China’s Covid Testing Firms Come Under Fire as Fury Explodes

China’s Covid PCR testing companies are coming under increasing public criticism for profiting off the country’s controversial Covid-Zero strategy, as anger mounts over the onerous rules amid unprecedented protests that broke out over the weekend.

The latest company to come under fire on social network Weibo is Shenzhen Nucleus Gene Technology Co., whose testing subsidiary was named for inconsistencies in their results by the Lanzhou city government in Gansu province last week after staff wrongly recorded negative results. A hashtag referring to Nucleus Gene’s rapid registration of testing labs this year has gone viral. A post that said “Umbrella makers should not be given the authority to decide when it rains,” a broader criticism of how testing companies make money from the pandemic.