THE VIRUS: THE CHINESE HAVE BEEN PANICKED INTO RUNNING THE EXPERIMENT THE WEST REJECTED

2 January 2023

https://www.ft.com/content/fb879510-c2bb-4a04-8e36-182078ae15ec?sharetype=blocked

https://www.ibtimes.com/new-covid-model-predicts-over-1-million-deaths-china-through-2023-3648316

      Opening up was delayed pending Xi's reelection. China's zero-COVID policy may have been effective at keeping earlier variants of the virus at bay, but the high transmissibility of Omicron variants made it impossible to sustain. Public protests were decisive in getting the leadership to understand this.

You've got to ask what was the point of three years of lockdowns? The lack of preparedness makes opening up seem like a panicked response to growing civil unrest.

Why were the Chinese unable to develop an effective vaccine? mRNA technology has been around in the West for 30 years. And if they couldn't build, however humiliating, for the sake of their people, they should really have bought production lines.

What is interesting is that China is running the experiment the West rejected: herd immunity through natural selection. But even here, the West's plan was nuanced: it was to manage the process by openings followed by shutdowns when the infection rate became too intense, thus slowing adaption. The Chinese seem to have thrown caution to the wind.

We know what to do now: shield the vulnerable, vaccinate using chromosome re-engineering, keep the economy open at almost all costs, prevent politicians from seizing more powers and the wealthy, wealth.  

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WAS GOVERNMENT ASSISTANCE DURING COVID EFFECTIVE?

30 June 2030

Reader's question:

"During covid, the government pour many scheme to help pour people to survive with money. But there is question about : is that effective?"

For example, Government gave money for those who are eligible, an amount of money to live but in real life, they spend money on new clothes.. remember this is poor people….

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The governments faced four challenges in dealing with the covid pandemic. The first was to develop medicines and treatments against the virus itself.

The second was to take care of the health of the people affected by Covid and this was their physical health as well as their mental health. The third was to deal with the economic consequences, both to businesses and to the individual. And the last challenge was to deal with security issues that might arise when groups of people, who resist the lengthy confinement and isolation required to control the virus, become disaffcted and challenge the authority of the state.

At the beginning of the outbreak, there was no vaccine to counter the virus. Covid was believed to be a highly contagious and lethal disease. The health of the nation was under threat.There was also a risk that the very large numbers of people in need of hospitalisation would overwhelm and shut down the National Health Service.

Pending a vaccine therefore, people had to be kept apart and very often were forced to stay at home. This meant businesses could not operate, would go banktupt and close, and people would lose their source of income.

An economy is made up of many many businesses that employ people to transform resources into saleable goods and services. Businesses make profits, out of which they pay taxes to their government. Thus, there was a problem for governments who wished to give financial assistance because with income from taxes, they would have to borrow money.

When a business has to close, for lack of profits, its assets are sold off and its employees are made redundant. If people have no income, they face starvation and the state faces the possibility of serious and widespread social disorder. To avoid starvation and disorder, most states chose to give social assistance to citizens, in place of their salaries, and in addition to medical care. But not only that.

If a pandemic is allowed to dissolve large swathes of business, at the end of the pandemic, it would be almost impossible to restart the economy from nothing. Therefore, because businesses could not pay the salaries of their employees, the government stepped in and began to pay the salaries, just to keep the businesses open, although not trading, ready for restart.

Citizens were taken care of financially and medically - although there was a lot of mental illness that was impossible to deal with, caused through isolation and disruption of social routines.

So this is why governments poured money into schemes to help poor people to survive when, through the pandemic, they had lost their livelihoods.

But there remains a question. While these government schemes were effective in dealing with the problems of citizens and business, were they too generous?

Many people think that the cause of the high inflation that is the scourge of economies today, lies in the enormous demand from people coming out of covid with large surpluses in their bank accounts. A demand that could not be met because there was no supply because businesses had closed. This created a large imbalance in supply and demand and as as we know, excess demand  leads to a high inflation.

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MORE ABOUT "THE NEW NORMAL"

4 November 2021

"what a complete pile of delusional nonsense ..  what does this so called "NEW NORMAL" actually mean?"

Please add a little water to whatever you are drinking!

"New normal" means the changes in how we live due to the virus, that look like becoming permanent. 

For example, most people in public enclosed spaces will continue to wear a mask. Another example: we replumbed the Internet so people could work from home (WFH) and where that's been an improvement (less journey time, less costly office space, for an improved productivity), it's likely to stay.  Some jokingly call it "living at work".

For the travel and tourism business, looks like passengers will expect temperature-checking, infection testing, more safety and hygiene at airports, on flights, no meals, controls on how you can use spacewhat, 

a more eco-conscious mindset, no more 9 to 5, more tech supporting change (as always) eg online application for e-visas.

Not all changes will stick because the success of vaccine programs will mean we can return to the old normal, how things used to be. E.g. planes won't be flying half empty anymore.

And there are other motors for change going on at the same time - climate-change & net-zero, Wokism - that mix in with changes in our behaviour introduced by covid - eg people will holiday nearer home, more interference from governments in citizens' freedoms, higher taxes to pay for the fight against the virus.

Change is constant, but covid, climate change and the woke are fast changing how we do things...and these changes look like being here to stay. These new ways of daily living are called "The New Normal".

The TAT is trying to understand these changes so as to adapt Thai tourism. 

One big big change is to recognise that visitor numbers are likely to be permanently down. If tourism's contribution to GDP is to return to the old normal, each tourist must spend more (that'sthe Thai way of thinking). Hence a move from mass tourism to millionaire tourism.

Will plans for millionaire tourism work out? Or are they, as you suggest,  "delusional"? That's a good question!

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WORK FROM HOME or LIVING AT WORK

And parents were supposed to work from home and teach their kids. Work, with the kids under their feet all day. Teach, with neither the knowledge nor the pedagogy.

A giant exercise in crowd management. Scare them into lockdown, then busy them to keep them from rioting.

But it worked. Boris got his covid programs through. Just mental illness soared and other diseases flourished.

Terrible times, empty memories. Time hangs when you've nothing to do, but looking back,  getting on for two years gone in a flash.

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REPAIR AND RESTORE, HOW THE VACCINE WORKS

The vaccine is important as it fortifies the immune system. Means the individual can fight off the virus or a least dial down its ravages. 

It doesn't stop there - the vaccine also builds resistance within the community. It means so many people are wearing "No Entry" signs that the virus has no way through. That's "herd immunity" and it protects everyone, vaccinated and non-vaccinated alike ... even refuseniks.

But vaccination isn't enough on its own.

Thailand needs test-trace-isolate-treat. To get ahead of the game. Jump on the slightest case of Corona and rip out the vein of infected.

If everyone plays the game - including mask, hygiene, space - the people will be saved and repair the damage done and the economy can re-open.

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