Zero-COVID seems like a dumb goal.
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The totalitarianism is realised on a practical basis through innovations such as security gates and guards (and probably phone tapping and digital monitoring) which would otherwise be impossible in a vast country of 1.4Bn people.
Zero Covid pre-vaccine was laudable. Millions of lives in China were probably saved by it. Post-vaccine, I agree.
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Again, no. It’s that the Chinese people know that their government is willing to murder them en masse if they don’t comply.
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Probably. Their vaccine isn’t as efficacious as others so lockdown is the only tool they have, apart from masks which don’t carry the stigma they do in the west.
They know they’ll be murdered en masse if they protest, not if they sneak out to buy food when they should be locked down. That would be arrest and probable imprisonment.
Sinopharm and Sinovac appear to still be highly effective at preventing severe disease and death. There has been a significant reduction in efficacy against infection much like with every other vaccine around the world, but they still work very well to prevent bad outcomes.
Haven’t gone through the article yet, but I think the difference in incubation period between omicron and earlier variants as well as the rapidity of the omicron outbreak makes it harder to draw conclusions from the graph.
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Guardian Live a couple of hours ago…
The US and Japan have reached an agreement to keep American troops within their bases amid concerns over a surge in Covid cases that has been linked to US military bases.
Starting Monday, US military personnel are confirmed to base facilities except for “essential activities”, a statement from the US Forces in Japan and the Japanese foreign ministry said.
The allies will share information and cooperate on coronavirus measures, “given the extraordinary virulence of the Omicron variant spreading throughout Japan,” the statement said.
Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has come under increasing pressure to address outbreaks that began at US military facilities last month and have since spread to the local civilian population.
I wonder if you may be confusing the UK with London… even London is debateable currently…rest of UK a week or two behind the capital of England.
https://twitter.com/BristOliver/status/1480111366992183296?s=20
My (admittedly shaky) argument was more about the innate system being unable to stop Covid, which was stupid based on Trolly pointing out mucous membranes stopping a small viral load. But it was also about how it seems likely to me (again, spitballing) that the adaptive system could respond to a viral load that gets past the innate system and knocks it out quickly enough that they would never count as having been infected, per our colloquial use of the term infected. Like asymptomatic and also not positive on tests. Perhaps that could have a small immune memory, per whoever it was who asked the question.
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No. I posted the “All UK” graph from the NYtimes. Here it is again:
Source: United Kingdom Coronavirus Map and Case Count - The New York Times
Ok… I was not talking about the hospitalization peak, which always lags the cases peak. I was talking about the cases peak. Which is why I specifically said “case numbers in the UK.” You will note that I did not say “Hospitalizations in London.” I think you might be confusing London with the UK.
More Northern Americans flouting the rules…
Video shows a party on their charter plane without masks. Some were passing around bottles and vaping.
https://twitter.com/Birdyword/status/1480006369860517888
Note this is skewed by test kits being unavailable so it’s too early to roll out the bunting.
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Looks like it’s peaked in North America too…
The virus is still causing havoc. The state reported 130 deaths on Thursday, the highest single-day toll since the vaccination rollout. New York City has reported service suspended on three of 22 subway lines and reduced on others, because 21% of operators and conductors are sick. In the most recent figures, 21% of the NYPD was out, as were 30% of emergency medical service personnel and 17% of fire officials.
No, it does not appear to have peaked yet in North America, nor did I ever say that it did. But since the US appears to be about a week behind the UK I am, of course, cautiously hopeful that it will in the next few days!
Edit: The geographic diversity of the US has caused a lot of rolling peaks throughout the pandemic so far compared to European countries, so it may peak regionally before the entire country does. On the other hand, it seems to have blown up almost everywhere in the US all at once, so who knows.