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A medical worker conducts Covid-19 tests in Shanghai Chen Si/AP

China's censors scrub viral Shanghai lockdown video from online platforms

Patients have reported trouble accessing regular medical care as thousands of health staff were deployed to covid testing.

A VIRAL VIDEO showing the impact of the prolonged coronavirus lockdown on Shanghai’s residents has been taken down by China’s internet censors Saturday, triggering an online backlash.

About 25 million residents in Shanghai have been shut inside their homes since early April as officials rush to curb its worst ever outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic.

The city has struggled to provide fresh vegetables and other essentials to those in lockdown, while patients have reported trouble accessing regular medical care as thousands of health staff were deployed to covid testing and treatment.

The issues were chronicled in a six-minute video titled “Voice of April”, which was widely shared on Weibo and WeChat — major social media platforms in China.

Shot against a simple aerial black-and-white view of the city, the video opens with audio clips from media briefings in March where officials say Shanghai will not have a citywide lockdown.

The decision was quickly reversed by April as the highly transmissible Omicron variant led to a spike in infections.

As the camera pans across the empty streets of Shanghai, audio clips are played in chronological order showing the dire situation of residents shunted into their homes without preparation.

“We have gone to the hospital twice, but no one is there to treat us,” a man whose father is ill is heard saying.

In another, a woman complains about not being allowed back home when she returned from hospital after chemotherapy.

There is also a clip of residents yelling, “Thank you, Big Whites” — a nickname for health staff dressed in white PPE gear deployed to various nieghbourhoods.

Internet censors battled for hours Saturday to scrub the video from Weibo and Wechat, as netizens kept uploading it into different cloud services.

The swift censorship led to an online backlash.

“The video was just presenting raw facts. There is nothing provocative!” said one commentator on Weibo.

“Its content is nothing new… But the fact of seeing that even that is censored, it bothers me,” wrote another.

While “Voice of April” is not accessible on any major social media platform in China as of Saturday afternoon, it can still be viewed on Youtube.

Shanghai reported 23,504 new coronavirus cases and 12 deaths on Saturday.

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    Mute Catherine Handley
    Favourite Catherine Handley
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    Nov 16th 2011, 4:48 PM

    I received my email from apple requesting my iPod Nano and have gone through the steps for a replacement. I’m an apple nerd anyway but I am very impressed that they will replace my iPod that is 6 years old!

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    Mute John Needham
    Favourite John Needham
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    Nov 16th 2011, 5:01 PM

    They dont really have much choice, if there was a dangerous fault in the original device they are still responsible.

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    Mute Brian Kelleher
    Favourite Brian Kelleher
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    Nov 21st 2011, 9:51 PM

    So you’re happy that it only took them six years to admit fault and recall a product that’s known to burst into flames? Yeah, woo! Go Apple!

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    Mute Seán Kearns
    Favourite Seán Kearns
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    Nov 16th 2011, 5:39 PM

    Anyone got a clue as to what type of replacement we’d be getting? And I’m gonna be without my iPod for a few weeks now because that was my only one since my last one got stolen.

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    Mute Aaron Hastings
    Favourite Aaron Hastings
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    Nov 17th 2011, 10:18 AM

    The replacement will be another first gen apparently. Someone on another site called Apple and that’s what he was told.

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    Mute Cormac Flanagan
    Favourite Cormac Flanagan
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    Nov 16th 2011, 5:36 PM

    How do I go about sending mine back does anyone know.

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    Mute Seán Kearns
    Favourite Seán Kearns
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    Nov 16th 2011, 5:37 PM

    There’s a link there in the article i think. You’ll have to create an apple id if you haven’t one already.

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    Mute Paul Gallagher
    Favourite Paul Gallagher
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    Nov 16th 2011, 8:02 PM

    Old

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    Mute Graham Mace
    Favourite Graham Mace
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    Nov 16th 2011, 6:42 PM

    That’s what they mean by “assault and battery” is it? More like “arson and battery”. I had a Apple replacement battery for my G4 MacBook . Seems batteries are a bit of a problem for Apple. Fair play to Apple, they do own up if they’ve sold you a dud but it can’t help the brand. A lot of people think it won’t last now Steve Jobs is gone,

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    Mute Keith Tracey
    Favourite Keith Tracey
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    Nov 17th 2011, 3:29 AM

    Strange that out of the 60 million that sold six years ago there hasn’t been any reports of iPod nanos causing any fires yet! Still better safe than sorry apple!

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