Internation Events X - Why such a long break...?

[Impmk2]

3 minutes ago, Kalnestk Oblast said:

This isn't super great, especially since Sinovac is the main one:

That all said, the more worrisome thing is that the protection offered reportedly waned quickly, and we already know that Omicron is resistant against...uh...resistance. 

So all that tells you is protection against symptomatic disease - which is largely comes down neutralising antibody titres and how well your vaccine presents surface antigen to the immune system. There is an element of that in the protection against severe disease (it's harder to get critically ill if you don't become sympotmatic at all), as well as the element in reducing the size of waves and sheer number of people effected, however there's also cellular immunity to consider too. That wanes far less quickly and offers our main line of defense severe illness, and I haven't seen any data to indicate the Chinese vaccines aren't creating a decent T-cell response.

So while yes, I agree the mRNA vaccines do offer greater protection and are almost universally considered to be superior, and from a public health perspective they're nuts not to be using them. But the Chinese vaccines aren't completely useless and could play a big role in blunting the coming covid wave in China. Of course to do that they'd need to get far better coverage than they currently have.

 

[The Anti-Targ]

It's the population coverage that's the key for mitigating large demands on hospitals and morgues, so long as the vaccine has proven efficacy, which the Chinese ones do, 51% prevention of symptomatic infection is way better than 0% prevention.

Though with Omicron is is probably quite a bit lower than 51%, since people who actually had COVID still get symptomatic re-infections, and even people who've been mRNA vaccinated AND boosted AND had COVID still get symptomatic re-infections.

[Darzin]

16 hours ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I lived through the Tiananinmen square protests in 1989.  At the time, as an 18 year old idealist, I thought it was the start of a new Chinese revolution.  How wrong I was. Is this like that or something else truly unprecedented in recent Chinese history?

It's unprecedented but it's also not anything like Tianamen, these protests are about a very specific demand to end the new lockdowns, and they don't seem to be sustained outside of Urumqi just brief instances of rage. But this kind of widespread discontent is pretty shocking there has been nothing like it in recent history and the government is playing with fire keeping things as they are, on the other hand they going to want to resist the appearence of protests having any effect which might lead them to resist any changes.  

If this had happened before the party congress it might have led to some interesting shakeups but now the leadership is set. There are a lot of rumors that the government has formed a comission to open by spring, but who knows if those have any truth. 

[Zorral]

The World Cup Is on, and Traders Are Watching
S&P 500 and corporate-bond volumes are already low because traders turn their attention to the soccer game

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-29/world-cup-will-cut-trading-volume-as-us-faces-iran-in-key-clash

Quote

During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, US equity trading volume fell 43% when the US was playing, according to a study by two European Central Bank economists. That’s not the most in the world — in Chile it fell more than 99% — but there’s a good chance that will be surpassed this afternoon as the US faces a crunch match against Iran. ....

 

[JGP]

Hope a lot of people determining it's truth or not.

 

 

[Kalbear]

On the above, I thought this was super interesting - China essentially deluged Twitter with spam and adult content to deprioritize the actual protests going on. This is apparently a regular strategy but twitter had had a team that could deal with it - but that team is basically gone now.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/11/china-bots-flood-twitter-with-porn-spam-to-drown-protest-news/

Quote

 

This weekend, widespread protests erupted in China in what amounted to “the biggest show of opposition to the ruling Communist Party in decades,” AP News reported. Many protesters attempted to document events live to spread awareness and inspire solidarity across Twitter. Demonstrations were so powerful that Chinese authorities actually seemed to cave, appeasing some of the protesters’ demands by easing the severe lockdown restrictions that sparked the protests.

This could have been a moment that showed how Twitter under Elon Musk is still a relevant breaking-news source, still a place where free speech demonstrations reach the masses, and thus, still the only place to track escalating protests like these. Instead, The Washington Post reported that a flood of “useless tweets” effectively buried live footage from protests. This blocked users from easily following protest news, while Twitter seemingly did nothing to stop what researchers described as an apparent Chinese influence operation.

 

 

[JGP]

Wow.

 

Ofuckingk.

[JGP]

This is me liking my own post.

[dog-days]

It does sound like good news, but I'm sure anyone in Iran with views critical of their government is taking that with a side order of disbelief. Maybe it'll be like the The News of the World closing to be replaced by The Sun on Sunday. (Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.) 

[Which Tyler]

1 hour ago, JGP said:

Wow.

 

Ofuckingk.

This feels like a trap.

Please tell me it's not a trap.

[JGP]

I hope that isn't the case though.

I very recently watched a clip [that I won't share here] of two Afghan women being beaten with like, it was really long. Probably 5 feet or so, the first 3.5 feet like a bat so you can get a good wide grip on it, the last foot and half moved physically similar to cane or bamboo but much heavier. Slower.

The man was beating them really bad. All sides, on their heads.

For going to the store without a male chaperone.

Pretty sure I only have one adrenal gland left at this point, but even relating it has my blood up thumping in my ears. 

These authoritarian and/or fundamentalist regimes, if they think they can run the clock out on feminism I'll eat my stylus crunchy little motherboard and all. They may believe otherwise.  

Look at who have been leading the charge in China. 

Women. 

Iran.

 

Bring. It. On. 

 

edit; I will cheer, I will donate. I will do whatever I can from where I'm at and what I can give without taking from those I'm raising. 

This is the soft diplomacy the world needs. 

 

PUTIN DOES NOT RESPOND TO SOFT DIPLOMACY

 

What thread is this, I'm ranting. 

 

[Zorral]

24 minutes ago, JGP said:

I very recently watched a clip [that I won't share here]

Which is exactly what that guy muskey welcomed back to the dead birth with open arms advocates for women, including being locked in cages.

[JGP]

1 minute ago, Zorral said:

Which is exactly what that guy muskey welcomed back to the dead birth with open arms advocates for women, including being locked in cages.

It was unintentional but once in no way I couldn't commit. That shit has to be seen.

The corruption that more or less disables really supporting women in countries and cultures like this, these men, if that's what anyone beyond them wants to call themselves. They're soft, which has made them cruel. Seem they have issues with humiliation though. 

Too aggressive you figure?

Like, if the West is a thing [it's not, not really] shouldn't this be incredibly important? Most important?

I'm on gummies. Wide open. 

What do you think, Z? 

[Zorral]

2 minutes ago, JGP said:

What do you think, Z?

It all, all of it, starts with this.

[JGP]

With what. Wide open?

[JGP]

Or supporting feminism abroad in everyway imaginable? 

Sock me with it, Z. 

[JGP]

Man

[Zorral]

21 hours ago, JGP said:

Or supporting feminism abroad in everyway imaginable? 

Sock me with it, Z. 

Doing your best to teach men to be decent human beings.

[Zorral]

Indonesia has declared sex outside of marriage is a crime.

Presumably only for women will it be criminal, since we have to think of the sex industry -- can't let Thailand get it all.

[kiko]

34 minutes ago, Zorral said:

Indonesia has declared sex outside of marriage is a crime.

Presumably only for women will it be criminal, since we have to think of the sex industry -- can't let Thailand get it all.

Actually it's also a crime for visitors. Don't really see that as a good omen for the tourism industry.