The ‘Myth of Zero-COVID’ Nation: A Digital Ethnography of Expats’ Survival Amid Shanghai Lockdown during the Omicron Variant Outbreak

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is an interesting investigation that used a digital ethnographic approach to evaluate the emotional challenges faced by expats in Shanghai lockdown. I have three minor comments:

1. it should be noted in the limitation sections the fairly limited number of subjects considered in these analyses.

2. Among the emotional challenges faced during the covid-19 pandemic, moral injury has certainly be one of the most important ones. Consider adding this reference (Dale et al., 2021; PMID: 34886045) in the last paragraph of the introduction (pg. 2).

3. Spell out in the manuscript all the references that refers to “First Author” and “Forth Author”, and include those citations in the reference list with the appropriate APA style (instead of having them in a separate section preceding the reference list)

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 1:

Thank you for your insightful comments. They were very helpful in our revision work. We hope you are satisfied with our revisions. If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know so we can adopt the necessary changes as per your request.

Warm regards,

Reviewer #1, Comment #1

1. it should be noted in the limitation sections the fairly limited number of subjects considered in these analyses.

Authors’ Response:

We thank Reviewer 1 for his/her scholarly advice. We added a passage in the last paragraph of the ‘Implications, Limitations, and Future Directions’ section:

Furthermore, although this study used a digital ethnographic approach by observing 1,558 individuals divided into seven WeChat groups and selecting texts upon the participants’ consent, the number of subjects was limited. Hence, we recommend that future scholars should conduct a quantitative study to support the current study’s findings and generalize the concepts of resilience and secondary coping amid a long-term lockdown.

Reviewer #1, Comment #2

2. Among the emotional challenges faced during the covid-19 pandemic, moral injury has certainly be one of the most important ones. Consider adding this reference (Dale et al., 2021; PMID: 34886045) in the last paragraph of the introduction (pg. 2).

Authors’ Response:

We thank Reviewer 1 for his/her scholarly advice. We acknowledge the reviewer’s suggestion and added Dale et al. (2021) who emphasized the importance of moral injury. Thus, we added a passage at the outset of the last paragraph in the introduction section and added one more recently published paper to bolster the contextual background of the study (English et al., 2022b):

Moreover, exploring the nexus between anxiety and coping during a lockdown can increase our understanding of the perceived impact and wrong information sources, which can accelerate the level of emotional unrest, especially social media effects on ordinary people (English et al., 2022b). It is also crucial to pay close attention to potential moral injury that could influence job burnout during a long-term pandemic time; medical professionals, healthcare providers, and community volunteers can face a moral dilemma, “when one is aware of the right thing to do but is unable to do so because of occupational constraints” (Dale et al., 2021, p. 2).

Additionally, we referred to Dale et al. 2021’s viewpoints about moral injury in the “Implications, Limitations, and Future Directions” section and suggested:

Additionally, during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous medical staff and healthcare providers have been making collective efforts to support patients and normalize the explosive chain of lethal transmission. Despite their endeavors, they often face job burnout and moral injury that could harm their professionalism such as righteousness, knowledge, and ethical behaviors upon dominant ideology and social norms (Dale et al., 2021). Our study identified the adaptive nature of humans, even with different cultural values to survive and overcome the unexpected socio-ecological system crisis. In this regard, volunteer group members from the host country (i.e., Chinese) developed social and emotional support networks. Yet, along with a growing concern about the dynamic Zero-COVID-19 policy in China, it is worthwhile to investigate their moral injury and burnout factors.

Dale, L. P., Cuffe, S. P., Sambuco, N., Guastello, A. D., Leon, K. G., Nunez, L. V., ... &

Mathews, C. A. (2021). Morally distressing experiences, moral injury, and burnout in Florida healthcare providers during the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(23), 12319.

English, A. S., Torres-Marín, J., & Navarro-Carrillo, G. (2022b). Coping and Anxiety During

Lockdown in Spain: The Role of Perceived Impact and Information Sources. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 15, 1411-1421. http://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S362849

Reviewer #1, Comment #3

3. Spell out in the manuscript all the references that refers to “First Author” and “Forth Author”, and include those citations in the reference list with the appropriate APA style (instead of having them in a separate section preceding the reference list)

Authors’ Response:

We appreciate Reviewer 1’s advice as to referencing. We recognized that our author names are visible in the previous version of the manuscript. Thus, we added our original publications in the reference list. Yet, we followed the MDPI’s reference style in the current version of the manuscript.

English, A. S., & Li, X.. Mask use depends on the individual, situation, and location—

even without COVID-19 transmission: an observational study in Shanghai. Frontiers in Psychology, 2021, 4879. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.754102

English, A. S., Zhang, Y. B., & Tong, R. Social support and cultural distance:

Sojourners’ experience in China. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2021, 80, 349-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2020.10.006

English, A. S., Yang, Y., Marshall, R. C., & Nam, B. H. Social support for international

students who faced emotional challenges midst Wuhan's 76-day lockdown during early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 2022a, 87, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2022.01.003

English, A. S., Torres-Marín, J., & Navarro-Carrillo, G. Coping and Anxiety During

Lockdown in Spain: The Role of Perceived Impact and Information Sources. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 2022b, 15, 1411-1421. http://doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S362849

Nam, B. H. Online teaching experience as a member of international faculty during the

outbreak of COVID-19 in China. In Bista, K., Ryan, A., & Chan, R. (Eds.), Impacts of COVID-19 on international students and the future of student mobility: International perspectives and experiences (pp. 104-118).  New York: Routledge, 2021.

Nam, B., & Jiang, X. Aspiration for cosmopolitan capital and ambiguous loss: Chinese

exchange students’ experiences in U.S. higher education institutions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Asia Pacific Journal of Education. 2021, 1-16.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2021.2016372

Nam, B. H., Marshall, R.C., Tian, S., & Jiang, X. “Why universities need to actively

combat Sinophobia”: Racially traumatic experiences of Chinese international students in the United States during COVID-19. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling, 2021,1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069885.2021.1965957

Szabo, A., English, A. S., Zhijia, Z., Jose, P., Ward, C., & Jianhong, M. (2017). Is the utility of

secondary coping a function of ethnicity or the context of reception? A longitudinal study across Western and Eastern cultures. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 48(8), 1230-1246. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022117719158

Talhelm, T., & English, A. S. Historically rice-farming societies have tighter social

norms in China and worldwide. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020, 117(33), 19816-19824.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

This nicely written manuscript is a qualitative study on the Expats survival during Shanghai lockdown during Omicron variant outbreak.

Concerns:

1.     The research method is stated as ethnography, however, the data is from a chat group and has not been actively recruited for the purpose of the research. I still wonder how the research team obtained individual consent form each member in the chat group (N=1558)

2.     The result is not that much meaningful and interesting to readers and does not add anything to the already known hardship people went through during pandemic

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2:

Thank you for your insightful comments. They were very helpful in our revision work. We hope you are satisfied with our revisions. If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know so we can adopt the necessary changes as per your request.

Warm regards,

Reviewer #2, Comment #1

1. The research method is stated as ethnography, however, the data is from a chat group and has not been actively recruited for the purpose of the research. I still wonder how the research team obtained individual consent form each member in the chat group (N=1558)

Authors’ Response:

We appreciate Reviewer 2’s critical insights about the methodological considerations, especially the rationale for adopting a digital ethnographic approach and its data collection. In the previous version, we mentioned ‘A total of 1,558 individuals.’ We feel that the term, ‘individuals’, may sound vague. Thus, we replaced the term with ‘WeChat accounts. Accordingly, we clarified how we understood the digital ethnographic approach and respect ethical issues in qualitative inquiry at a general level. Accordingly, we described the procedure more in detail, provided figure 1, and created one more paragraph to describe the ethical considerations in the ‘Fieldwork via WeChat’ section.

Reviewer #2, Comment #2

2. The result is not that much meaningful and interesting to readers and does not add anything to the already known hardship people went through during pandemic

Authors’ Response:

We appreciate Reviewer 2 for his/her critical question about our thesis, which stated our study does not sound much meaningful and interesting to readers, especially the gaps in the current study that looks at the hardship people went through during the time of the pandemic. Accordingly, we created one more sub-section, “The Rationale for the Current Study and Research Questions” and addressed:

Despite the fact that the past two years have witnessed the emotional and social well-being issues involving numerous individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic, the experiences of expats amid the long-term Shanghai lockdown along with the new Omicron variant have been paid limited attention. When most countries have reduced their cross-border traffics and normalized the level of the pandemic issues, China has been continuing its dynamic Zero-COVID policy. In this context, expats in China could be vulnerable populations based on language barriers and cultural distance (English et al., 2021). Notably, expats’ experiences of the consistent short-term and long-term lockdowns in Shanghai (March 2 – June 1) can significantly be different from other previous lockdown cases including Wuhan’s 76-day lockdown, because of frequent policy changes, foot and water shortage, fake news, and lack of emotional and social support from their own diplomatic communities, among others but not because of the unknown virus and its explosive chains of lethal transmission.

English, A. S., Zhang, Y. B., & Tong, R. (2021). Social support and cultural distance:

Sojourners’ experience in China. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 80, 349-358. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2020.10.006

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

Dear Authors, It has been a pleasure to read your interesting manuscript.  I have one important addition to the introduction to suggest which is the percentage of the population in Shanghai who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.  If the percentage for Shanghai is not available then please add the general percentage for China.

A second point is that PCR is a standard molecular biology lab process to copy DNA or RNA to provide enough material for the sample to be sent for sequencing which is the actual identification step.  In the UK the MAAT tests have been called PCR tests so it would be helpful to include this, but please delete the "so called" as both names are valid. 

Other comments are more minor.  The manuscript with comments is attached.  If these are addressed this manuscript is ready for publication.  With very best wishes

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 3:

Thank you for your insightful comments. They were very helpful in our revision work. We hope you are satisfied with our revisions. If you have any other questions or concerns, please let us know so we can adopt the necessary changes as per your request.

Warm regards,

Reviewer #3, Comment #1

Dear Authors, It has been a pleasure to read your interesting manuscript.  I have one important addition to the introduction to suggest which is the percentage of the population in Shanghai who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.  If the percentage for Shanghai is not available then please add the general percentage for China.

Authors’ Response:

We appreciate Reviewer 3 for his/her scholarly advice. We found relevant sources to inform the percentage of vaccinated populations in Shanghai. Thus, we mortified and added this passage in the second paragraph of the introduction section, where the reviewer marked it in yellow:

Shanghai had a relatively high level of vaccination rate, which showed approximately 85% of all residents by the time of the Omicron outbreak. However, while approximately 62% of senior citizens were vaccinated, only about 38% of them received booster vaccinations (Mallapaty, 2022, January 27; Reuters, 2022, April 28).

Reviewer #3, Comment #2

A second point is that PCR is a standard molecular biology lab process to copy DNA or RNA to provide enough material for the sample to be sent for sequencing which is the actual identification step.  In the UK the MAAT tests have been called PCR tests so it would be helpful to include this, but please delete the "so called" as both names are valid.

Authors’ Response:

We thank Reviewer 3 for his/her crucial point regarding the terminology. We deleted NAAT and used PCR or PCR tests consistently throughout the current version of the manuscript.

Reviewer #3, Comment #3

Other comments are more minor.  The manuscript with comments is attached.  If these are addressed this manuscript is ready for publication.  With very best wishes

Authors’ Response:

We thank Reviewer 3 for his/her scholarly advice. We opened the pdf file and responded to the reviewer’s questions thoroughly. Overall, we have included much of the details raised by all reviewers in order to better position the current study within scholarship on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on expats’ emotional and social wellbeing issues. We thank all reviewers for their encouragement and support. This study has been immeasurably strengthened.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

N/A