world switched to remote learning, 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:05.279 and companies contemplating a work from home future aren't likely 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.799 to skimp on technology budgets. Since restarting operations, he's hired 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:13.000 more than one thousand workers, bringing the on site total 0:05:13.040 --> 0:05:17.039 above ten thousand, and production lines are running at full capacity. 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.080 He said he was painfully aware, however, of how quickly 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.599 work would stop if even one employee contracted the virus. 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.640 In my meetings with my staff, I always tell them 0:05:27.640 --> 0:05:32.240 no loosening up, no loosening up. We can't allow any accidents. 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:36.960 More than eight percent of China's almost eighty four thousand 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.960 confirmed cases of COVID nineteen and more than of the 0:05:41.040 --> 0:05:45.360 roughly confirmed deaths have been in Hubei, of which Wuhan 0:05:45.480 --> 0:05:49.000 is the capital and largest city. Controlling the outbreak there 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.320 after a series of mistakes by President Shi Jimping's government, 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.800 which initially downplayed the risk of human to human transmission 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:59.920 and failed to prevent widespread infection of medical personnel, required 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:03.840 a herculean effort. More than forty thousand doctors and other 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.600 medical staff were dispatched from other regions to reinforce existing 0:06:07.600 --> 0:06:10.960 facilities and operate field hospitals built in the space of 0:06:11.000 --> 0:06:14.640 ten days, and car and electronics companies were pressed into 0:06:14.640 --> 0:06:18.800 making protective gear. People suspected of having the disease were 0:06:18.839 --> 0:06:23.680 required to move into dormitories and hotels repurposed as isolation facilities, 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.719 and allowed to go home only after they'd been declared 0:06:26.760 --> 0:06:30.520 infection free. Who Bay was the last region of China 0:06:30.600 --> 0:06:34.400 to resume daily life, with curbs on movement lifted progressively 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:37.480 from late March until April eight, more than three months 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.080 after the epidemic began. The government presented the Moment as 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:44.479 a decisive victory, part of a comprehensive effort to rewrite 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.200 the narrative of the virus as a Communist party triumph 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:52.360 in contrast to its catastrophic spread in Western democracies. Late 0:06:52.400 --> 0:06:55.000 on the night of April seven, crowds began arriving at 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:58.200 wu Chang station, one of three large railway hubs in Wuhan. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:01.640 The first outbound train in weeks to guang Jo was 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.440 scheduled to leave at twelve fifty a m, followed by 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.719 a dense schedule of departures to many of China's major cities. 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:11.120 Wuhan's position at the junction of several major rail and 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:14.920 road routes, along with its industrial heft, has invited frequent 0:07:14.920 --> 0:07:19.320 comparisons to Chicago. Police in black uniforms and medical masks 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:22.480 seemed to be everywhere. Scan your code, they shouted at 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:27.320 travelers approaching the departure gates. The public private health code 0:07:27.320 --> 0:07:31.080 system that China developed to manage COVID nineteen, hosted on 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.960 the Alley pay and we chat apps but deeply linked 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:38.800 with the government, assigns one of three viral risk statuses, red, yellow, 0:07:38.880 --> 0:07:42.480 or green to every citizen. It's a powerful tool with 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.560 clear potential for abuse. A green QR code, which denotes 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.560 a low risk of having the virus, is the general default, 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.320 while coming into contact with an infected person can trigger 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:57.080 a yellow code, and a mandatory quarantine red is for 0:07:57.160 --> 0:08:01.720 a likely or confirmed case. Travel between cities requires a 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:05.680 green code, and while Tung Shao twenty two had hers 0:08:05.720 --> 0:08:08.720 and felt fine, she was nervous about making her train. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.520 There's still a chance I'll be stopped if my temperature 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.760 is too high, she said as she neared the departure 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:17.400 z own. Before going to the station, Sung had checked 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.840 repeatedly for a fever, worried that being even a little 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:22.920 bit warm would prevent her from getting to guang Jo, 0:08:23.320 --> 0:08:26.000 where she works as a teacher. I haven't seen my 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:29.200 cat in almost three months, she said. She didn't have 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:31.880 to worry. Her temperature scan was normal, and she was 0:08:31.920 --> 0:08:35.560 soon able to board her train south. Another passenger leaving 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:38.760 on the first day, Chin Chin on twenty six, had 0:08:38.800 --> 0:08:42.160 been stranded since the lockdown began. He'd been on vacation 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.040 in Wuhan when Hubei was cut off, and no amount 0:08:45.080 --> 0:08:47.360 of pleading with officials could get him on a train out. 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:51.600 By mid February. He was living off online loans. I 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:55.120 was eating instant noodles for every meal, he said. He 0:08:55.240 --> 0:08:58.480 ended up getting a bed in an austere dormitory constructed 0:08:58.480 --> 0:09:01.280 by the local government for people who couldn't leave. He 0:09:01.400 --> 0:09:04.800 also found work doing odd jobs at leshan Shan Hospital, 0:09:05.200 --> 0:09:08.640 one of the temporary infirmaries built to handle coronavirus patients. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.880 He'd lost his regular job at a company in Jangsu 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:15.240 Province that makes robots because he couldn't get back, and 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:17.600 was now headed to Guangdong to look for another one 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:20.800 and see his family. He hadn't told his parents where 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:23.120 he'd been all this time. As far as they knew 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.160 he was away working, I will not tell them I 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:30.840 was in Wuhan, Chin said. When dawn broke, Wuhan came 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:34.480 cautiously back to life. Hairdressers were some of the first 0:09:34.520 --> 0:09:38.320 businesses to fill up. The roads were noticeably busier, and 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.080 workers flowed back into office towers in the city center. 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:45.440 But these new freedoms felt distinctly provisional. At the entrance 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.640 to every mall or public building, guards stood sentry with 0:09:48.679 --> 0:09:52.200 temperature scanners, ready to turn away anyone whose reading was 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:55.800 too high. Green codes required even to ride the subway 0:09:56.080 --> 0:09:59.280 have become the city's most precious possession, and one that's 0:09:59.320 --> 0:10:02.200 easy to lose is Merely visiting a building around the 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:04.679 same time as a person later found to be infected 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:08.160 can turn them yellow. And apartment compounds still reserve the 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.280 right to bar residents from leaving if cases are reported there, 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.880 as they did during the lockdown. Even in the first 0:10:14.920 --> 0:10:18.040 city to confront the virus, following a containment effort as 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:20.520 intense as any in the history of public health, the 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:25.880 danger remains acute. Asymptomatic cases and imported cases are still risks. 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:29.080 Wang Xinghuan, the president of one of the city's major 0:10:29.160 --> 0:10:32.560 hospitals and of the LEA shan Shan Facility, told reporters 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:35.720 at a press conference before the latter's closing, and many 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:39.840 residents are still susceptible. Wang's hospital gave antibody tests to 0:10:40.000 --> 0:10:42.959 all thirty six hundred of its staff, and fewer than 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:47.040 three percent came back positive, a result that shows there's 0:10:47.080 --> 0:10:50.720 no herd immunity in Wuhan. There's only one way to 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:56.480 durably protect the population, he said, a vaccine. Wuhan's businesses 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.440 are nevertheless hoping for a safe but speedy return to 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:02.920 conspicu was consumption. In the days before the city fully 0:11:02.960 --> 0:11:05.760 reopened for business, the sales team at a local Audi 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:09.080 dealership gathered for their daily meeting. The twenty or so 0:11:09.200 --> 0:11:12.520 salespeople were all dressed in dark suits and face masks, 0:11:12.559 --> 0:11:16.280 standing well over a meter apart in neat columns as 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:19.200 a manager briefed them on the day's plans. A colleague 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:22.400 made his way through the group, spraying everyone with disinfectant 0:11:22.440 --> 0:11:26.240 as they spun around to ensure full coverage. Customers may 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:28.120 not be kind enough to tell you if they don't 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.000 feel well, so try not to bring them into the store, 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.160 the manager said, just talk to them at the entrance 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:38.640 if possible. After reopening on March twenty three, the dealership 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:41.720 had been selling about seven cars per day, on pace 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.600 with last year, despite all the restrictions. Most were relatively 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.160 low end vehicles, such as the A three, which retails 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.200 for about two thousand u n Twenty eight thousand dollars, 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.320 the kind of car often bought by families to complement 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:58.800 a bigger, fancier model. People are not willing to take 0:11:58.840 --> 0:12:02.280 public transport and on, said the marketing director, who asked 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.600 to be identified by only his surname Pan, and they 0:12:05.600 --> 0:12:09.320 don't dare commute by de D, the ubiquitous ride hailing app. 0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:12.599 The focus now, Pan said, was on following up with 0:12:12.640 --> 0:12:14.560 people who had expressed interest in an Audi in the 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:18.520 past but hadn't bought one. They might be ready to bite. 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:21.719 The dealership was looking to expand its current staff of 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.080 about one fifty and employees would soon receive the pay 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:29.000 they'd missed during the lockdown. Another salesperson added, it's like 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:33.160 a boom for many other businesses in Wuhan, though it's 0:12:33.200 --> 0:12:37.440 anything but. Benny Shao is director of international operations at 0:12:37.440 --> 0:12:40.880 Wuhan Boyan Paper and Plastic, which produces the kind of 0:12:40.960 --> 0:12:44.040 unremarkable but essential goods that still form the backbone of 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:48.880 Chinese industry. In his case, their disposable cups, which Buoyan 0:12:49.080 --> 0:12:52.840 sells to US airlines and Japanese retailers, among other clients. 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.040 Shall works from an office inside a dilapidated residential compound, 0:12:57.480 --> 0:13:00.560 and wearing a battered gray blazer over a green button down, 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:03.760 he didn't quite look the part of an international dealmaker, 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.240 but he beamed with pride as he showed off a 0:13:06.240 --> 0:13:09.560 glass cabinet in his office stuffed with examples of his craft, 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:13.280 from thin plastic vessels for economy class soda to a 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:18.000 sturdy tumbler he'd tried unsuccessfully to sell the Starbucks. The 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:20.959 first months of the pandemic were challenging for Shaw, as 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:24.280 they were for everyone in Wuhan. His wife, now retired, 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:27.400 spent her career as a doctor at Chehe Hospital, one 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:29.320 of the first to report cases of what was later 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.880 identified as the coronavirus, and she'd begun hearing from colleagues 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:37.000 in mid January about the impending crisis. Sick residents were 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:40.160 lining up outside Scheh at ten pm in the freezing cold, 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:42.760 many of them older people who could barely make it. 0:13:42.920 --> 0:13:47.680 Shall recalled patients were really desperately looking for help. He 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:49.800 and his wife had stocked up on food before the 0:13:49.840 --> 0:13:53.160 lockdown began, but three weeks in they started to run out. 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.240 Unlike in Europe and the U S, Wuhan's contained measures 0:13:57.240 --> 0:14:00.000 made it difficult for people to leave their buildings even 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.160 to buy groceries, forcing them to rely on delivery apps, 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.800 government drop offs, and neighbors who wrangled permission to go out. 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:09.959 At one point, Chao had to spend twenty six u 0:14:10.120 --> 0:14:13.640 n almost four dollars for a single cabbage, more than 0:14:13.679 --> 0:14:17.240 triple the usual price. Some of the vegetables provided by 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:21.440 local officials were barely edible. He returned in late March 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:24.680 to a company in severe trouble. Orders in the first 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.479 half of the year were headed for a fifty percent drop, 0:14:27.560 --> 0:14:31.000 with demand from food deliveries failing to offset the calamitous 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:34.480 decline in air travel. The government had made some financial 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:37.120 help available, but chall wasn't sure he'd be able to 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:41.160 avoid layoffs back in January and February. I was expecting 0:14:41.200 --> 0:14:44.320 things to come back to normal in April, he said. Instead, 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:46.680 I was just calling the bank this morning to tell 0:14:46.680 --> 0:14:48.800 them that I can't repay the interest on our loan. 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:53.600 For a country that's experienced an essentially uninterrupted boom throughout 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:57.200 the living memory of anyone younger than fifty, broad based 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:01.840 economic pain is deeply unfamiliar. The Chinese economy shrank six 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:04.000 point eight percent in the first quarter of the year, 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:07.240 and the International Monetary Fund estimates it will grow just 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.760 one point two percent in twenty twenty, the slowest pace 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:15.520 of expansion since nineteen seventy six. Urban unemployment a widely 0:15:15.520 --> 0:15:19.640 scrutinized indicator of overall joblessness rose to a record six 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.480 point two percent in February, before pulling back slightly in March. 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:26.720 And it's not clear what China's business model will look 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.880 like in a world where Europe, the U S, and 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.080 other key markets for its goods are flirting with a depression. 0:15:32.800 --> 0:15:36.240 Chao is sixty four, part of a Chinese generation that 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:39.080 had seen more than its share of history even before 0:15:39.080 --> 0:15:42.840 the coronavirus emerged. But he struggled to recall anything in 0:15:42.880 --> 0:15:46.200 his experience that was more dramatic, save perhaps the famine 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.840 of the Great Leap Forward when he was a young child. 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.280 This is the biggest crisis of my lifetime, he said. 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:57.920 The entrance to Wuhan's Byan dan Shan Cemetery is marked 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:01.000 by an impressive stone gate with the pagoda style roof 0:16:01.080 --> 0:16:04.280 and a frieze of a ferocious looking dragon, but in 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.000 recent weeks it's been partly hidden behind a series of 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:11.040 bright yellow crowd control barriers, surrounded by temporary metal fencing 0:16:11.320 --> 0:16:15.160 and watched carefully by police. Almost no one is permitted 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:18.640 to enter until April, and even then access is likely 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:22.760 to be strictly controlled. Officially, no patients in Wuhan are 0:16:22.760 --> 0:16:25.920 still dying from COVID nineteen, but the treatment of those 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:30.240 who did pass away remains an extremely sensitive subject. On 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:34.440 Tomb Sweeping Day in early April, when Chinese families traditionally 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.480 gather to pay respects to their ancestors, Wuhan's cemeteries were 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:41.920 kept closed. Funerals have been banned until at least the 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:44.280 end of the month, and family members of the dead 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:48.360 have reported pressure from government officials to mourn quickly and quietly. 0:16:49.120 --> 0:16:51.960 According to the government, these measures are purely a matter 0:16:52.040 --> 0:16:55.360 of public health because family gatherings are a potential vector 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:59.280 for infection, but the restrictions also help Beijing avoid having 0:16:59.320 --> 0:17:02.040 funerals come a venue for people to vent anger about 0:17:02.080 --> 0:17:05.600 how the epidemic was handled, or to ask uncomfortable questions 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.800 about subjects such as China's true death toll. Whatever the 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:13.040 reasons for maintaining the band, some mental health providers in 0:17:13.119 --> 0:17:16.359 Wuhan have expressed fears that the inability to properly mourn 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:21.080 loved ones will have deep and enduring psychological consequences. The 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:24.679 city's residents were the first to undergo the unprecedented social 0:17:24.680 --> 0:17:28.040 shutdown that's been repeated around the world, and it seems 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.359 certain to mark many of them for a long time, 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:35.160 especially if it's compounded by a prolonged economic slump. Yeao 0:17:35.240 --> 0:17:38.639 John is among those struggling to move on the petit. 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.040 Fifty year old is the founder and general manager of 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:45.359 Wuhan Well Held Photoelectric, a manufacturer of welding helmets and 0:17:45.400 --> 0:17:49.880 protective masks that exports to France, Germany and the US. 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.399 She came back to work on March thirteenth after waiting 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:56.040 through approvals from four layers of government, including her local 0:17:56.080 --> 0:17:59.760 neighborhood committee, which took fifteen days to assess well hells 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.159 of city to prevent infections. We can't afford to have 0:18:03.200 --> 0:18:06.480 a single one, Yow said in an interview at her factory. 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:09.720 Every day the production line can run is crucial. Well 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:11.960 Hell was trying to catch up on orders that hadn't 0:18:11.960 --> 0:18:13.720 been able to complete in the first few months of 0:18:13.720 --> 0:18:16.600 the year. Even as Yew wasn't sure her customers in 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:19.960 lockdown overseas markets would be able to take the deliveries, 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:22.919 she had no idea when more business would come in 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:27.560 given what's happening to the global economy. Despite the uncertainties. 0:18:27.640 --> 0:18:29.919 She was trying to focus on work rather than what 0:18:29.960 --> 0:18:32.680 the city had just gone through. I can't see news 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:36.800 about medical workers without crying, Yow said, choking back tears 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:39.240 and rubbing a jade key chain attached to her phone. 0:18:40.119 --> 0:18:42.879 She was having trouble sleeping as she turned over the 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:45.680 stories of doctors and nurses who had succumbed to COVID 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:49.119 nineteen again and again in her head. I don't know 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:52.560 these people, but if someone tells me what happened to them, 0:18:52.600 --> 0:18:56.879 it's devastating. These deaths aren't just numbers or strange names 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:00.879 to me, their vivid lives. She leave that many of 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:04.680 her neighbors and colleagues were experiencing similar emotions but might 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.920 not be willing or able to talk about them. Many 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.359 other people are traumatized but can't recognize the problem or 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:15.680 express their feelings. She said. The pandemic was causing Yao 0:19:15.880 --> 0:19:19.080 to rethink her life. She spent almost half of last 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:23.359 year on the road, often visiting clients overseas. Now, she 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:25.880 said she wanted to spend much more time at home, 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.720 keeping her family close. Her son was supposed to return 0:19:29.760 --> 0:19:33.080 to Australia for university in February, but he was unable 0:19:33.119 --> 0:19:36.879 to get there. For obvious reasons. Yow didn't want him 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:43.000 to go back. Even after seemingly world shattering events, human 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.800 behavior has a way of reverting to the mean. In 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:49.919 the weeks after September eleven, commentators predicted the end of globalization, 0:19:50.400 --> 0:19:55.840 of the skyscraper of irony, which all needless to say, persisted. 0:19:56.640 --> 0:19:59.160 Within a couple of years of the global financial crisis, 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:03.000 banks and homebuyers were back to arranging risky mortgages, and 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.760 the very wealthy we're back to and then well beyond 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.720 pre two thousand eight levels of excess. It's reasonable to 0:20:09.800 --> 0:20:13.560 think this time will be different. Hardly anyone alive today 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.960 has endured a pandemic this severe, and the basic problem 0:20:16.960 --> 0:20:21.040 it's created that anyone, whether friend, family, or stranger, might 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:24.639 be a vector for lethal infection is uniquely corrosive to 0:20:24.680 --> 0:20:28.840 the daily interactions that keep countries and economies going. An 0:20:28.840 --> 0:20:31.879 effective vaccine could be at least a year off, and 0:20:31.960 --> 0:20:34.119 given what the world has learned about how quickly a 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:37.600 novel pathogen can shut everything down, even that might not 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:41.000 return things to the way they were. Wuhan was the 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.000 first place to traverse both sides of the COVID nineteen 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:48.080 curve and how it changes or doesn't in the diseases 0:20:48.119 --> 0:20:50.560 aftermath will say a lot to the rest of us. 0:20:51.520 --> 0:20:55.440 Many of the city's methods won't be universally applicable. Few 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:58.800 other governments could assemble the all seeing anti viral surveillance 0:20:58.880 --> 0:21:01.400 China is trying to put in place, even if they 0:21:01.400 --> 0:21:06.080 wanted to. Fewer still probably have populations that would tolerate it. 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:09.720 But whatever the tactics, the key lesson of Wuhan could 0:21:09.800 --> 0:21:12.080 be that the price of beating the virus is never 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:15.399 ending vigilance and a reordering of priorities that will be 0:21:15.440 --> 0:21:19.240 hard for many to accept. At a Starbucks in one 0:21:19.240 --> 0:21:23.040 of Wuhan's fancier shopping districts, ma Ren Wren, a thirty 0:21:23.040 --> 0:21:26.280 two year old entrepreneur who runs a small marketing agency, 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.280 talked about how he was sorting out these questions for himself. 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:32.400 The store was open, but only serving drinks to go, 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:36.760 with customers permitted to sit at outdoor tables. Security guards 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:40.240 were keeping a close eye on things, interrupting conversations to 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:42.840 tell patrons to keep their masks on in between SIPs 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:46.679 and not sit too close together. Ma who was wearing 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:50.760 fashionably oversized glasses, a black baseball cap, and of course, 0:21:50.880 --> 0:21:53.600 a light blue medical mask, had gone to stay at 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.480 his parents apartment on Januar, intending to help take care 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.399 of them, but soon he began to suspe act that 0:22:00.520 --> 0:22:03.280 he might be sick. It was a time of greatly 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:07.080 heightened emotion. No one knew the true fatality rate, and 0:22:07.160 --> 0:22:09.800 people in Wuhan were seeing reports on social media of 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:14.359 appalling conditions in overwhelmed hospitals. I wrote my last words 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:17.280 one night and decided to say farewell to my parents 0:22:17.359 --> 0:22:20.400 and go to the hospital alone. The next morning, Ma recalled, 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.119 I knew that if I went, I couldn't necessarily expect 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:27.440 to come back. He changed his mind at the last 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:31.720 minute and eventually felt better, though the psychological effects lingered. 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.080 He began having panic attacks, his breath short and his 0:22:35.160 --> 0:22:39.200 heart pounding. After looking up the symptoms online, he concluded 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:43.520 that he was experiencing post traumatic stress experiences like his 0:22:43.720 --> 0:22:46.960 MA thought would make many people more introspective and more 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:50.600 focused on those closest to them. We will put aside 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:53.560 more time for ourselves and our families, and for the 0:22:53.600 --> 0:22:57.240 other relationships that seemed truly worth holding onto during the crisis, 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:03.359 he said, misfortune tests the sincerity of friendship. Ma was 0:23:03.400 --> 0:23:05.600 now trying to get his company back on its feet. 0:23:06.200 --> 0:23:08.479 The government had recently sent him a tax rebate as 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:11.160 part of its stimulus measures, but this would help only 0:23:11.200 --> 0:23:15.480 so much. Tourism has collapsed and few potential clients have 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:19.200 much money for promotion. There's nothing to do but move on, 0:23:19.440 --> 0:23:23.679 he said. Ma had inevitably lowered his ambitions, and for 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:26.240 the time being, he was all right with that. We 0:23:26.359 --> 0:23:31.479 worked NonStop for years, chasing every opportunity, he said. Now 0:23:31.960 --> 0:23:36.040 everyone I know has one goal for it's to survive 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:41.800