All things CoronaVirus

[njbill]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

[wgdsr]

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-sho ... o-meet-goa

Shocker.

Maybe next pandemic we'll go all in, and take this stuff seriously.

(probably not)

what does "a very long time" mean to build a facility?

It completely depends on what you're producing. Producing vials or needles are different than producing vaccine substrate.

If you ask me how I would double Bourbon production? I could lay it out for you on one, easy to read sheet of paper...... X number of barrels, Y number of fermenters, Z number of stills, F number of bottle filling lines. And I can ALWAYS tell you what the bottleneck is.

The fact that Pfizer and Moderna can't tell us "here's the bottleneck", tells me that we're in a "well let you know when the vaccine arrives, stop bothering us" mode. Which is fine under normal circumstances, but 1000% not ok during an emergency when WE THE PEOPLE are the customer that's cutting billion dollar checks.

As for the "RNA is hard"-----so is everything in manufacturing. Try hitting a flavor profile of balanced fruit and spice notes 10 years from when you start, when you're making a Rye Whiskey. I have to do that. My company depends on it.

All these production forecasts INCLUDES failures and what's called "production line efficiencies". These days? If you go to a Budweiser plant, the floor manager can tell you the efficiency of every SINGLE piece of equipment on the production floor. In other words, filling line #1 may be 5% more efficient than filling line #7. And they go to work on why that's the case immediately.

This isn't WWII, where pencils and clipboards handled logistics. The difference between WWII and 2020-----is that we treated WWII as a national emergency. We're NOT doing that with the vaccine. We're taking a "you'll get it when you get it" approach, and it's plain to see.....

We don't have the will. So.....we'll deal with this pandemic for months more than we needed to.....

maybe at some point during or after we'll have an idea what the bottleneck is. given the opacity of everything, i'm not sure that'll happen, but then again life (new news) moves pretty fast around here, too. check out the links from a follow up reply. biontech, pfizer's partner, looks to be moving and shaking.

[wgdsr]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

my guess is at times joe just gets ahead of himself when he's off prompter. i would expect his messaging to be most consistently vigilant, take action, yada. with klain at the tip of the spear, i'm semi-confident they'll run head long into righting ships where they think they can be effective.

not as sanguine about their recent plays for public relations tear downs vs. just getting at it positively, but it's politics and don't think i'd expect much different from anyone. maybe they'll move along on that stuff soon enough.

[kramerica.inc]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

[Typical Lax Dad]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

You taking the under by 9/30/21?

[kramerica.inc]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

You taking the under by 9/30/21?

Possibly.

My question legitimately becomes if we cant change the trajectory, what is the purrpose of what we are doing? If we aren't changing the trajectory, why aren't we focusing resources on things that CAN make a difference and save people from death like the plasma anitbody treatment?

[Typical Lax Dad]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

You taking the under by 9/30/21?

Possibly.

My question legitimately becomes if we cant change the trajectory, what is the purrpose of what we are doing? If we aren't changing the trajectory, why aren't we focusing resources on things that CAN make a difference and save people from death like the plasma anitbody treatment?

Can’t change the trajectory to hit 600k...which includes a slow down in the run rate....We have 425k dead already. You want more than that? Ignore social distancing and mask wearing when you can’t social distant. Let everyone go free range.

[Kismet]

pfizer from the jump just seems tough to work with.
are they already counting it as 6? have they distributed the 6 dose syringes to every location if yay?

we should maybe enact a hostile takeover of biontech with a hedgie. or moderna. those guys seem easier to deal with fo sho.

In typical Big Pharma style Pfizer petitoned the government to count the 6th dose as part of their commitment of dose delivery (and to get paid for the 6th dose as well). They did not address the syringe piece as they make the vaccine and not the syringe (which is in short supply and likely to be part of the Defense Production Act initiative

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/2 ... ses-461537

“We will fulfill our supply commitments in line with our existing agreements — which are based on delivery of doses, not vials,” Amy Rose, a Pfizer spokesperson, wrote in an email Friday evening. There labeling says there are 6 doses in every vial but the 6th dose is only retrievable with a certain type of specialized syringe.

[kramerica.inc]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

You taking the under by 9/30/21?

Possibly.

My question legitimately becomes if we cant change the trajectory, what is the purrpose of what we are doing? If we aren't changing the trajectory, why aren't we focusing resources on things that CAN make a difference and save people from death like the plasma anitbody treatment?

Can’t change the trajectory to hit 600k...which includes a slow down in the run rate....We have 425k dead already. You want more than that? Ignore social distancing and mask wearing when you can’t social distant. Let everyone go free range.

If plasma is working so well, why not focus more on it? Cost/time considerations?

[MDlaxfan76]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

You taking the under by 9/30/21?

Possibly.

My question legitimately becomes if we cant change the trajectory, what is the purrpose of what we are doing? If we aren't changing the trajectory, why aren't we focusing resources on things that CAN make a difference and save people from death like the plasma anitbody treatment?

Can’t change the trajectory to hit 600k...which includes a slow down in the run rate....We have 425k dead already. You want more than that? Ignore social distancing and mask wearing when you can’t social distant. Let everyone go free range.

IHME predicts a significant reduction in daily deaths run rate yet still get to 568k by May 1...yeah, 600k is VERY likely.

I read the word "trajectory" as being misused in that impromptu statement...more like, "we're on track to hit 600k" or "there's nothing we can do to change the track of the pandemic over the next several months"...basically, at least 600k is baked in at this point...

Word starts and sounds the same, but doesn't mean exactly the same.

Can we make the longer term outcome better or worse? I'm sure he'd say yes.

[Typical Lax Dad]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

You taking the under by 9/30/21?

Possibly.

My question legitimately becomes if we cant change the trajectory, what is the purrpose of what we are doing? If we aren't changing the trajectory, why aren't we focusing resources on things that CAN make a difference and save people from death like the plasma anitbody treatment?

Can’t change the trajectory to hit 600k...which includes a slow down in the run rate....We have 425k dead already. You want more than that? Ignore social distancing and mask wearing when you can’t social distant. Let everyone go free range.

If plasma is working so well, why not focus more on it? Cost/time considerations?

I don’t know.

[Typical Lax Dad]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

I didn’t like that statement either. Maybe he is under promising and hoping to overdeliver (or sandbagging as you say) or maybe he stumbled over his words. Regardless the message wasn’t good.

“Several months” is a lot of time. Over the next several months, hopefully we will be able to vaccinate all or a very high proportion of the most vulnerable population, say, nursing home residents and +75s. If we can accomplish that, that should dramatically reduce deaths and hospitalizations. Taking the strain off the healthcare system would be a huge positive. Plus, hopefully a very high percentage of critical workers will be vaccinated over the next several months.

I imagine he was not intending to include more extreme shut down measures in his comment. Obviously those could, in theory, be taken, but that ship has sailed as the country simply won’t tolerate more shut downs.

I was hoping he was pulling a Dave Cottle- setting the expectations low to bide himself some leeway. But who knows.

You taking the under by 9/30/21?

Possibly.

My question legitimately becomes if we cant change the trajectory, what is the purrpose of what we are doing? If we aren't changing the trajectory, why aren't we focusing resources on things that CAN make a difference and save people from death like the plasma anitbody treatment?

Can’t change the trajectory to hit 600k...which includes a slow down in the run rate....We have 425k dead already. You want more than that? Ignore social distancing and mask wearing when you can’t social distant. Let everyone go free range.

IHME predicts a significant reduction in daily deaths run rate yet still get to 568k by May 1...yeah, 600k is VERY likely.

I read the word "trajectory" as being misused in that impromptu statement...more like, "we're on track to hit 600k" or "there's nothing we can do to change the track of the pandemic over the next several months"...basically, at least 600k is baked in at this point...

Word starts and sounds the same, but doesn't mean exactly the same.

Can we make the longer term outcome better or worse? I'm sure he'd say yes.

That’s what it seemed like to me. I don’t know anyone that believes the final toll will be less than 600,000. Don’t do anything and it would be much higher.

[CU88]

1 year ago today: Trump praises China's "efforts and transparency" in the fight against coronavirus, adding: "it will all work out well"

[Carroll81]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/22/biden-s ... onths.html

Here's hoping he's just sandbagging so we're all impressed with his results.

But for so much critique of Trump's lousy messaging, one would think Biden coulda said, "continue to sign up for vaccines, mask, distance, and wash hands."

The Biden administration seems to be taking the Scotty from StarTrek approach on the Covid front. "Eye capt'n, the warp engines are offline and I only have 30% impulse. It'll take at least a week to fix" and an hour later it's full Warp speed ahead. That is actually the smart thing to do when dealing with an emergency situation like this.

100 million doses in 100 days and 600,000 dead. Actually not a stretch goal at all.

[Typical Lax Dad]

1 year ago today: Trump praises China's "efforts and transparency" in the fight against coronavirus, adding: "it will all work out well"

Going to go away and magically disappear. Old Joe says not much we can do about water under the bridge and likely to hit 600k deaths and he’s the fool. Old Joe should have said we can stop this thing at 500k deaths....

[old salt]

{paywall alert} https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/t ... diplomacy/

The Brazenness of China's Vaccine Diplomacy
By JIMMY QUINN, January 25, 2021 2:45 PM

The Chinese Communist Party for months pushed absurd lies about COVID’s origins, and its most recent disinformation campaign about Western vaccines is no less ridiculous. Nevertheless, top Chinese diplomats are using public health as an issue with which they hope to get a foot in the door with the Biden administration.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the Chinese diplomatic effort this weekend, which has featured backchannel attempts to gauge the new administration’s interest in high-level meetings. In addition to working together on climate change, Beijing will ask for cooperation on the pandemic:

The Chinese side plans to propose that both sides cooperate on vaccine-certificate protocols, to verify proof of immunization, under the guidelines set by the World Health Organization. Chinese officials hope that in turn can help facilitate travel between the two countries for people who present such proof. Beijing also hopes that the two sides can talk about jointly distributing vaccines in developing countries.

China has attempted to step into a global leadership role on providing Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries, but recently suffered a setback when one of its leading inoculation candidates turned out to be significantly less effective in late-stage trials in Brazil than in early results. A risk for the U.S. is that cooperating with China could lend legitimacy to Chinese vaccines developed in a push that scientists have criticized as not transparent.

The Biden administration has thus far maintained a cool distance from these overtures, which are still in their infancy. Nonetheless, the Journal’s revelations go to show just how unbelievably brazen Beijing’s outreach is.

The idea that the CCP can position itself as a credible partner with which to fight the pandemic is plainly laughable. Its COVID conspiracy theories recently came full circle, with foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reviving a claim that the disease actually originated in Maryland, at the U.S. army’s Fort Detrick medical research laboratory. The conspiracy theory, which has no basis in fact, was initially promoted by Hua’s colleague Zhao Lijian on Twitter last March.

Faced last week with the U.S. government’s assessment that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had come down with COVID in fall 2019, prior to the first reported cases, Hua turned the tabled on Washington, demanding that it “open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite WHO experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States, and respond to the concerns from the international community with real actions.”

Now these officials and state-run media outlets are on a relentless tear against Western COVID vaccines.
In a piece about Australia’s expected approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Global Times offered false claims. “The deaths of 23 elderly Norwegian people after receiving the vaccine have raised concern in Australia,” according to the Chinese mouthpiece. Of course, this is baseless scaremongering that ignores that these people seemed to have died of unrelated causes, suggesting instead that their deaths were caused by the vaccine.

Asked to comment on the piece during a news conference on January 20, Hua doubled down on the story, stating that it revealed the extent to which Western media show a bias for Western vaccines and one against Chinese ones.

Like the Global Times story, Hua’s comments elide the key fact here: The vaccines that have been approved in the West are simply more reliable than those offered in China. Whereas, for instance, the Pfizer vaccine is about 95 percent effective, the one offered by Sinovac works 50 percent of the time, according to Brazilian researchers.

And not only does the Chinese party-state spread its own disinformation, it goes after those who speak the truth about the pandemic. The Gazeta do Povo reports that Beijing’s ambassador to Brazil is demanding that the country’s foreign minister Ernesto Araújo, who called the coronavirus the “communist virus,” be fired or that the government otherwise issue a statement lauding Beijing’s assistance. The Chinese negotiators have made this a precondition of receiving further component materials from China that Brazil can use to manufacture the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines.

The CCP’s vaccine diplomacy offers only whopping lies, clumsy coercion, and an amazing capacity to believe that no one will notice. Yet Beijing’s envoys somehow think they stand a chance of convincing their American counterparts to view them as anything other than the representatives of a regime with a complete disregard for global public health.

[Typical Lax Dad]

{paywall alert} https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/t ... diplomacy/

The Brazenness of China's Vaccine Diplomacy
By JIMMY QUINN, January 25, 2021 2:45 PM

The Chinese Communist Party for months pushed absurd lies about COVID’s origins, and its most recent disinformation campaign about Western vaccines is no less ridiculous. Nevertheless, top Chinese diplomats are using public health as an issue with which they hope to get a foot in the door with the Biden administration.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the Chinese diplomatic effort this weekend, which has featured backchannel attempts to gauge the new administration’s interest in high-level meetings. In addition to working together on climate change, Beijing will ask for cooperation on the pandemic:

The Chinese side plans to propose that both sides cooperate on vaccine-certificate protocols, to verify proof of immunization, under the guidelines set by the World Health Organization. Chinese officials hope that in turn can help facilitate travel between the two countries for people who present such proof. Beijing also hopes that the two sides can talk about jointly distributing vaccines in developing countries.

China has attempted to step into a global leadership role on providing Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries, but recently suffered a setback when one of its leading inoculation candidates turned out to be significantly less effective in late-stage trials in Brazil than in early results. A risk for the U.S. is that cooperating with China could lend legitimacy to Chinese vaccines developed in a push that scientists have criticized as not transparent.

The Biden administration has thus far maintained a cool distance from these overtures, which are still in their infancy. Nonetheless, the Journal’s revelations go to show just how unbelievably brazen Beijing’s outreach is.

The idea that the CCP can position itself as a credible partner with which to fight the pandemic is plainly laughable. Its COVID conspiracy theories recently came full circle, with foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying reviving a claim that the disease actually originated in Maryland, at the U.S. army’s Fort Detrick medical research laboratory. The conspiracy theory, which has no basis in fact, was initially promoted by Hua’s colleague Zhao Lijian on Twitter last March.

Faced last week with the U.S. government’s assessment that researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology had come down with COVID in fall 2019, prior to the first reported cases, Hua turned the tabled on Washington, demanding that it “open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite WHO experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States, and respond to the concerns from the international community with real actions.”

Now these officials and state-run media outlets are on a relentless tear against Western COVID vaccines.
In a piece about Australia’s expected approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Global Times offered false claims. “The deaths of 23 elderly Norwegian people after receiving the vaccine have raised concern in Australia,” according to the Chinese mouthpiece. Of course, this is baseless scaremongering that ignores that these people seemed to have died of unrelated causes, suggesting instead that their deaths were caused by the vaccine.

Asked to comment on the piece during a news conference on January 20, Hua doubled down on the story, stating that it revealed the extent to which Western media show a bias for Western vaccines and one against Chinese ones.

Like the Global Times story, Hua’s comments elide the key fact here: The vaccines that have been approved in the West are simply more reliable than those offered in China. Whereas, for instance, the Pfizer vaccine is about 95 percent effective, the one offered by Sinovac works 50 percent of the time, according to Brazilian researchers.

And not only does the Chinese party-state spread its own disinformation, it goes after those who speak the truth about the pandemic. The Gazeta do Povo reports that Beijing’s ambassador to Brazil is demanding that the country’s foreign minister Ernesto Araújo, who called the coronavirus the “communist virus,” be fired or that the government otherwise issue a statement lauding Beijing’s assistance. The Chinese negotiators have made this a precondition of receiving further component materials from China that Brazil can use to manufacture the Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines.

The CCP’s vaccine diplomacy offers only whopping lies, clumsy coercion, and an amazing capacity to believe that no one will notice. Yet Beijing’s envoys somehow think they stand a chance of convincing their American counterparts to view them as anything other than the representatives of a regime with a complete disregard for global public health.

Your Culture Leader

[ggait]

President Joe Biden has painted a bleak picture of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak in his first few days in office.
During a Friday press briefing, Biden said that Covid-19 deaths are expected to reach “well over 600,000.”
The president also warned that “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months.”

You are mis-reading what Biden said. Which is pretty much base case projections.

UW projects that daily deaths expected to decline from 3,300 today to 2,000 daily by 2/25 to 900 daily by 3/25. So while things will be improving, UW still projects deaths will hit 550k by 3/25/2021.

Joe is saying there's not much we can do to do better than that in the short term. Most of that improvement is baked in -- holiday surge wearing off, increasing compliance, warmer weather, seasonal decline, more things outside, vaccines starting to kick in. But the vaccine effect has a big lag -- wait for a shot; get a shot; second shot three weeks later; three more weeks for immunity.

So the real game being played is whether we can get enough vaccinations done before next fall/winter when another surge will occur.

[old salt]

{paywall alert} https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/t ... diplomacy/

The Chinese side plans to propose that both sides cooperate on vaccine-certificate protocols, to verify proof of immunization, under the guidelines set by the World Health Organization. Chinese officials hope that in turn can help facilitate travel between the two countries for people who present such proof. Beijing also hopes that the two sides can talk about jointly distributing vaccines in developing countries.

China has attempted to step into a global leadership role on providing Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries, but recently suffered a setback when one of its leading inoculation candidates turned out to be significantly less effective in late-stage trials in Brazil than in early results. A risk for the U.S. is that cooperating with China could lend legitimacy to Chinese vaccines developed in a push that scientists have criticized as not transparent.

Your Culture Leader

What do your expert sources tell you about the accuracy of China's reporting & the efficacy of their vaccines ?
Would you take a Chinese vaccine if offered now rather than waiting for a US approved vaccine ?

[Typical Lax Dad]

{paywall alert} https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/t ... diplomacy/

The Chinese side plans to propose that both sides cooperate on vaccine-certificate protocols, to verify proof of immunization, under the guidelines set by the World Health Organization. Chinese officials hope that in turn can help facilitate travel between the two countries for people who present such proof. Beijing also hopes that the two sides can talk about jointly distributing vaccines in developing countries.

China has attempted to step into a global leadership role on providing Covid-19 vaccines for developing countries, but recently suffered a setback when one of its leading inoculation candidates turned out to be significantly less effective in late-stage trials in Brazil than in early results. A risk for the U.S. is that cooperating with China could lend legitimacy to Chinese vaccines developed in a push that scientists have criticized as not transparent.

Your Culture Leader

What do your expert sources tell you about the accuracy of China's reporting & the efficacy of their vaccines ?
Would you take a Chinese vaccine if offered now rather than waiting for a US approved vaccine ?

I can’t recall if you were one of the guys complaining about China not working with us? I don’t believe you were.... you should ask
Donald.