In December, Chinese pop singer Jane Zhang deliberately infected herself with the coronavirus. It created a furore as the country continues to battle the surge in infections. But Zhang is not alone. It turns out many young Chinese are self-infecting. Zhang met “sheep”, a term used for virus carriers in the mainland, toward the end of December so that she would not miss her New Year’s concert. Chinese millennials and zoomers have similar reasons. The 40-day period of the Lunar New Year travel is around and as China has done away with its stringent zero-COVID policy after three years, many don’t want to miss out. Vexed by the lack of medical services in the country, the youth is reportedly ignoring all health warnings and going out to invite infections. Many believe that if they get infected and are quarantined at home for 14 days, they will get immunity from the virus.
