Shanghai Update—there appears to have been a reversal of Shanghai's apparent decision yesterday to not lockdown (under intense pressure from Western business). As such the province is entering a 10 day lockdown:
'China's dynamic zero-COVID approach has proved effective and necessary in curbing the spread of the virus despite the recent flare-ups of the epidemic in multiple places across the country....
...The claims from some Western countries that China is compromising its economic and social development for the sake of epidemic control are largely a misunderstanding of the aforementioned approach....
...The essence of dynamic zero-COVID approach features swift and targeted response measures. Once an outbreak is detected, a range of measures are available to nip it in the bud. The key lies in ensuring its early detection and disposal...
...The approach contains domestic flare-ups through timely actions before the virus becomes uncontainable and causes greater damage to people's lives'
'The principle of putting people and human life above anything else is the reason that China has adhered to the dynamic zero-COVID approach. For the Chinese government, not a single life is expendable in the fight against the virus.'
'The goal of this approach is to bring the epidemic under control in the shortest possible time with a minimum cost to the society. Dynamic elimination of each sporadic outbreak can prevent it from evolving into a large-scale resurgence.'
'In addition, timely containment of the spread of the epidemic allows business operations and people's daily activities to return to normality as soon as possible, without seriously affecting the society and the economy.'
'The anti-epidemic efforts over the past years proved the effectiveness of China's approach that accords with the country's reality.'
China is extremely proud of their pandemic response—rightly so:
'Both the country's economic performance and COVID-19 response have fully demonstrated the strength and effectiveness of the dynamic zero-COVID approach'
'China has effectively responded to regional cluster infections and provided the best protection for people's lives and health as it can. Before the battle against the virus is won, the country will take more effective measures to achieve maximum...
...effect in prevention and control with minimum cost, and to reduce the impact on socioeconomic development as much as possible.'
Seems like they are not caving into pressure from western corporations according to this—having seen their pandemic response in...
...Shanghai which is already far above anything we've ever attempted in the UK—the lockdown they are implementing along with all the other things they are doing will hopefully stop the outbreak.
It cannot be imagined that any Western government would ever make the statement that 'putting people and human life above anything else' is the reason for choosing their Covid strategy: China's roots of solidarity show through in the rhetoric here.
'For the Chinese government, not a single life is expendable in the fight against the virus.'
You can't even imagine hearing such a thing in West: here it's the opposite—'let's kill as many as we can'
Much like the China CDC Gray Rhino Deltacron warning the statements have a bluntness to them that are pragmatic, poetic, sensible and decent.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
An extremely disturbing development in Denmark: labelling those who fight against their herd immunity death policy as 'extremist' in a new Gov terrorism assessment:
'Denmark’s domestic security on Tuesday designated pandemic-linked “antigovernmental extremism” as a menace for the first time ever.'
Reports the AP:
'The agency, known by its Danish acronym PET, said in its annual assessment that although this type of extremism is not “a significant driving force for the terrorist threat” in the country, it does make the situation “more complex.”'
1/ Deltacron France Public Health: Gov documents say Deltacron first detected in early January and found in multiple regions: therefore showing it was spreading at the time and likely continues to do so.
2/ For reasons that have not been clear Deltacron has been renamed 'XD' or to be more specific the version of Deltacron the French have isolated has been named XD.
3/
The variant contains an Omicron like spike with the body of Delta. So far they have found 44 sequences (that's quite high) and in multiple regions in France (meaning it was/is being circulated)—it has been traced back to early Jan (it likely goes back further).
1/ Covid, UK, Schools Crisis—Primary School In Somerset: Parents Drafted in to cover classes due to Covid teacher sickness—same school threatens with fines if there are more than 10 days of child absence.
2/
A primary school in Somerset recently wrote to parents to say:
'A huge thank you to everyone who has covered staff absences, we are very grateful to those volunteers from the staff and parents who came to help man the school...
The children enjoyed the merged classes well and we managed to stay open!'
This is a direct quote from their from school letter (I have not added the exclamation mark).
UK, Covid, BA2: admissions nearly double since Freedom Day—almost back to Dec/Jan Omicron peaks—almost certain to exceed. ADMISSIONS double 2.5X HIGHER THAN DELTA WAVE (and rising)
Following Freedom Day last summer we immediately surged (numbers started going up even before it a bit). However, since Omicron hit we've frequently had double the number of in patients and admissions...
Freedom Day 1 was bad enough—many died as a result. However Freedom Day 2 has left us in complete tailspin—and it doesn't seem that any number of deaths or admissions will trigger any form of governmental action.
BA2.8 found in Scotland as the Omicron family tree just keeps churning out ever more variants and mutations—BA2.8 contains 2 mutations in ORF3a—mutations in this part of the virus have previously been associated with high mortality.