Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)
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India's only hope for containing this, is by Wuhan-style lockdowns and maybe even harsher with all these cases.
There is no way that India will escape this by doing their usual soft-lockdowns and wearing a mask here and there. Either very hard lockdown or things will get worse.
I am eagerly awaiting to see how the Western media will react to that...
There is no way that India will escape this by doing their usual soft-lockdowns and wearing a mask here and there. Either very hard lockdown or things will get worse.
I am eagerly awaiting to see how the Western media will react to that...
plawolf
Lieutenant General
Sadly is already far far too late for that.
Wuhan only worked and was viable for two core reasons.
Firstly, Beijing enacted lockdown very very early, so much so the entire western MSM and governments were laughing at the ‘overreaction’ when it first happened as no one expected China to take such a massive step based on what was known at the time. None of the western governments trying to nitpick about China’s initial response now sure as hell would not have even considered it had they been in China’s position that’s for damn sure.
Secondly, which also tied to the first point, because of the early lockdown, China was able to concentrate resources to Wuhan to facilitate the strict lock down.
I am not just taking about the high profile stuff like surging medical workers and building brand new hospitals within days, it’s the more mundane but just as critical logistical stuff like delivering food and basic essentials to everyone in lockdown so no one other than essential workers ever left their homes.
That is the fundamental key factor that separates Chinese lockdowns and western ones, which also explains why Chinese lockdowns achieved total eradication of Covid while no-one else has been able to come anywhere close.
The western MSM hastily chalked the differences down to racists BS about Chinese people being more docile and less ‘free’ to help cover for this massive gulf in the capabilities and basic competence of the Chinese government and agencies compared to their sorry western counterparts.
Anyone with half a brain should have been able to see through all that racists BS because no matter how much you ‘fear’ the government, you are going to bloody well go out if you literally have no food to eat.
Not only did supermarkets function as mass spread centres to keep the virus spreading, the need to go out to buy food provided easy cover for people wishing to break lockdowns and made effective policing of lock downs functionally impossible. Because in the west, unless you got pulled over in the middle of a highway between cities, all you needed to do was say you were going to buy food when stopped and there was no way for the police to check or challenge you. Whereas in China, it was a lot easier for police as anyone on the streets needed very specific passes or it’s a violation. No ifs or buts. That also meant far fewer people would have been tempted to try their luck, so basically the police in China were able to stop and check everyone, whereas in the west, the police stopped no one in cities as it would have been a waste of time since only idiots could be caught out that way.
Now back to India, and you may be able to see why a Wuhan style lockdown is absolutely impossible given the nation-scale spread. Logistically it is just impossible to provide home deliveries for food and other essentials for the entire population. But without that level of total lock down, at best all you can achieve is to limit the spread but never come close to eradicating the virus completely.
But even a western softy softy lockdown is probably also beyond India given the absolute calamity the Indian government managed to do with their first national lockdown attempt.
Even the Chinese government would struggle to salvage much from the total disaster that India had become right now, and I am massively pessimistic about their changes of achieving any meaningful casualty reductions at this point.
I think the virus will basically just run its course in India, and they will singlehandedly make this one of, if not the most deadly pandemics in history.
And of course they will blame it all on China.
Quickie
Colonel
Meanwhile, I just heard on Aljazeera, the U.S. sending oxygen concentrators to India but predictably no mention of China doing so.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
That’s because with oxygen tanks, there will be no disguising their origin with Chinese words painted all over them ( although I would not put it past the Indians to paint over them if and when they desperate enough to beg China for oxygen tanks as well); with concentrators, no one will know that it is China that helped save their lives - which is precisely the point. Even now, at a time of national calamity and tragedy, the Indian state thinks of political point scoring first and foremost.
They would literally have their people die like flies rather than allow them to know it is China who saved their lives.
I honestly think it is a mistake for China to be helping India. Because China will get zero credit for doing so, but more importantly, because of how much India has fucked up their own Covid disaster, there is a chance they have managed to breed a super-Covid variant that may soon reset global vaccination efforts back to square 1. In which case a lot of far far more deserving countries may well need those oxygen concentrators before too long.
@Intrepid Sir, the West help is mostly optics, we're on this together, showing kindness to your perceived opponent is the greatest victory and satisfaction ones get, it makes you human.
plawolf
Lieutenant General
I would like to say I am surprised. But I am not in the slightest.
With an attitude like that, is it any surprise that they handled Covid so disastrously?
I think this perfectly illustrates the two most fundamental differences between Chinese leaders and western ones, especially at the national level.
Firstly, Chinese leaders are much much more compassionate and seeking to maximise benefit for the most number of their citizens, compared to western leaders who are much more selfish and rent seeking (almost literally in the case of Boris, who reportedly tried to get donors to pay to posh up his Downing Street apartment for him); as evidenced by the vastly different policies pursued by Chinese and western governments. While Chinese governments put poverty alleviation as a top national priority, western governments make cutting benefits and maximising profits for their rich donors and chums first.
Secondly and more importantly, Chinese leaders don’t try to argue with facts or science.
They will ask the experts what needs to be done and do it while western leaders tries to haggle and bargain away from doing politically unpopular things. As if you can BS Covid away.
With an attitude like that, is it any surprise that they handled Covid so disastrously?
I think this perfectly illustrates the two most fundamental differences between Chinese leaders and western ones, especially at the national level.
Firstly, Chinese leaders are much much more compassionate and seeking to maximise benefit for the most number of their citizens, compared to western leaders who are much more selfish and rent seeking (almost literally in the case of Boris, who reportedly tried to get donors to pay to posh up his Downing Street apartment for him); as evidenced by the vastly different policies pursued by Chinese and western governments. While Chinese governments put poverty alleviation as a top national priority, western governments make cutting benefits and maximising profits for their rich donors and chums first.
Secondly and more importantly, Chinese leaders don’t try to argue with facts or science.
They will ask the experts what needs to be done and do it while western leaders tries to haggle and bargain away from doing politically unpopular things. As if you can BS Covid away.
We'll hopefully the Indian public will be thankful that thousands of Chinese made oxygen concentrators and other equipment that are being sent would save many lives. I'm sure there will also be supplies from other countries, but only China has the capacity to fulfill the quantities required. Chinese factory workers are already putting up overtime to fulfill orders.