Today, international news media report that uncharacteristic—and possibly unprecedented—protests are underway across China (See BBC, Guardian, Sky News, The Times). Citizens are reportedly taking to the streets because of the government’s zero-SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 policy, which has brought sweeping, but irregular, lockdowns across some of the country’s regions.
Going on for nearly three years, the restrictions, which include literally locking residents into high-rise apartment buildings as means of combating Coronavirus outbreaks, are as oppressive and severe as the first massive quarantines implemented in late January 2020. While the rest of the world moves to living with an endemic disease, China maintains a pandemic public health policy.
Strange timing, on this alarming and momentous Sunday, that I should walk by a discarded mask that is oh-so appropriate commentary on COVID-19 mandates. The thing lay in the alley behind our apartment building, and I stopped to chuckle before hauling out Leica Q2 to capture the Featured Image. Vitals, aperture manually set: f/4, ISO 100, 1/2000 sec, 28mm; 11:48 a.m. PST.