Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[hector13]

A lot of folks were protesting the zero-Covid policy.

I’m not sure if authorities are getting rid of it as a “fine, see what happens when we don’t look after you” thing or if they’re genuinely concerned over stability, but there you go.

[delphonso]

Cynically, I think it's that: 'we did what you said and 4 million people died, so good job you fucks.'

Realistically, most people don't know about the protests because the media has been aggressively censored around it. On top of that, the state media is spreading the whole 'it's just a cold!' thing around, which suggests they're really just trying to forget about it and move on.

[scriver]

Yeah that was my first thought too, as if there isn't a middle ground between "board up the doors of entire apartment complexes whenever anyone in them gets sick" and "don't do anything at all"

[IndigoFenix]

The big issue with China is that the older population is significantly LESS likely to be vaccinated than the younger population. This is the opposite of vaccination rates in pretty much every other country, where the older one is, the more likely they are to be vaccinated.

I have no idea WHY this is the case - I've heard some say that it's because the older generation tends to be more suspicious of the government because of the country's history, and other opinions that the government pushed the working-class first to prevent lost work due to getting sick - but the RESULTS are straightforward. Because the most vulnerable people are also the least protected, China has a lot less leeway when it comes to letting the virus spread through the population - a much higher percentage will get seriously ill, so it takes a smaller number of people getting infected at once to strain the health system.

[Starver]

Thanks to the One Child Policy (in addition to a few other things), the generational shift is such that parents/grandparents are severely underserviced by offspring/great-offspring with spare time and ability to care for them.

I'm not saying that it's a deliberate demographic readjustment, but I bet it looks awfully handy in some quarters (as well as handilly awful in others) to have the elderly die off rather quickly.

(...or so someone who was cynical might think.)

[Eric Blank]

Speaking cynically, I've been cynically wondering if the Republicans were so happy to let the disease spread and become endemic partly because killing off all America's seniors early would justify getting rid of social security. And of course a hairbrained scheme of "it will spread fastest and be most devastating in big cities, which always vote blue, and so will give us an advantage in the election" and keep republican voters at the polls to vote even if it kills them, while cutting off mail in ballots and other voter suppression that would worsen democrats chances.

[JoshuaFH]

Like, yeah, of course. These are bastards that have traded away their humanity for a vanishing glimmer of wealth and power. If they were born with a conscience, they don't have it any more.

[hector13]

The problem being that vaccine uptake would be higher among Dems and young folks, and older folks vote conservative and they were one of the more at-risk groups.

Not that any of that would stop them. Being shady doesn’t innoculate you from being stupid.

[WealthyRadish]

Personally I doubt there was any forethought involved. It seems more likely that the handful of grifters that dominate that news-space just sleepwalked into the same pattern of contrarianism, and they expected it to be as meaningless as every other news cycle.

[hector13]

I’m inclined to agree with that. Wearing a mask or not became a political movement in and of itself, and I worked with people who were asinine enough to believe that this very simple public health initiative was the government trying to control people, and a slippery slope toward more draconian control measures.

Unfortunately the biggest buffoon I worked with said they would rather be fired than wear a mask, but capitulated anyway. Would’ve been nice to see the back of them.

[delphonso]

The big issue with China is that the older population is significantly LESS likely to be vaccinated than the younger population. This is the opposite of vaccination rates in pretty much every other country, where the older one is, the more likely they are to be vaccinated.

I have no idea WHY this is the case - I've heard some say that it's because the older generation tends to be more suspicious of the government because of the country's history, and other opinions that the government pushed the working-class first to prevent lost work due to getting sick - but the RESULTS are straightforward. Because the most vulnerable people are also the least protected, China has a lot less leeway when it comes to letting the virus spread through the population - a much higher percentage will get seriously ill, so it takes a smaller number of people getting infected at once to strain the health system.

Everything in China has a lot of bureaucracy involved. For vaccines, it's huge lines and only at certain locations. Older folks usually speak dialect even if they live in the city and not the villages. It's just a lot of obstacles that are harder for older people to overcome. Plus vaccines were 'for workers' so most of them just didn't bother.

I'm not sure if they're actually less vaccinated, but I do know that a fourth shot is now available for old people and immunocompromised. Probably too little too late as the peak of the wave is hitting every city right now.


I now have symptoms, luckily my wife is recovered, so she can take care of baby while I lay on the sofa all day.

[Duuvian]

Those vaccines are important. I have never read such tragedy in my small local newspaper as the death notices that stretched two columns for a whole page during some weeks of the worst parts of the pandemic. It is not a heavily populated area.

[Rolan7]

I've been visiting family too much to exercise properly, so why are my muscles so sore-
OH GODS DAMMIT NOT AGAIN *fingers crossed*

(There are other possibilities, and last time was real mild (possibly due to vax), but I'm annoyed/worried. oh well, good excuse not to drive two hours on Christmas Day for even more visitation)

[Duuvian]

Probably a good idea, everything looks swell in the fall and then in the states Thanksgiving arives and the cdc map starts to turn yellow and red. Crhistmas shifts it even further. Holiday travels seem to have a big role in spread. My county is yellow again so time to wear the mask again for me since that's how I do it in my rural area where it's asking for slightly more of a hard time with the locals to wear it in green periods.

(picked the most colorful state as the map only shows if you select an area; it also tracks the selected location between visits, I'm assuming by IP address)

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#county-view?list_select_state=New+Jersey&data-type=CommunityLevels&list_select_county=34027

[Ziusudra]

The bird flu outbreak has taken an ominous turn

Combine the sea-lion infections with the revelation that H5N1 flu invaded a mink farm in Spain in October, and health authorities must now confront the possibility that the unpredictable virus may have adapted to threaten other species.

To be clear, this does not yet include people. Although past decades have witnessed bird flu outbreaks that spread to humans, only two cases have been identified in the past 12 months: a Colorado adult last May, and a 9-year-old girl in Ecuador in January. (Neither died.) And there’s no evidence yet that the virus has been able to jump from newly infected mammals to people. But the fact that it was transmitted from birds to mammals, and then spread among them, indicates a disquieting trend.