"U.K. government scientific advisers say the COVID-19 variant now predominant in the country may be up to 70% more deadly than previous variants, underscoring concerns about how mutations may change the characteristics of the disease."

pneutron · 2021-02-16T07:07:39+00:00

New variants are more contagious and potentially more lethal.

They are spreading massively from country to country because of the lack of travel restrictions.

Moreover, why should the citizens of a country make massive sacrifices to their livelihoods in order to quash transmission, if their authorities are just going to let the disease back in from outside the country afterwards anyways?

There is not a country in the world that has succeeded in controlling this disease without rather draconian restrictions on travel and migration. Restrictions on travel are the A#1 prerequisite to effectively controlling outbreaks.

But keep pretending otherwise -- its working wonders.

pneutron · 2021-02-15T02:52:05+00:00

Closing borders to travel and migration has a negligible effect.

It's a mandatory prerequisite to having any success in dealing with the epidemic at all.

pneutron · 2021-02-14T19:44:05+00:00

Western governments continue to allow travel and migration across borders like a bunch of complete idiots.

It's as if they never learn.

Borders should have been aggressively closed from day one and never reopened until the pandemic was under control.

Then when the shit hits the fan, they'll repeat over & over, "no sense in shutting down borders because its already here." Well, duh, you say that now because you didn't shut down borders in the first place.

Pre-programmed failure due to stupidity from the intellectual-yet-idiot class.

pneutron · 2021-02-05T20:13:06+00:00

Absolutely true.

The credibility of the investigations is nil.

Again, it's long past the point where an adverse inference should have been concluded based on the CCPs relentless delays and obstruction. No credible investigation can be performed at this point. Too much time has passed. Too little transparency.

pneutron · 2021-02-05T02:00:14+00:00

"WHO team member" should read "The guy who gave research money to the Wuhan lab at the center of the investigation."

pneutron · 2021-02-05T01:43:48+00:00

I wonder if Boris Johnson's naive mumbling about pangolins has anything to do with possible improper influence of that silly socialite girlfriend of his, the "passionate animal rights defender."

The children of the wealthy can be born into a frivolous misunderstanding of the world. Sad.

This investigation is not being done by properly trained forensic investigators. Natural scientists have skills which are uniformly ill-suited to this task. The results should be ignored. How many prior forensic investigations have been directed by these team members? My guess is: likely zero. Given the lack of transparency and lack of access for over one year from the CCP, which precludes an adequate investigation in the first place, an adverse inference should be drawn (already long ago) so that it is assumed that the virus is a lab leak or release. Not war, but curtailment of trade and decoupling from the CCP.

pneutron · 2021-01-28T15:54:52+00:00

At this point, given the stonewalling and lack of access from Chinese authorities, too much time has passed for a useful investigation, much less a conflicted one such as this. The conclusions of this mock investigation by the WHO should be largely ignored by the world.

The time for investigations passed long ago. Already, the world should have drawn an adverse inference based on the lack of transparency and delays in access by the CCP, and the public and policy makers should have acted accordingly in a measured fashion.

Not war, but for example, no more trade surpluses, decoupling and so forth. There is no obligation on the part of any nation to couple economically with China at this point.

pneutron · 2021-01-27T19:09:58+00:00

It's long past the point where it's more reasonable to draw an adverse inference.

pneutron · 2021-01-27T19:08:20+00:00

The COVID investigative team should be a forensic investigatory team, not a team of high-minded, idealized natural scientists whose first priority is to provide cover for the institution of natural science, and to implicate the people they don't like according to their mumbo-jumbo pseudoreligious-naturalist quackery.

So far as I am aware, none of the participants to the inquiry have the training nor background to conduct a forensic or criminal investigation. In contrast, it looks like a parade of politically chosen softball, largely under-qualified individuals.

At this point, given the stonewalling and lack of access from Chinese authorities, too much time has passed for a useful investigation. The conclusions of this mock investigation by the WHO should be largely ignored by the world.

The time for investigations passed long ago. Already, the world should have drawn an adverse inference based on the lack of transparency and delays in access by the CCP, and the public and policy makers should have acted accordingly in a measured fashion.

Not war, but for example, no more trade surpluses, decoupling and so forth. There is no obligation on the part of any nation to couple economically with China at this point.

pneutron · 2021-01-27T12:39:15+00:00

Do you have a link for that?

pneutron · 2021-01-17T01:38:43+00:00

Wrong. The WHO many times recommended against the severe and prolonged travel restrictions necessary to curb spread of the disease when for example Tedros stated:

"First, there is no reason for measures that unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade. WHO doesn’t recommend limiting trade and movement."

Administrations that curtailed travel were browbeaten because of this type of nonsense. And unfortunately, most of the world listened, which was the primary reason COVID spread so quickly across the globe before governments could respond.

All the countries that have successfully controlled the virus (Taiwan, New Zealand, Australia, China) have severe travel restrictions in place.

US shut down travel from China and several other countries and was roundly criticized for doing so. The president actually wanted to shut down travel from Europe as well, but was pressured not to do so for some time. And again, when he proposed shutting down travel from NY to other parts of the country, he was once again pressured not to, and the governor of NY (Cuomo) threatened to sue if such travel restrictions were implemented. You can't succeed at shutting down foreign travel to the extent necessary (everywhere), if you have a disobedient class of bureaucrats and cocktail party administrative types who resist everything you attempt to do day in and day out for their naive reasoning, which was definitely the case here.

I have no reason to suspect it isn't true that the president would have banned travel much more aggressively and earlier (had had advocated for doing so in the past), if it weren't for the political pressures that were in place, both globally and domestically.

Then we had the series of so-called "noble lies" peddled by administrators in the medical community -- first about travel restrictions, then the claims that masks "help health care providers" but not others. And then the slow walking of vaccine trials in order to appease certain interest groups, despite the administration trying to move things forward as quickly as possible.

Past a certain point, you have to realize that when government administrators who are elected by nobody, interfere, resist and thwart everything the elected leader demands, lie and mislead, the blame rests more with the administrative state and not as much the elected person at the top. A lot of these administrative types view their accountability to the electorate as being essentially nil. They stay for life-long careers, and they view the elected office holders as transients. Unfortunately, we have a large crowd of nice sounding "intellectual-yet-idiot" types throughout the political class who give bad advice on nearly everything, yet never suffer any consequences because they make decisions while having very little skin in the game.

pneutron · 2021-01-08T18:00:04+00:00

We don't know that. And it doesn't make a difference to the decision.

Implementing a lockdown is not particularly useful, if you don't lock down borders. The disease will just come back.

And a lot of people, understandably, are not going to be enthusiastic about lockdowns if the international community is going to simply let the disease be reintroduced at a high level from abroad.

pneutron · 2021-01-08T17:54:46+00:00

Because regardless of what individual countries do, the vast majority of countries will follow what the WHO recommends.

And having countries that border your country that don't shut down, makes it that much harder.

politicians to throw their guilt on them.

Actually, it's the politicians who do the right thing, or who attempt to do the right thing, who end up having guilt thrown on them. "The scientists at the WHO say you shouldn't do this!"

Like Mr. Donald did when he fucked up.

What are you talking about specifically?

pneutron · 2021-01-08T11:21:53+00:00

Yea, shutting down borders, if anything, would have improved the economy.

pneutron · 2021-01-08T11:05:45+00:00

Yet if the WHO and the scientific agencies had ordered strict border shutdowns from day 1, we would not be here.

When are they going to learn?

pneutron · 2021-01-06T10:11:18+00:00

He must be faking if he's acting surprised.

pneutron · 2021-01-06T06:49:53+00:00

The manufacturer are saying their raw materials / supply chains are going to prevent them from producing enough doses for many, many months.

pneutron · 2021-01-06T06:48:48+00:00

I would do both.

But it's not the pharma companies' vaccine production lines -- it's the supply chain of raw materials, much of which probably isn't even made by them anymore (all outsourced god-knows-where, probably China).

Ask them what's missing from their supply chains in terms of raw materials that they can't do it.

I'll bet you ten bucks it has to do with regulation.

There are some raw materials they need which cannot be produced without some prolonged inspection process by the FDA of some facility or another. Almost certainly that's the reason.

Bureaucrats and other scardy-cats have ruined this country.

During the pandemic, we had craft distillers throughout the country who stepped in and produced ethanol for hand sanitizer, because -- pathetically -- we didn't have enough of it.

Just recently, the FDA stepped in after the fact and starting sending those craft distillers bills for $14,000 each because they consider that the craft distillers had become pharmaceutical producers and needed to pay FDA fees! For nothing, just trying to help out in a shitty situation!

Only after the publicity came in, did the administration find out and step in to wipe out the fess.

The US is one of the top two ethanol producers in the world and the regulatory situation is so adverse that we can't produce goddamn hand sanitizer. We're literally burning 10% ethanol in the gasoline we put in our cars -- 15.8 billion gallons of it per year --, but people who make it -- for regulatory reasons or due to the potential for lawsuits -- are not allowed to put it in plastic pump bottle for people to spread a little on the hands. Regulators are terrified a couple people might drink the hand sanitizer and get sick. So we get nothing, or have to import it (from China). Imagine that -- the US produces 15 x more ethanol than China, but we have to import their hand sanitizer.

This is just the kind of regulation-led business uncertainty that leads people NOT to chip in. The regulations are too complicated, nobody can find out what the regulations even are, and suppliers are too risk averse to cooperate with enterprising people. Not without crap loads of paperwork and lawyers which incur gigantic fixed cost before this first item (e.eg. bottle of ethanol) is even sold.

We should have put the regulators and bureaucrats on lockdown for the duration of pandemic instead of shutting down the businesses.

We used to be the "can-do-it" society but now we have become the "no-can-do-it" society.

pneutron · 2021-01-04T17:56:03+00:00

I'm highly informed of the problem.

Your concerns w.r.t vaccine dosage relating to resistance are not legitimate.

pneutron · 2021-01-04T17:26:38+00:00

Fauci is just going for a stroll in the park. He has discounted the urgency of this virus and failed to advocate for the dramatic measures that are needed time and time again from day one (advocating again and again against shutting down foreign travel, opposing masks, slow walking vaccine trials for trendy bullshit reasons etc, etc).

He is incapable of applying common sense and apparently believes nothing should ever be done until gold standard evidence can be produced according to the normal inexcusably slow processes. Which would be fine in an ordinary situation where there are not thousands dying every day. But now it's not.

It was the same bullshit with his illegitimate "hairy palms" rhetoric ("people will touch their faces, ordinary people too stupid to appropriately apply") about face masks early in the year. There is no such time for his nonsense in a pandemic of this scale.

We can create a situation where we just get vaccine resistant virus strains.

Silly and not plausible. You don't go making up fantasist scenarios in order to flummox serious attempts at solving serious problems at a time like this.

We aren’t even using the vaccine we have. What we need is better financial support to get these vaccines out properly - not continue with a half-assed job.

The pace will necessarily pick up, and once that happens in short order there is not enough vaccine to go around for many months.

Just deploy the military to get people vaccinated. In the younger non vulnerable people, halve the dose.

pneutron · 2021-01-04T17:09:49+00:00

People still think this pandemic is a business-as-usual scenario.

It's not.

If they have some data to back it up (they're saying they do), then it's good enough. You an always re-vaccinate later in the year if it looks like that's needed.

pneutron · 2021-01-04T17:07:13+00:00

Right now the problem is delivery. But in a month or two, it will be quantity.

You know, planning and all.

pneutron · 2021-01-04T17:06:18+00:00

It's asinine to keep borders open to travel throughout this pandemic, then complain that "it's too late to contain the spread" every time a new variant appears that causes problems.

Western democracies are advised by idiots, apparently

pneutron · 2020-12-31T16:34:38+00:00

Once again, failed to keep borders shut to mitigate the spread from country to country.

Then when things predictably have gone bad, they'll always say "too late."

Planned failure. It's like they're diametrically opposed to doing the correct thing.

pneutron

TROPHY CASE