451–460 of 559 posts
I'd like to hear from someone in China on why the government still pursues a zero-Covid policy. Is it just face-saving at this point?
Yeah. I mean if it had a purpose it has been served. Why don't they use all that massive CCP infrastructure to have zero tolerance for not getting vaccinated instead? It's ludicrous.
I posted a Tell HN about lockdowns coming before they were announced, about two or three weeks ago. I'm currently in lockdown, not sure when we're getting out. And then after that someone in the compound will probably be infected pretty soon and it all starts over. Feel free to AMA.
Why didn't you leave?
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The mRNA vaccines literally expose your immune system to a foreign antigen, the longstanding definition of a vaccine. They use a nice trick to get your own body to manufacture the antigen, but it's not gene therapy, they don't go anywhere your genes, they give ribosomes some extra instructions. The boosters have been extremely effective at preventing severe infections, which is plenty useful for public health even if…
Not quite. There’s a good reason why efficacy falls off sharply after just 2-3 weeks. Again, it’s a “vaccine” not a vaccine. They just call it that because they want the public to buy-in. I say this as someone who’s been in biotech for a decade plus. Edit: I am not antivax. I believe you should get all the shots even a second booster despite all its shortcomings.
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This position leads to inevitable follow up question: if vaccination reduces only personal risks, and does not prevent infection spread, why forcing it on anyone? If a person is unwilling to vaccinate and accepts the higher risk of a negative outcome, let him decide for himself, no?
vaccines do not only reduce personal risks. Can you please form a better argument?
To note: I'm personally vaccinated, but people who think it is OK to restrict personal freedoms of other people based on very fluid and agenda-driven narrative about the current state of the 'scientific consensus' do not get much respect from me. Maybe it is because I'm from a country where personal freedoms are routinely abused and I value them much more than people who take these freedoms for grated.
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> It's about how the systems people erect around themselves turn against them. Gated communities whose guards become jailers. Historically this is backwards. 小区 existed in the Tang dynasty much as they do today, but the gate was not operated at the direction of the residents - there was a curfew, and if you lived in a 小区 you had to obey it. If you lived in a house that opened directly onto the street, you were exempt…
What is 小区?
This is the wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microdistrict#China
(Though it's pretty bare-bones and traces the idea back no farther than the Soviet Union.)
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> It's about how the systems people erect around themselves turn against them. Gated communities whose guards become jailers. Historically this is backwards. 小区 existed in the Tang dynasty much as they do today, but the gate was not operated at the direction of the residents - there was a curfew, and if you lived in a 小区 you had to obey it. If you lived in a house that opened directly onto the street, you were exempt…
That is interesting. But surely you're talking of things that happened thousands of years ago. Are you saying that modern Chinese people are generally comfortable living in conditions approximate to imprisonment? Is the Great Wall really like the Iron Curtain, there to keep its citizens inside ?
> surely you're talking of things that happened thousands of years ago.
Well, sort of. The Tang dynasty was from roughly 600-900 AD.
> Is the Great Wall really like the Iron Curtain, there to keep its citizens inside?
I realize this is just rhetoric, but as far as I understand it, the Great Wall's primary purpose is indeed to keep people in. Just not to keep citizens in.
You can't stop barbarians from getting over the wall, because it's too long to defend it all. But when they do come in, you can respond by sending an army to fight them. And when they retreat, they'll have a hell of a time getting over the wall before you can catch up to them.
(The steppe nomads to the north of China are highly mobile but low in population. China is the reverse. So in practical terms, the nomads always want to retreat, and to the extent a battle happens at all, that's a victory for China.)
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Ok, maybe don't click Instagram links if you don't use Instagram and then complain because the links don't work? lol Millions of people do (and I assume many HNers do) and given this post, may be interested in seeing some videos from people first hand in Shanghai. There are many other comments in here with awesome info that you can easily scroll past this one that's irrelevant to you and consume info in a way that wo…
I wasn't aware that I have to actively use Instagram to click on Instagram links. Also I didn't complain. I stated something. I also stated explicitly that this is my consideration. > and I assume many HNers do I actually assume that most HNers do not .
Fair enough, I don't think we need to clog this up anymore. If people use Insta and are curious to see these videos they can, but if not they can move on.
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Because all 4 China made vaccines' pharmaceutical companies are backed by higher ups in the CCP. Every Chinese vaccine injected is money to these officials(or their relatives') wallets
Well, so adapt them for the omicron. It's something every other vaccine producer did at some point, but didn't move forward because it was not the best policy outside of China.
I also suspect that the gov doesn't want to make a new version as it would imply the original versions are ineffective (illogical I know.) Who knows how much they stockpiled the original shots ($$$).
Newsflash: communism sucks.
Authoritarian, repressive regimes founded on weak, corruptible institutions with limited regard for human rights which combine the failings of human leadership with poor information and lack of trust from everyone involved indeed suck.
Newsflash: communism sucks.
We can also generalize: Dictatorial regimes suck. For all the gnashing, grinding, complaining, partisan politics in the USA over COVID policies, I think the USA came out alright. The detractors will say the USA failed. That 1m people died. A tragedy for sure and maybe a portion of those deaths would have been avoidable had we had better messaging from the Trump regime. But net result we have our freedoms intact. The…
Shanghai: Windows 11