Coronavirus Thread VIII: Shanghai Chokes

[Aymes]

Kim Jong Un criticises North Korea's slow response to COVID-19 outbreak as country records thousands of new cases (ABC)
Welp. 1.2 million cases in less than a week.

Can we all take note of the fact that North Korea has implemented a lockdown and that North Korea is the only country in the world that can expect near 100% compliance because people know they could be summarily executed or have their grandchildren put in concentration camps if they disobey, and still they have millions of cases. Can we all take note of that and admit that lockdowns have never worked and didn't save lives? Can we?

You’ll be lucky to have people around here admit that.

Even if it is true.

[Vassenor]

Can we all take note of the fact that North Korea has implemented a lockdown and that North Korea is the only country in the world that can expect near 100% compliance because people know they could be summarily executed or have their grandchildren put in concentration camps if they disobey, and still they have millions of cases. Can we all take note of that and admit that lockdowns have never worked and didn't save lives? Can we?

You’ll be lucky to have people around here admit that.

Even if it is true.

Because how dare you be expected to give a shit about people who are not you.

And because "well this wasn't 100% effective so we should never have done it" is shit logic anyway.

[The Alma Mater]

Kim Jong Un criticises North Korea's slow response to COVID-19 outbreak as country records thousands of new cases (ABC)
Welp. 1.2 million cases in less than a week.

Can we all take note of the fact that North Korea has implemented a lockdown and that North Korea is the only country in the world that can expect near 100% compliance because people know they could be summarily executed or have their grandchildren put in concentration camps if they disobey, and still they have millions of cases. Can we all take note of that and admit that lockdowns have never worked and didn't save lives? Can we?

No,.but we can note the exact opposite: that north Korea pretended nothing was going on and only announced a lockdown AFTER things got out of hand.

Funny how that works.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

Can we all take note of the fact that North Korea has implemented a lockdown and that North Korea is the only country in the world that can expect near 100% compliance because people know they could be summarily executed or have their grandchildren put in concentration camps if they disobey, and still they have millions of cases. Can we all take note of that and admit that lockdowns have never worked and didn't save lives? Can we?

No,.but we can note the exact opposite: that north Korea pretended nothing was going on and only announced a lockdown AFTER things got out of hand.

Funny how that works.

Given that they're just now reporting 1.2 million cases it's either they're having about 200,000 new infections per day which is frankly out of character for COVID19... or they've been lying and it's been spreading inside DPRK for at least 2 years.

[Vassenor]

Can we all take note of the fact that North Korea has implemented a lockdown and that North Korea is the only country in the world that can expect near 100% compliance because people know they could be summarily executed or have their grandchildren put in concentration camps if they disobey, and still they have millions of cases. Can we all take note of that and admit that lockdowns have never worked and didn't save lives? Can we?

No,.but we can note the exact opposite: that north Korea pretended nothing was going on and only announced a lockdown AFTER things got out of hand.

Funny how that works.

But that logic doesn't work for LOCKDOWNS EVIL.

[Juristonia]

No,.but we can note the exact opposite: that north Korea pretended nothing was going on and only announced a lockdown AFTER things got out of hand.

Funny how that works.

Given that they're just now reporting 1.2 million cases it's either they're having about 200,000 new infections per day which is frankly out of character for COVID19... or they've been lying and it's been spreading inside DPRK for at least 2 years.

Surely you're not implying that Dear Leader has been less than honest?

[Ifreann]

Kim Jong Un criticises North Korea's slow response to COVID-19 outbreak as country records thousands of new cases (ABC)
Welp. 1.2 million cases in less than a week.

Can we all take note of the fact that North Korea has implemented a lockdown and that North Korea is the only country in the world that can expect near 100% compliance because people know they could be summarily executed or have their grandchildren put in concentration camps if they disobey, and still they have millions of cases. Can we all take note of that and admit that lockdowns have never worked and didn't save lives? Can we?

Can someone explain how the virus is spreading if there's a lockdown in effect with near total compliance? If every person in North Korea is in contact with only their own household, how can there possibly be so many cases? Is covid leaving people's houses to cross the street and infect another household?

[The United Penguin Commonwealth]

can’t the party replace him?

Xi was named President for Life in 2018 anyway.

no, the term limit was done away with.

[Page]

Can we all take note of the fact that North Korea has implemented a lockdown and that North Korea is the only country in the world that can expect near 100% compliance because people know they could be summarily executed or have their grandchildren put in concentration camps if they disobey, and still they have millions of cases. Can we all take note of that and admit that lockdowns have never worked and didn't save lives? Can we?

Can someone explain how the virus is spreading if there's a lockdown in effect with near total compliance? If every person in North Korea is in contact with only their own household, how can there possibly be so many cases? Is covid leaving people's houses to cross the street and infect another household?

Essential interactions account for the vast majority of infections. Just the bare minimum human interaction necessary to keep food and utilities going are enough to keep the virus going.

I'm not saying that lockdowns don't reduce the infection rate, they do, but it isn't prevention of infections, it's delay of infections. Even a miniscule amount of carriers is enough to sow the seeds of a new wave. Unless you actually eradicate the virus, which is absolutely impossible barring new Star Trek level medical technology, it doesn't make a difference in the long run whether you have 100 infected people or 100,000 infected people at any given point in time. The only difference is WHEN everybody else gets it. If covid was a disease for which an actual cure could be developed, like you take a pill and you're 100% immune to it forever, then lockdowns would be a reasonable thing if the cure was only a month or two away from hitting the shelves. The whole "flatten the curve" thing wasn't unreasonable either because hospitals weren't prepared at the start of the pandemic, so delay was a good tactic THEN. And with the vaccines decreasing contagiousness and how sick ones get, it was also not unreasonable to delay so that more people could get vaccinated.

But now, vaccines have plateaued, and we can see now the inevitability of oscillating waves as they occur in every country and state from the least restrictive to the most. But every wave leaves a large chunk of the populace effectively immune, and although that immunity does not last for a lifetime, just the fact that there will be SOME who won't get the virus again in the next wave means the size of the waves will keep on diminishing. With every new wave, a smaller amount of the populace
is vulnerable to infection.

And just one more note on the lockdown thing: We all know that the rich and the powerful don't comply and get away with non-compliance, so even if lockdown was effective in general, there are still enough hosts for the virus to propagate itself. Your average North Korean citizen may stay at home but Kim Jong Un is having group sex with the daughters of the party leaders or servant girls or kidnapped Japanese women, and he's coughing and sneezing on them.

[Ifreann]

Can someone explain how the virus is spreading if there's a lockdown in effect with near total compliance? If every person in North Korea is in contact with only their own household, how can there possibly be so many cases? Is covid leaving people's houses to cross the street and infect another household?

Essential interactions account for the vast majority of infections. Just the bare minimum human interaction necessary to keep food and utilities going are enough to keep the virus going.

Is that why North Korea has 1.2 million cases in less than a week?

I'm not saying that lockdowns don't reduce the infection rate, they do, but it isn't prevention of infections, it's delay of infections. Even a miniscule amount of carriers is enough to sow the seeds of a new wave. Unless you actually eradicate the virus, which is absolutely impossible barring new Star Trek level medical technology,

Pay no attention to the viruses we have eradicated without magical future tech, I guess.

it doesn't make a difference in the long run whether you have 100 infected people or 100,000 infected people at any given point in time. The only difference is WHEN everybody else gets it. If covid was a disease for which an actual cure could be developed, like you take a pill and you're 100% immune to it forever, then lockdowns would be a reasonable thing if the cure was only a month or two away from hitting the shelves. The whole "flatten the curve" thing wasn't unreasonable either because hospitals weren't prepared at the start of the pandemic, so delay was a good tactic THEN. And with the vaccines decreasing contagiousness and how sick ones get, it was also not unreasonable to delay so that more people could get vaccinated.

It sounds like actually lockdowns do work. They're not a panacea, but in the face of a disease that spreads from person to person we have successfully seen the spread limited by limiting our encounters with other people. So I don't think we will be agreeing that they don't work and never worked.

But now, vaccines have plateaued, and we can see now the inevitability of oscillating waves as they occur in every country and state from the least restrictive to the most. But every wave leaves a large chunk of the populace effectively immune, and although that immunity does not last for a lifetime, just the fact that there will be SOME who won't get the virus again in the next wave means the size of the waves will keep on diminishing. With every new wave, a smaller amount of the populace
is vulnerable to infection.

Quick google tells me that 60% of the population is fully vaccinated. So I would say that we're not at the point where we can reasonably say that we've done everything that can be done and should just accept however many infections as inevitable.

And just one more note on the lockdown thing: We all know that the rich and the powerful don't comply and get away with non-compliance, so even if lockdown was effective in general, there are still enough hosts for the virus to propagate itself. Your average North Korean citizen may stay at home but Kim Jong Un is having group sex with the daughters of the party leaders or servant girls or kidnapped Japanese women, and he's coughing and sneezing on them.

We also know that the poor and vulnerable are not actually supported in lockdown, and are forced to deal with more potential exposure to the virus than is actually necessary.

[Australian rePublic]

Welp, now the WHO has condemned China's zero Covid policy, calling it unrealistic. Exactly what I've been saying for the past 6 months...

[Amjedia]

Hello,
Has anyone of you got a third dose of the Moderna vaccine?
I received a message to get a third dose.

[San Lumen]

Welp, now the WHO has condemned China's zero Covid policy, calling it unrealistic. Exactly what I've been saying for the past 6 months...

Here is a source for anyone interested: https://www.reuters.com/world/china/who ... 022-05-10/

[HISPIDA]

Hello,
Has anyone of you got a third dose of the Moderna vaccine?
I received a message to get a third dose.

not yet, but i plan on getting my pfizer booster soon. i just haven't had the time.

[The Black Forrest]

Hello,
Has anyone of you got a third dose of the Moderna vaccine?
I received a message to get a third dose.

not yet, but i plan on getting my pfizer booster soon. i just haven't had the time.

The same for me.

[Kannap]

Hello,
Has anyone of you got a third dose of the Moderna vaccine?
I received a message to get a third dose.

Are you counting the first two shots as the first dose and the booster as the second dose? If so, then no, I haven't gotten a third dose nor been advised to yet - AFAIK.

If you're counting the first two shots separate and the booster as the third shot, then yeah I got mine sometime last year - December maybe?

[The Black Forrest]

Hello,
Has anyone of you got a third dose of the Moderna vaccine?
I received a message to get a third dose.

Are you counting the first two shots as the first dose and the booster as the second dose? If so, then no, I haven't gotten a third dose nor been advised to yet - AFAIK.

I don’t know the Moderna process. I suspect it’s like Pfizer. There is the vaccine which was two shots. Now there is a booster.

[Kannap]

Are you counting the first two shots as the first dose and the booster as the second dose? If so, then no, I haven't gotten a third dose nor been advised to yet - AFAIK.

I don’t know the Moderna process. I suspect it’s like Pfizer. There is the vaccine which was two shots. Now there is a booster.

Yeah, I knew that much. But I'm also aware many countries had already advised a second booster for older and at-risk folks. I guess I was thinking it's possible I missed an announcement that more people were being advised to take the second booster.

But yeah, I got the first two shots and then I got the booster, so - AFAIK - I'm up-to-date.

[Adamede]

Kim Jong Un criticises North Korea's slow response to COVID-19 outbreak as country records thousands of new cases (ABC)
Welp. 1.2 million cases in less than a week.

Is NK's medical infrastructure stuck in the late 20th century like its military, or is it even worse?

[Amjedia]

Hello,
Has anyone of you got a third dose of the Moderna vaccine?
I received a message to get a third dose.

Are you counting the first two shots as the first dose and the booster as the second dose? If so, then no, I haven't gotten a third dose nor been advised to yet - AFAIK.

If you're counting the first two shots separate and the booster as the third shot, then yeah I got mine sometime last year - December maybe?

The message was about getting the third shot. I already got the first two shots.

[Kannap]

Are you counting the first two shots as the first dose and the booster as the second dose? If so, then no, I haven't gotten a third dose nor been advised to yet - AFAIK.

If you're counting the first two shots separate and the booster as the third shot, then yeah I got mine sometime last year - December maybe?

The message was about getting the third shot. I already got the first two shots.

Ah, then yeah, I got my third one back sometime this past fall/winter, I don't exactly remember. Same side effects as the first two: sore arm for a few days.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

Kim Jong Un criticises North Korea's slow response to COVID-19 outbreak as country records thousands of new cases (ABC)
Welp. 1.2 million cases in less than a week.

Is NK's medical infrastructure stuck in the late 20th century like its military, or is it even worse?

I think they've been pretending nothing's been going on for two whole years and then when the pressure became too much last week they went out with this to basically say: "PRC, um... please halp???"

[Stellar Colonies]

So I recently got over the virus…really did feel like a more extreme version of the vaccine side effects, apart from the nasty sore throat.

[The United Penguin Commonwealth]

so many people I know have gotten sick lately. a significant number have longer-term symptoms. some of them can’t taste anything anymore. I know this is anecdotal evidence, but the fact that this is happening and almost nobody cares is indicative of deep problems in our society.

[The Alma Mater]

So I recently got over the virus…really did feel like a more extreme version of the vaccine side effects, apart from the nasty sore throat.

The most annoying side-effects for me were the increases of *other* complaints.
Small toothache? That became a feeling of knives being jammed in my jaw.
Little rash or abrasion? That became a bright red source of infernal itching.

The shortage of breath and such were minor inconveniences in comparison; though they do linger much, much longer.