Foxconn workers walking on the highway. Image from Youtube channel Sydney Daddy. Video clips showing hundreds of workers from Foxconn, a major Apple iPhone manufacturer, fleeing a factory campus in Zhengzhou, China, on October 29 went viral last week. The workers were escaping COVID-19 lockdown after an outbreak forced the 300,000-worker campus to quarantine since mid-October. Numerous witness accounts suggested that it was fear generated from rumours, COVID-related misinformation, and closed-loop factory management that drove the workers to run. Stephen McDonell, BBC's China correspondent, posted one of the widely circulated videos on Twitter: Workers have broken out of #Apple’s largest assembly site, escaping the Zero #Covid lockdown at Foxconn in #Zhengzhou. After sneaking out, they’re walking to home towns more than 100 kilometres away to beat the Covid app measures designed to control people and stop this. #China pic.twitter.com/NHjOjclAyU — Stephen McDonell (@StephenMcDonell) October 30, 2022 Many workers believed that they would die from COVID-19 if they did not flee the campus. According to multiple accounts from workers, Foxconn started implementing pandemic control measures on October 17. Then after a few days, all the on-campus canteens and supermarkets were closed, and the factory management started distributing N95 face masks and medicines to all the workers. As more and more workers tested positive, the factory management suspended regular PCR tests, which created more panic. Workers were worried that the outbreak was out of control, and some believed that the management was prioritizing production over their well-being. Worse still, workers kept receiving video calls for help from their quarantined colleagues. Below is a transcript of a video message from a quarantined female worker: 女员工3：（声音无助）目前我已经隔离第二天，显示阳性，然后被拉来隔离了。现在宿舍里原来住了一位室友，隔离了5天了，至今没有人来管，现在宿舍出现了高烧的，咳嗽的，这也不知道是真阳性还是假阳性，反正都被拉来了，都没人再管了。昨天是送了两个面包 […] 我都不知道怎么办了，我感觉就是让人自生自灭[…] Female worker #3: (sounds desperate) This is my second day in quarantine. I tested positive and was put on quarantine. I have another roommate here, she was quarantined for 5 days already, and no one had ever shown up to take care of her. In my dormitory, people were coughing and having fevers. I have no idea if we are positive or fake positive. But we were all taken here. No one cares for us. Yesterday they gave us two loads of bread […] I don't know what to do and feel like I am left here to strive for my survival… Then, on October 29, a video suggesting that eight female workers from room 726 of a factory dormitory were found dead, sparking fear among the workforce. Many decided to run for their lives. They are paying a huge price for their choice. Many had to walk for hours in the fields and on the highways as they did not have a green-colour health code required for them to access public transportation. Visuals of migrant workers working at Foxconn in Zhengzhou fleeing the factory on foot on the highway are circulating on social media. There are about 300k workers here and 20k are rumoured to have tested positive, which local authorities denied. pic.twitter.com/mu02MDvzna — Chu Yang (@ChuYang_Journ) October 30, 2022 Moreover, they have to give up their RMB 7,000 (approximately USD 950 dollars) seasonal work bonus, which was due to be released in early November. While the escape was triggered by rumours about deaths in the dormitory, many say the panic was spurred by the impartial and biased medical information spread by influencers to justify the zero-COVID measures in China. Outside China, most people know that the COVID-19 virus has evolved into less serious variants with lower death rates and milder symptoms. Yet, mainland Chinese social media platforms are flooded with bleak news spread by influencers about the massive number of deaths and severity of long-COVID around the world. The most recent example is a viral video shared on social media featuring a speech delivered by Gu Junhui, a mainland Chinese corporate strategist. In the video, Gu quoted a research report that 2–4 million Americans had lost their ability to work as a result of long COVID and thus claimed that within 5–10 years, China could gain victory as the West would be doomed: A Chinese business consultant in a Ted-style talk justified zero-Covid policy by saying that in 10 years the West will be brought to its knees b/c long-Covid, which will decimate most of its labor force.