In an agonizing Instagram post, Zhou expressed shock at the positive test, saying:

"It seems pretty unreal that of all the people, it would happen to myself. ... I have been doing everything in my power to stay free of COVID since the start of the pandemic. I've taken all the precautions I can. I've isolated myself so much that the loneliness I felt in the last month or two has been crushing at times."

His story is heart-wrenching not only because of his compelled withdrawal from the individual competition -- and the loneliness he endured -- but because our "public health authorities" lied to Zhou, leading him to do exactly the opposite of what he should have been doing to build up his immune system before the Winter Games.

Maybe nothing could have protected him -- he was, of course, fully vaccinated -- but the safest course would have been to expose himself to everything in 2021, not be the Boy in the Bubble. If only he'd gotten omicron back in December, like everybody else, his immune system wouldn't have been a sitting duck for the tiniest whiff of COVID once he got to Beijing.