China - the irresistible rise

Dejavu

I know they have relaxed their very strict lockdown measures, so this is to be expected, but is part of it due to a ineffective vaccine?

Sort of like the tires on the military vehicles in Russia. $30k a pop, but they get through the mud and last a long time. Someone in the supply chain in Russia substituted them for cheap Chinese knock offs, presumably to enrich himself, and then many millions worth of equipment is rendered useless on the battle field?

I genuinely don’t know, but does China have a dodgy vaccine?

And if they are sticking with it, and not importing or creating a better one, is that sort of China first type of policy going to kill many people, unnecessarily?

Edit:
I forgot the reply above! ISMF on mRNA vaccine. Thank you.

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And on vaccines , the chinese vaccine was the first one out and the virus had yet to mutate. There were other countries who had outbreaks after using the chinese vaccine. It doesn’t matter if the vaccine was or wasn’t mRNA based or anything. The vaccine was hurriedly developed more as a sign and show of chinese power rather than anything else.

This is what happens when the so called image of a country becomes more important than the actual well being of the countries’ citizens to the rulers.

Also nothing is stopping the Chinese govt from using Astra Zeneca even if they don’t want to use Pfizer/Moderna , but I guess pride or arrogance makes the govt reluctant to go and ask.

The fact that countries not as strong as china have made indigenous vaccines which are more effective than Chinese vaccines has to rankle them

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Hit the nail right on the head.

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Just as problematic is China leveraged their international relationships to view uptake of Sinovac as a a statement of their diplomatic relationships. You ended up with countries like Slovakia knocking out of the park their Vax roll out only to then suffer down the road from the relative lack of effectiveness of it.

Sinovac’s wasnt comparatively less ineffective because it was rushed, that was just luck. Numerous companies used slightly different approaches to develop their vaccine and there was always going to be a continuum of how effective they were. I dont know if its even any less effective than J&J’s. It’s just definitely not as effective as the mRNA ones or even AZ’s. The issue with Sinovac was it was already put in so many arms worldwide before enough RWE was developed to know how much less effective it was than the alternatives, and while normal decision making would have seen countries that relied on it try to pivot, geopolitics made doing so difficult.

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Checks Thread Title

Thank fuck for that I thought you were having a go at the UK :sob:

Might as well get yet another booster dose before the virus comes calling around the chinese new year time.

Not sure hows the vaccine status for you all, but I am getting my 4th shot, a bivalent one in a weeks time.

One recent study recommended that those with two doses of Sinovac, should have a booster with Pfizer or Moderna.

Two doses of Sinovac was 60% effective, Pfizer 90% and Moderna 97%. A different study found that with the Sinovac vaccine you were 50% more likely to end up in hospital compared to those that had an mRNA vaccine. Those that suffered serve infection doubled.

Next factor in that over half the population over 60 received their last dose 10 months ago. Many have not had a booster.

Given population the shit is well and truely going to hit the fan.

I’ve heard this arguments of mixing doses before. Astrazeneca + Pfizer is also recommended quite a bit. The point is that Sinovac provides very negligible protection against Symptomatic Covid. With assymptomatic Covid (mild covid) , you’d likely not require hospitalization in the first place.

The problem however remains the very high chance of further mutation of the omicron virus. If anything, The whole zero covid stunt by the chinese govt might have just put the world population at another risk again. Instead of letting their population live with the virus and promote vaccination , they’ve instead let the virus mutate and gotten their citizens and now citizens world over at risk again.

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I’d disagree. With a decent vaccination drive and their zero-COVID stance, it could have been a net benefit. But as in basically every other dictatorship out there, Potemkin attempts win…

Their zero covid stance was the biggest fail. Every other country dropped their zero covid stance (even including aus/nz) after it’s proven that with increase in vaccination rates and transmissibility of newer variants , zero covid wasn’t feasible anymore. Well , except China’s govt using it as a means for controlling people and stopping the dissemination of news spreading out. They didn’t roll out the vaccination program further because to require a 4th/5th dose of their vaccines is an admission that their much vaunted soft-power dose didn’t work. Neither did they go ahead with procurement arrangements for Moderna/Pfizer or even do a licensing agreement for Astrazeneca’s vaccine because that would be admitting that their vaccine’s didn’t work either.

This is as much a threat to worldwide health as what China had done initially at 2019.

re: China and the covid vaccines…

the biggest surprise for me, is that China hasnt stolen from the wast (for lack of a better term) the recipes to make vaccines that the west has been using and to start producing the vaccines themselves

they have stolen the IP for just about everything else

One thing stealing the IP for semiconductors etc , another thing for stealing the IP for sensitive research.

China needs to understand the value of collaboration. One sided deals only take you so far.

fixed for truth

Just some very minor notes, feel free to ignore if you wish as it is not on topic. Really, it’s just me and my love of history really.
A) Potemkin was an incredibly skilled statesman, military leader and beurocrat. Just want to note that since many people bring up his name due to US popular cultural saying (mostly today, the myth itself originated in Germany).
B) Potemkin recently lost, as the Russians just now recently stole his corpse from Kherson museum when they withdrew.
C) Potemkin village is a myth, but it is true that he had two nice houses built and a village cleaned up with well dressed people when Catherine visited his fief.

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To be on topic, from a few days ago:

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I had my 4th in early Novemeber, almost exactly 12 months after my first booster. I think for the time being that is the schedule I’ll be on…a yearly booster done prior to the US holiday season to help reduce the possibility of me fucking up everyone’s Thanksgiving/Christmas/NY

They had boosters available, but for reasons we can only speculate on uptake of even a first booster has been terrible. Even with the most effective vax out there, up to date boosters among the elderly of less than 50%, as is the case in China, is going to see a LOT of people die. We’re now in 2nd booster territory in the west and most in the most vulnerable populations in China havent even had their first after getting their first round completed over 2 years ago. That is a population level of immunity in the toilet.

There is data showing that in large parts of china, especially among the elderly that other vaccinations are low so this isnt just a covid issue, but you have to suspect that at least a part of the issue is that the strictness of the society wide restrictions made people feel less empowered to help themselves by getting the boosters. The first round made them sick for a couple of a days, and despite doing it they are still not allowed out? Why make yourself sick again when you’re still not allowed to do anything anyway?

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https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://amp.scmp.com/news/people-culture/trending-china/article/3204013/i-had-covid-day-chinese-singer-who-deliberately-infected-herself-avoid-missing-her-new-years-eve&ved=2ahUKEwj4yu2m3438AhX0T2wGHV51BFoQyM8BKAB6BAgGEAI&usg=AOvVaw0zw4O5eWsNM7AyxDm84pIE

“reports” stating that China has reported 30 odd million covid cases a day.