China’s Meds, Masks Bought Out! More Deaths Than During COVID, Undertaker Says. Disease X Fears Rise

A video circulating widely in mainland China shows an elderly farmer visiting a hospital with a plastic bag over his face. The bag expands and contracts as he speaks, leaving viewers laughing uncontrollably. But behind the laughter lies a serious concern. Face masks were once again in short supply across China, as a severe outbreak quietly spreads. Online users say outbreaks are spreading through schools across China, forcing many elementary and middle school classes to suspend lessons. Some schools have begun requiring masks, while medicines, masks and other protective supplies remain scarce. Internal figures indicate that the death toll has reached its highest level in four years. Pharmacy owners in mainland China say recent COVID variants are more contagious and more severe than in previous years. Hospitals are packed every day, and families line up at children's hospitals even late at night and before dawn. Ambulances repeatedly enter and leave residential neighborhoods throughout the day, while medicines and protective supplies remain in short supply. Pharmacy owner Mr. Jiang told reporters, It keeps mutating. Air circulates everywhere. So the virus is everywhere. Nobody can escape it. Things are really difficult now. A kindergarten near my home has already closed. Even adults can't withstand it. There's nothing we can do. Manufacturers have almost no cough medicine or masks left in stock. Supplies are tight and prices are going up. He said this year's policy requires a class to suspend lessons if more than 10 students become infected within a week. Many classes now have 10 or 20 infected students. Some have closed, while others neither report the cases nor suspend classes. Another pharmacy owner, Mr. Lin, said, Our pharmacy has run out of N95 masks. There are clusters of infections in both northern and southern China, and schools are closing. Some schools have already made masks mandatory. This year's COVID is even more unpredictable and hits much harder. I can't say too much because we're not allowed to publicize it. Lin also said that in the past, middle-aged and older people with high blood pressure, high blood sugar, or high cholesterol were especially vulnerable to heart and brain blood vessel diseases in fall and winter. Now, he said, COVID infections can trigger heart attacks or strokes at any age. Well-known cardiovascular and cerebrovascular hospitals have long lines every day, and beds are extremely scarce. Now, he said, COVID infections can trigger heart attacks or strokes at any age. Well-known cardiovascular and cerebrovascular hospitals have long lines every day, and beds are extremely scarce. Lin said, even young people can't withstand it this year. So many people in their 30s and 40s have died from heart attacks or strokes. I've seen several cases around me. They thought they had a cold. But it never got better. They tried all kinds of medicine, and nothing worked. After more than 20 days, they had a heart attack. At the hospital, tests showed it was caused by COVID. Medical experts in mainland China say this COVID outbreak involves two emerging variants, and TA.1, both descendants of the Omicron XFG lineage. Research indicates that PJ.2.1 binds particularly strongly to the ACE2 receptor, allowing it to infect a wider range of cell types. One expert said, Many of our fellow citizens quietly died during the COVID peaks. Laboratory figures released for September show the highest number of deaths since 2022. Models project that by the end of December, 25% of the population will have been infected during the winter wave. People with heart problems are a particularly vulnerable group. Funeral industry workers have posted videos saying more people have died this year than during the pandemic. One said, I just saw a cremation chart of a funeral parlor. I just saw a crematorium schedule and it really shocked me. Look at the date, October 1st, 2026, National Day. Now look at the ages. Isn't that shocking? They're all people born in the 1980s. The oldest was only 53. What's going on? The causes of death aren't listed. But think about it. At those ages, these can't all be natural death. Accidents happen, of course, but not that many. So I suspect most die from illness. How did people born in the 1980s become the main group? There's a saying I really agree with. People don't only die when they're old. It can happen anytime, anywhere. So stop fighting and arguing. Nothing matters more than being alive and living well. Another worker said, Today I sent two people away. I helped arrange two more funerals just today. One person was born in 1990 and was 34. The other was born in 1986 and was 38. People at the funeral home were crying uncontrollably, and they were all around the same age. I've seen plenty of death, but even I got chills watching that scene. Both families told me exactly the same thing. He was fine yesterday. Didn't seem sick. He hardly ever even caught a cold. How could he suddenly be gone? According to the paper, a state-owned Chinese digital newspaper, China has entered the early rising stage of flu season. Unlike previous years, outbreaks are spreading from south to north. Staying on top of news out of China isn't easy. Information is tightly controlled. Official statements don't always match what's happening on the ground. And coverage outside the country can swing wildly depending on who's reporting it. That's exactly why we use Ground News, today's sponsor. Every day, Ground News pulls coverage from over 50,000 sources and shows you who's reporting a story, how they're framing it, and who's staying quiet. Bias ratings, ownership, Funding. It's all right there before you even click. Take this story about China's third quarter GDP. According to official figures, the economy grew 4.5% from a year earlier, helped by strong exports. Right at the top, ground news shows that nearly 300 sources covered the story. Among the sources with a bias rating, 29% are on the left, 44% are in the center, and 27% are on the right. You can also check who owns each outlet and see its factuality rating. That gives you more context as you compare how different sources cover the same GDP report. Now let's compare headlines. On the left, Novinki.cz, rated lean left by Ground News, ran the headline, China's economy is strong. It has found a new growth engine. The American Enterprise Institute, rated right, took a different angle. Wayne's China's latest GDP claim is odd. The first headline focuses on what's driving growth. The second questions the GDP figure itself. Put them side by side, and the difference is clear before you even open either article. That's what we liked about Ground News. It makes it easier to see where the coverage differs and decide what's worth taking a closer look. Now, they're giving our viewers 40% off the Unlimited Access Vantage Plan, which gives you everything you've seen here plus more. Scan the QR code on screen or go to ground.news/china. The link is in the description. That's ground.news/china. Flu activity is moderate in southern provinces and low in northern provinces. Influenza now ranks first among respiratory pathogens detected in outpatient and emergency department patients. Sentinel hospital figures released October 28th showed that 14.7% of patients with flu-like symptoms in outpatient and emergency departments tested positive for influenza, the highest rate among respiratory pathogens. From October 19th through 25, there were 145 reported outbreaks of flu-like illness, up several-fold from 28 the previous week, showing a rapid overall increase. Among circulating flu viruses, influenza A accounts for 67.6%, while influenza B's Victoria lineage accounts for 32.4%. Within influenza A, H3N2 makes up 67.2%, and H1N1 accounts for 32.8%. Overall, three strains are circulating at the same time. As outbreaks spread, hospitals across mainland China are becoming overcrowded. One person posted a video, saying the computer system suddenly crashed while they were at a children's hospital. Everyone had already waited for hours. Parents could neither pay their bills nor collect medicine, leaving them overwhelmed. They waited from morning until afternoon with no solution. Technology may seem to be improving, but when the network goes down, everything falls apart Another person said the hospital they visited had begun limiting the number of people entering. They had previously seen crowd controls like that only at shopping malls during holidays. A video posted online said, I just arrived at Wuhan Union Hospital and I have so many emotions. Getting medical care is really hard. It's packed here and there's never a quiet season. Some people are experiencing joy. On November 4th, a Shanghai Douyin creator said it was raining heavily. But the hospitals were still packed. Another said, This flu wave is brutal. Nearly 20 children in the class are sick. Yesterday, I was praising my son's good health, and today he caught it. I brought him to the doctor, and there's a long line at the clinic. Clearly, we're not the only family dealing with this. Another creator said, It's flu season, and hospitals are overflowing. It's almost noon, but they're only now seeing patients with 9 a.m. appointments. Even the most comprehensive vaccine couldn't keep the flu away. Winter is a challenge for every child, and so much of a family's spending ends up going to hospitals. A person in Shandong said flu has been widespread in kindergartens since the National Day holiday in early October. Another in Sichuan said, same here, we were sick throughout October and ended up in the hospital. Every single person in our family was knocked down by it. According to CCTV Finance, Wang Dayan, Director of Chinese National Influenza Center said Influenza A H3N2 and Influenza B Victoria have circulated together since July, with H3N2 accounting for a larger share. This year's flu season has two main features, multiple active strains and an earlier start. Widespread cooling and more indoor gatherings are increasing the risk of clustered infections in enclosed spaces such as schools and office buildings. Li Tongzheng Chief Physician in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Beijing Youan Hospital said that in previous years, one strain usually dominated. This year, both influenza A and B are circulating, including H3N2 and H1N1 with influenza A. H1N1's share is rising in China, so the dominant strain could change later. Common symptoms described in this flu wave include persistent high fever that quickly returns after fever-reducing medication, and symptoms that do not improve after more than five days. Severe coughing, chest tightness or pain, wheezing and rapid breathing may signal pneumonia. In children, extreme drowsiness, difficulty waking, unusual irritability and frequent vomiting may signal encephalitis. In young adults, chest tightness or pain after activity, Shortness of breath. Dizziness or fainting may signal myocarditis. Meanwhile, sources within China's medical system say COVID outbreaks are continuing, with many severe cases and numerous deaths. They also say people's immune cells are gradually becoming exhausted, raising fears that a disease X pandemic, a possibility previously highlighted by the World Health Organization, could be approaching. Chinese virologist Mr. Zhang told the media that when a virus infects the body, naive B-cells in the immune system become activated and develop into memory B-cells. When the same virus returns, these cells help produce antibodies quickly to fight it. This is essential for long-term immunity. But he said recent research suggests naive B-cells among Chinese people are increasingly difficult to activate, and he fears a disease X pandemic could be imminent. Disease X is a placeholder term introduced by the World Health Organization in 2018. It does not refer to an existing illness such as COVID-19, Ebola, or influenza. Instead, it describes the possibility of a serious international epidemic or pandemic caused by a pathogen not yet known to cause disease in humans. Zhang said, it's been four years since lockdowns ended in late 2022, and many people first caught COVID. Recently, two-thirds of naive B cells have become difficult to activate and can't readily produce antibodies. That means only one-third of our naive B cells remain active. Overall, the countdown has begun. It means a pandemic is starting. He told reporters that laboratories are receiving more and more severe cases. Because the coronavirus mutates so rapidly, he said there's no specific cure. Hospitals may use monoclonal antibody treatments, but recovery ultimately depends on the patient's own immune system. Zhang said, severe cases are rising rapidly. Those who cannot be saved are developing immune-related complications. In the end, even an ordinary bacterium can overwhelm them, while drug resistance progresses faster. Laboratory indicators have already reached the red warning zone. He added many people feel that viruses and bacteria have become more dangerous, but repeated COVID infections have actually dulled immune responses, leaving the body unable to activate its defenses quickly when pathogens invade. Mycoplasma used to be very weak, sometimes not even causing illnesses. Why is it so serious now? Because COVID has changed how our immune system responds to emergencies. Your whole body immune response doesn't activate at first. By the time the pathogen has multiplied enough to trigger that response, it may already be too late for some people. Hospitals repeatedly treat certain immune disorders by administering large amounts of immunoglobulin, commonly described as antibodies. One online commenter said, some patients have spent hundreds of thousands of yuan on injections. Another lamented, if you're poor, you can't even afford to get sick anymore. Mr. Li, an employee of China's health authorities, told reporters, COVID is spreading, and many people have died. We really have no way to stop it, and we're keeping the information under wraps. Your only hope is your own immunoglobulin. Every patient admitted to intensive care has to receive it, eight bottles a day. It's not reimbursed. It all comes down to whether your family has money. According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's latest national COVID-19 update, which was released October 30th, there were 346,000 newly confirmed cases in September, including 271 severe cases and nine deaths. All nine deaths involved patients with underlying illnesses and COVID infection. All 15,996 valid viral genome sequences submitted from domestic cases were Omicron variants, with PQ16.1.1 and its sublineages predominating. A Chinese virology expert who requested anonymity said, The latest data show that COVID's main harm is accelerating biological markers of aging across the population. The damage is progressive and keeps getting worse. Some people are even worse off, developing immune failure similar to AIDS. Eventually, a single bacterium or fungus can take their life. On October 26, a research team led by Cao Yunlong, an assistant professor at Peking University's Biomedical Pioneering Innovation Center and a Chinese immunologist, along with their collaborators, published a paper in an international journal. The study describes an immune mechanism that may help explain why the COVID variant BA.3.2.2 spreads preferentially among children, unlike earlier variants. The expert said a child's first vaccine dose triggers an initial immune response and leaves a lasting immune imprint, directly affecting how efficiently antibodies respond in the future. But the immune imprint from domestically produced COVID vaccines is very weak and doesn't provide adequate protection, which is why so many children become infected. BA.3.2 is rising very quickly and accounts for substantial share. They can no longer hide it. It is extremely harmful to vaccinated people. Research data show serious blood clot problems, which is why the information hasn't been released. He also said inactivated COVID vaccines accelerate the development of cancer and diabetes, so conditions that might previously have been diagnosed after five to eight years are now being diagnosed within two. But vaccines have become a politically sensitive subject in China. At one lecture, an expert discussing the actual situation with domestic vaccines suddenly had their microphone muted. The experts said bluntly, laboratory work has fully confirmed that vaccines are extremely harmful. One very important conclusion is that they greatly increase the risk of new disease. The first problem is damage to the heart muscle and the lining around the heart. The second is immune-related blood clots that are difficult to dissolve, along with nerve damage that leads to uncontrolled muscle movements. Amid this severe outbreak, troubling practices have also emerged in China's medical system. A 66-year-old man from Jiangsu sought treatment for a persistent cough at a top-tier hospital in Shanghai. On a doctor's recommendation, he transferred to a lower-ranked hospital for inpatient care. But the next day, he was told the hospital could not treat him and advised him to transfer to another top-tier facility. While waiting for a specialist appointment elsewhere, he spent nine and a half days hospitalized and incurred more than 20,000 yuan in charges. After visiting several more hospitals and spending over 50,000 yuan in total, he finally received a diagnosis. The referral has since drawn public scrutiny. According to a November 3rd report by the Yangtze Evening Post, the 66-year-old Jiangsu resident had undergone repeated treatment for a persistent cough without finding its cause. Hoping a major hospital could identify the problem, he secured an appointment on May 11th with a specialist in respiratory and critical care medicine in Shanghai's Zhongshan Hospital. Doctors ordered lung function tests and a CT scan and prescribed cough medicine. On May 14th, the patient's son, Mr. Huang, secured a follow-up appointment at a general outpatient clinic. The hospital recommended hospitalization, but said beds at the main hospital were scarce. He offered to arrange admission to a branch hospital and recommended Xuhui District Central Hospital, repeatedly implying it was affiliated with Zhongshan Hospital and can treat his father. Huang took his father there on May 15th and completed the admission process, but on the second day, doctors said they could not treat his condition and recommended transferring him to another top-tier hospital. Then, Huang booked specialist appointments at other Shanghai hospitals. By discharge, his father had been hospitalized for nine days and a half, with medical bills totaling over 20,000 yuan. The family said the hospital never warned them that their account had an outstanding balance. Only at discharge did they discover that they owed more than 18,000 yuan. Even more upsetting, they believed the hospital was a Zhongshan branch. The final bill revealed it was actually Xuhui District Central Hospital, a lower-ranked tertiary grade B facility. Huang then took his father to several other Shanghai hospitals. After spending more than 50,000 yuan, they still had no diagnosis. Only at the Second Affiliated Hospital of Shanghai Jiao Tong University did doctors diagnose a tracheoesophageal fistula, an abnormal connection between the windpipe and the esophagus. His condition finally improved after treatment. After Huang filed a complaint, the Shuhe District Medical Insurance Bureau identified multiple violations at Shuhe District Central Hospital, including prescribing medications outside approved instructions and improper charges for serum myoglobin tests. The violations totaled nearly 6,000 yuan, including more than 4,000 yuan to be refunded to the patient and over 1,700 yuan involving medical insurance funds. The hospital was also fined nearly 9,000 yuan, and the doctor received a four-point penalty under the medical insurance system. Chinese media reported that although the hospital where Huang's father stayed was officially called Shuhe District Central Hospital, signs on its exterior read Zhongshan Hospital, Shuhe Hospital, Fudan University, and Shuhe Hospital affiliated with Fudan University. However, a Zhongshan Hospital medical affairs official said the two hospitals had essentially no relationship. The report also noted repeated administrative penalties against against Shuhe District Central Hospital. Since October 2023, the District Medical Insurance Bureau has penalized it three times, imposing fines totaling nearly 900,000 yuan. On November 4th, the hashtag top-tier hospital doctor recommends a patient go to a lower-tier hospital trended on Weibo. One commenter said, this is an unwritten hospital practice. My family member had advanced cancer, and the hospital said there were no beds. They recommended a private rehabilitation center. One month there cost us more than 100,000 yuan, another person wrote. It happened to me too. I saw the department director at a famous top-tier hospital to arrange surgery. The doctor directly suggested a private hospital, saying it would cost more, but insurance would cover it, and he would personally perform the operation. He said I'd never get a surgery slot if I waited at a top-tier hospital. I switched hospitals immediately. One vlogger said, My first reaction to this trending topic was anger, but after reading the full story, what I really felt was disheartened. The penalties left me speechless too. Shuhe District Central Hospital refunded a little over 4,000 yuan and was fined just over 8,000. The doctor received a four-point medical insurance penalty. Is that really the price of a referral scheme that delayed a patient's treatment and cost his family tens of thousands of yuan unnecessarily? As one comment put it, The fine doesn't even cover the tests the elderly man had to undergo while being sent from hospital to hospital. Healthcare isn't a business, and patients aren't customer leads. People make appointments at top-tier hospitals because they trust them. If that trust becomes a tool for steering patients elsewhere, Mr. Huang won't be the only one left deeply disappointed. Notably, during widespread flooding several months earlier, one woman online had predicted an epidemic. She said in a video, 大灾之后必有大疫，这不是一句吓人的话 Major epidemics follow major disasters. That's not just something people say to frighten you. It's a painful lesson, confirmed by countless lives over thousands of years. Take the great Yangtze River flood of 1931. Nearly 30,000 people died in Wuhan, but only about 3,600 drowned. That means the epidemic killed almost 10 times as many people as the floodwaters did. Before the plague in the late Ming Dynasty, there had been frequent earthquakes and other natural disasters. Nearly 200,000 people ultimately died of plague. Disasters take the first group of lives, and epidemics take the second. She identified several key factors behind epidemics following disasters. First is contaminated water. Water systems often fail after major disasters, and sewage can flow backward into supplies, allowing disease to spread through drinking water. Second is environmental destruction, as human and animal remains decay, and mosquitoes and other insects multiply. Third is overcrowding in shelters, combined with emotional distress and severe psychological pressure. which can weaken immunity and greatly increase the risk of infection. She added that historical accounts from the Qing dynasty identified epidemics as one of the leading causes of death in Chinese history, often following floods, droughts, and wars. She said the recent succession of fires Floods and windstorms was another reason for heightened vigilance. One online commentator said that in China, the healthcare system often provides attentive care only to a small number of powerful and wealthy people, leaving ordinary citizens to fend for themselves. In the face of a severe epidemic, the commenter said it's important to remain calm and kind, reduce material desires, and avoid unnecessary arguments to stay healthier. Money should not be treated as life's highest or only goal. Health matters most.