The General Covid19 Thread
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Old-Dutch China have had a massive reg and their handling of COVID is completely abysmal
Possibly, but more likely you’ve ingested too much BBC and Daily Mail, both of whom are actually fucking clueless when it comes to China. The BBC have correspondents on rotation, who do about 3 years in Hong Kong and can’t speak a word of the language, let alone read it, before landing a cushy gig in Washington or Brussels.
If you want serious analysis of China’s domestic and international policies, read someone like Tuvia Gering or Bill Bishop (neither of whom are exactly PRC-friendly either)
https://tuviagering.substack.com/p/beijings-general-adaptation-syndrome?s=r
Watch out Dave!
bosstrabs Possibly, but more likely you’ve ingested too much BBC and Daily Mail, both of whom are actually fucking clueless when it comes to China
Nothing to do with either, Dave. When you look at it from the beginning their approach has been a complete and utter disaster. Failing to disclose what they had discovered when it first hit Wuhan, pressurising the WHO not to declare a pandemic, developing a useless vaccine and failing to bring in western vaccines that do work, blocking WHO visits to China for investigation. And now adoting a zero COVID policy that is completely unworkable.
I’d say it’s been an all-round disaster, irrespective of whether a BBC reporter in Hong Kong failed to learn Chinese during his time there, no?
Old-Dutch I’d say it’s been an all-round disaster
Depends how you measure it. Everyone got back to work quicker than the endless half-arsed lockdowns in the West, and the death count is way, way lower than most countries.
I’m no big China defender, either. But I have lived for a substantial time (many months) in both the UK and China since the beginning of 2020, and China’s domestic handling has been clearly more competent.
You have to say that or you get killed Dave.
The worst that happens to ‘non-compliant’ foreigners is you get deported.
Dave’s head is currently in a jar hooked up to wires and cables in a bunker somewhere in the Western mountains of Yunnan. Posting on here via an algorythm gleaned from years of online messageboard banter and it’s a ruddy good algorythm too, those Chinks are good.
They don’t even need to do that, I freely post in exchange for a ready supply of brasses and Hunan-style food.
Don’t want to speak too soon, since India’s numbers are going up pretty quickly. But the imagery I’m seeing come out of China reminds me of 2020, early 2021. Not 2022, in a post COVID-vaccine world. And the only reason can be crappy vaccines and crappy vaccination mandates.
Have a word Dave, how can you say with a straight face Testing & Quarantines are a must, but vaccinations aren’t.
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Also at this point, DGAF if you’re not vaccinated and die. They’re abundant, cheap, and readily accessible for everyone. If you’re going to let conspiracy get the better of you, it’s not my job or anyone else’s to make sure you don’t get COVID.
LT42 I honestly envy that lifestyle. The whores here are price gouging like you wouldn’t believe.
The Chinese have smaller tiddies than the Turks, so that’s a negative, but on the plus side they’re often still massively doable up to the age of 40 (one child policy and rice/vegetables diet IMO).
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bosstrabs Depends how you measure it. Everyone got back to work quicker than the endless half-arsed lockdowns in the West, and the death count is way, way lower than most countries.
Repeat draconian lockdowns for everyone so a few old people might live a few months more is not much of a success.
Lower obesity rates in China will also likely mean the death count would be way lower than the west anyway.
Even though I’ve recently have had Covid I’m still going to get a 4th jab.
Why?
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
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bosstrabs Depends how you measure it. Everyone got back to work quicker than the endless half-arsed lockdowns in the West, and the death count is way, way lower than most countries.
Except for those people in full-arsed lockdowns now, eh? Whilst the rest of the world seems to be on the way out of the pandemic, Chinese policy will keep the country exposed to lockdowns and will undoubtedly lead to more variants of the disease. Perhaps that’s the plan.
I’d also call bullshit on the official deathcount given the lies and coverups they’ve been peddling from the outset
Fair enough, kind of pointless arguing about this with people who don’t have lived experience here to be honest.
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YOU DON’T KNOW, YOU WEREN’T THERE, MAN
It’s just kind of entry-level China analysis Dutchy, I don’t blame you.
It’s like my analysis and knowledge of Ukraine.
You just head home Dave.
It’s masks off, tops off and wrecking ball prog central everywhere you go.
OLB confirmed!
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I think it’s pretty much inevitable that the longer a disease remains in circulation, the more variants you’ll see develop.
The approach for most of the world has been to develop vaccines that work, deploy them and then get a herd immunity. China has done pretty much the opposite. Attempting to obtain a COVID free society without a decent vaccination programme with a population density the size of China is beyond ridiculous and will lead to perpetual large-scale lockdowns. Unless China is going to completely shut down it’s borders the strategy is completely flawed
Best of luck Dave!
Certainly seems to be the case over here rn. Everyone has it and no one, at least that I know, is seriously ill. My boss’s 93 year old mother had it and barely even noticed. Thought it was her allergies.
Pretty much the same out here. Most of my friends are treating it like the common cold, if anything - “This is the same as the yanks taking a flu shot every year.”
Was thinking of me ole mucka Dave when I read this -
hugopal And it’s also generally the case, which seems to have been shown with Omicron, that the variants become less dangerous as they develop.
Tell that to someone with the bad AIDS
I saw my friend Max at a party over the weekend. He’d been living in Shanghai for the past 7-8 years, working as a basketball coach. Ended up taking the job after being binned by his missus. Was generally a fan of living there, so much so that he renewed his contract. However, his COVID stories are harrowing. Says the reporting, or lack there of, that we are getting here is shocking. His opinion is that the Chinese gov would rather people starve to death, then die of COVID, just to keep the numbers down. Said this current/most recent lockdown was one of the worst experiences of his life. He and a handful of other expats managed to get shuttled out in the middle of the night, some time last week. Left his apartment, and most all of his stuff. Doesn’t seem like he will be going back for it either.
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zackster I saw my friend Max at a party over the weekend […] Doesn’t seem like he will be going back for it either.
Sounds a sensible idea; I seem to recall that if your name is Max you should definitely not go back. The advice was originally about exes but it probably applies to cities as well.
bosstrabs In all honesty, I think it’s been a more humane system with better effects and much lower death rates than other countries.
Is there Wi-Fi access in those metal boxes?
Would make life a bit more bearable.
Think I’ll stick with North China to get my fix of the place.
Not sure how much I fancy going there.
Old-Dutch I really don’t see what’s problematic about that if you simply compare deaths:
5k in China, 992k in the US.
Even if China fudge their figures, I can say I’ve been here since September and there simply isn’t significant prevalence of COVID or people dying from it.
Take the Sky News blinkers off for just a minute.