International COVID-19 Megathread

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Of course some of that drop in active cases is because of deaths.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

In the latest episode of "China hoodwinking Europe", the millions of respirators Finland ordered from China at a cost many times that compared to normal times have proven to be inadequate for hospital use.

The rest of the world should really demand that China pay compensation for this pandemic.

Honestly at this point China deserves to become an international pariah for this. Their inaction and downright deception will probably cost more lives than all of America's imperialist wars in the past 50 years.

(Of course, isolating nations doesn't work, so I'm not suggesting the world does it, but it's definitely tempting)

Biden winning will be great for China.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2019/08/27/joe-biden-is-probably-the-only-man-who-can-save-china-in-202o/#12632bb53826

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

China decided to report 1290 new deaths.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

A pre-print study, discussed in German media yesterday, found that just few people with mild Covid19 had enough antibodies for a longer period of time (some months). Obviously, this needs further research, but if generally the case, it may be bad news in search for a vaccine. If antibodies disappear in a matter of months, it's going to be difficult to get some sort of herd immunity to effectively stop the virus. Any effective vaccine must make humans immune for at least one or two years, similar to the flu.

Getting a vaccine every few months is still a huge improvement from the status quo.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Belgium holding the line against this nonsense, for now at least.

https://twitter.com/DarrenEuronews/status/1371560209416605705

And then there's the US, which has 30 million doses sitting in a warehouse in Ohio.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

From what I'm reading, vaccination in Europe outside the UK seems to be a hot mess by developed countries standards. Looking how it's going in America as we speak, who would have thought a year ago?

You're not wrong, though it's more complicated. Vaccination in the EU, and I can mostly speak for Germany, is not working well because of two major factors. One is due to the failures of political leaders and institutions, and the second is due to a lack of vaccine doses in general.

That the EU Commission ordered vaccines for all members was generally a good thing, but the price negotiations took way too long before they finally placed the orders. That was even better under Trump, who put billions on the table already in May 2020, when it was unclear whether there would be a vaccine and when. The EU didn't order until November that year because they were slow in general and wanted to save money.

Today, the biggest problem is that there is just not enough vaccine doses available to move on faster. That's (1) because the orders came too late and (2) because not all sellers like AstraZeneca are not delivering the committed amount of doses in time as promised. Furthermore, production capabilities were insufficient so far and are currently in the buildup process. Said infrastructure for mass production was already there in the US and UK. At least Germany has acted quickly here, aiming to self-produce all vaccines by next year. Several factories are already under construction. But that of course doesn't solve immediate shortcomings. I think that situation will improve in the coming months as more doses are expected to be delivered and distributed.

And the last point is the bureaucracy, especially in lower government levels. It's moving way too slow. Americans and Brits don't spend weeks and months discussing vaccine rollout, they're pragmatic and just do it. Vaccination in stadiums and pharmacies are quite common. Not the case here. Germany is discussing for weeks how doctors can vaccinate and how, while "vaccination centers" have organizational  difficulties. We also discuss back and forth in which order certain groups should be vaccinated and so on. And last but not least, our public management is stuck in the past with technical equipment as well because we missed to invest more in digital infrastructure and software solutions. That has been a problem for years, but the pandemic revealed deficits here and made them visible for the public. All that shows that Germans bragging about being so great in organization and management is just not true these days.

What I don't get is how did the UK manage to have a 12 week trial of AstraZenaca before the EU and the US had their 4 week trials?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Imagine smuggling drugs at an airport in Thailand and some dogs come up to you and bust you for coronavirus.

https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/thailand-successfully-trains-dogs-to-sniff-out-covid-19-in-seconds-8795aa02-24eb-5080-aac2-17b01e783a64

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Well, the UK's prioritizing first doses has clearly been paying off compared to the US, France, Germany, and so on.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

This death from blood clots thing seems to be a, quite literally, million to one chance?

Not for the first time, one wishes that society generally was better at assessing risk.

Especially since covid has a 39 in a million chance of blood clots.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Germany, Austria and Spain have now passed 40%+ doses vaccinated (1st+2nd combined).

They are now the fastest-vaccinating EU countries after the small Malta and Hungary (which uses Sputnik as well).

Austria had 100.000 doses yesterday, the highest daily number on record.

It seems there isn't reliable 3rd party testing to confirm how well Sputnik does. But it does seem to be simpler and cheaper than most vaccines, so it's got that going for it.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

https://www.twitter.com/ESYudkowsky/status/1425619567703773184

But yeah the world will continue to drive a 500km/h supercar of globalism without the seatbelts and breaks required in their new technical monstrosity, because Western populates got a bit tired of ThE sAnITaRy DiCtAtOrShIp

Funny how the "Department of Defense" gets close to $1 trillion a year. You'd think that protecting us against pandemics and climate change would do more for defense than to murder Shia children in Yemen for Saudi Arabia.