Your comments imply that you are either a troll or simply did not read the article. I'm not sure what your lack of spelling skills implies. Serious comments are welcome, but this is not one of them.
Watch the gruesome documentary "Died Suddenly" for an extra dose of anxiety!
Also, its damn cold in Shanghai right now, and the worst part is that in many buildings its either colder than the outdoor temperature, or if there is a heat source available its cranked to 35C without any ventilation.
Everything in moderation, especially moderation, except in China.
the use of your brain is unfortunately not required by law.
i have found the best overall position is to first determine "who benefits" from dispensing information and advising against other information, and in contrast "who risks" providing certain information to their own detriment - i find it helps provide balance.
Why does every disease have to be treated with medicine? Why not rest and sleep for a few days, as countless generations have done before us?
> paracetamol ... which are of course just fever suppressants
AFAIK paracetamol does not suppress fever. It suppresses pain, is slightly addictive, and has a small chance of damaging the kidneys. It has no positive effects at all.
> In countless cities, 80% or more are infected
How would a virus suddenly spread to 80% of people in countless cities, at the same time, while staying within one country? What model of contagion is compatible with this observation?
A selective bioweapon would mean foreigners in China do not get Covid. Or just a less severe version. I bet the Chinese would have noticed that.
The best explanation I've found is from Denis Rancourt:
"The behaviour of the USA all-cause mortality by time (week, year), by age group, by sex, and by state is contrary to pandemic behaviour caused by a new respiratory disease virus for which there is no prior natural immunity in the population. Its seasonal structure (summer maxima), age-group distribution (young residents), and large state-wise heterogeneity are unprecedented and are opposite to viral respiratory disease behaviour, pandemic or not. We conclude that a pandemic did not occur. We infer that persistent chronic psychological stress induced by the long-lasting government-imposed societal and economic transformations during the COVID-era converted the existing societal (poverty), public-health (obesity) and hot-climate risk factors into deadly agents, largely acting together, with devastating population-level consequences against large pools of vulnerable and disadvantaged residents of the USA, far above preexisting pre-COVID-era mortality in those pools. We also find a large COVID-era USA pneumonia epidemic that is not mentioned in the media or significantly in the scientific literature, which was not adequately addressed. Many COVID-19-assigned deaths may be misdiagnosed bacterial pneumonia deaths."
Foreigners get sick just like Chinese. There is no difference.
As to the applicability of Mr. Rancourt's theory to China, how could it possibly be used to explain the course of events which have played out over the past two weeks?
Indeed, paracetamol has a pretty bad rap. As you note, it can create all sorts of problems. It is arguably rather irresponsible to recommend it as a fever suppressant.
To your question regarding the need (or lack of a need) for treatment: Sure, if you are young, or have plenty of extra time and don't mind spending a few more days with a high fever and a splitting headache, then you can clearly opt to forgo treatment. This is after all at this point the status quo for most mainland residents. Some people in fact prefer to do things this way, but it comes at a price.
To your question about the nature of this contagion: Such an incredibly high R0 value is indeed highly unusual to put it mildly. Chickenpox, a childhood disease which is highly contagious, allegedly only has an R0 of 10-12. Perhaps there have been other such epidemics at certain points in history, but in modern times this seems unprecedented. The obvious 'explanation' for this is 3 years of playing an aggressive game of hide and seek with the virus (or whatever you want to call it). How exactly that led to this exceptional high R0 value we can only guess, but one explanation might be that it is the result of artificially protecting peoples' immune systems.
Hmm, as far as I know paracetamol has a very good rep? It helps to compare alternatives.
If you compare paracetamol to other medicines, it is very good. It softens pain. In the list of medicine side effects, paracetamol is almost at the bottom. Compared to any other medicine, you would be better of with paracetamol.
If you compare paracetamol to not taking any medicine, paracetamol loses out by a tiny bit. Paracetamol cures nothing. The side effects are rare but they do exist.
Given that people demand medicine, paracetamol is a great choice.
Some people will agree with you; others won't. As stated in the article, our argument is that of Friedrich von Hayek's: namely, that human welfare is best maximized by permitting people to come to their own conclusions, to act accordingly, and in the next round, to learn from the results of the range of choices made in the previous one.
What works for me is keeping my vitamin D levels in range and then when I catch an upper respiratory infection, sucking small amounts of zinc citrate in tablet form several times a day after eating or drinking so it coats my throat. I usually cut the tablets in half to spread out the dose because too much zinc can be harmful. It's been almost 6 years now that I've been doing that, including two and a half years of daily travelling on packed commuter trains in a big city, and I've had numerous colds but they've all been super mild, usually 0-2 sneezes in total, no blocked nose, no need for paracetamol, all but one were gone in 48 hours with a further day or two of feeling mildly post-viral. More recently I added quercetin as a zinc ionophore although the additional benefit has not been obvious. I think I had omicron earlier this year (no proof) and it lasted 24 hours with a further day of feeling post-viral, again super-mild.
Why do you think it was omicron? It definitely does not sound like what is going around this month here.
That said, my very subjective feeling is that the symptoms we experienced in the spring and those being described this month seem to be significantly more uniform than those shared by friends located outside China over the past year. This could be attributable to a larger variety of strains outside China, but there is also a second possibility: It could also be connected to the fact that the immune systems of China mainland residents got far less practice over the past three years than those of their counterparts abroad.
It was during a local omicron wave and an elderly relative caught it off me - for her it lasted 10 days with another 10 days of post-viral recovery. Also, the description I gave has to be seen in the context that for me, before I came across the topical zinc citrate treatment, colds used to run for 4-5 days with lots of sneezing, blocked nose, liberal use of paracetamol, often with sinusitis to follow. Treatment makes a big difference.
It would have been infinitely better for communities to deal with the threat as it came, slowly, rather than to suppress it for nearly 3 years. We can see what happens when it finally broke out, the huge spike in cases. That so many Chinese citizens thought this was the best way of dealing with the threat is truly sad, but of course it was only one component of the overall Covid agenda so it seems. My question is whether this will be seen as a learning opportunity to (A) have a more rational policy next time, or (B) do more of the same, but stricter next time.
As was the case almost everywhere around the world, opinions among the citizenry did not seem to have much impact on policies pursued. There was substantial resistance within the party however, especially after the hopelessness and extremely high cost of the zero-Covid strategy became apparent in 2022.
Did some Chinese support the approach taken? No doubt, especially initially. But how many remained supportive until the end? And more crucially, how many among the entrepreneurial and managerial classes, and even with the party itself? Not many.
As to your question, the disastrous conclusion to the 3-year saga which everyone experienced in December was a huge loss of face for the government and for the idea of the nanny state in general. At least for the moment, the result is a government which seems far less interventionist than the government pre-2020. In this light, a repeat any time in the near future seems unlikely.
How do they test for COVID? The PCR test is not reliable -- according to the inventor (Kary Mullis) PCR should never, ever be used for diagnosis. In any event, if you are sick, you are sick. FLCCC.net has the best protocols I've seen divided into 1) Protection; 2) Treatment; 3) Recovery. https://covid19criticalcare.com/treatment-protocols/
Nucleic acid testing (核算) is simply a literal translation into English of the term used in Chinese. Most of the so-called "Covid-19 PCR tests" used worldwide are produced in China, so it's a fair guess that the technology is the same. They look for specific genetic snippets and yield a "cycle" number for each. This "cycle number" reflects the number of cycles needed to produce a positive result for that gene snippet. The tricky part is deciding how many cycles are meaningful. The short answer seems to be: "it depends." Under intense pressure over time Chinese health officials clearly did come to some reproducible conclusions in this regard.
14 JUL 2019 . . . Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband, students escorted out of Canadian Level 4 lab in Winnipeg, removal of unauthorized material from Winnipeg to China, group involved in setting up Level 4 lab in Wuhan . . .
The results on the ground in China hint that Kary Mullis might have been wrong. But don't forget, unfortunately he is no longer with us, so we can't know what he would think today in light of the scientific progress made since then and the huge amount of data which is now available. We will take a look at what Mullis actually said + review some of this evidence in an article to be published soon.
Kary Mullis is essential reading, for anyone not versed in PCR. What an utter sham how it was used. And what is worse, THEY KNEW. Corman / Drosten was a joke of a paper, never differentiated between the different Covid families, and then the WHO / CDC's recommended high-cycle PCR amplification. I used to think they were just careless in this recommendation, but it is safe to assume THEY KNEW. That was a huge part of the psyop, i.e. faith in the test. Even Mullis asserts that a diagnosis must also include the presentation of SYMPTOMS, which the vast majority of 'cases' did not have. Anyway. It gets tiresome complaining about the same things since Summer of '20.
Your comments imply that you are either a troll or simply did not read the article. I'm not sure what your lack of spelling skills implies. Serious comments are welcome, but this is not one of them.
If I had to guess about the current outbreaks in China,
3 years of immune system suppression, combined with all the stress and mass anxiety, have created the perfect conditions for illness.
Fear is the most deadly virus!
The "perfect storm".
Watch the gruesome documentary "Died Suddenly" for an extra dose of anxiety!
Also, its damn cold in Shanghai right now, and the worst part is that in many buildings its either colder than the outdoor temperature, or if there is a heat source available its cranked to 35C without any ventilation.
Everything in moderation, especially moderation, except in China.
Ip Man isn't going to save everyone either, the emperor has too many soldiers.
the use of your brain is unfortunately not required by law.
i have found the best overall position is to first determine "who benefits" from dispensing information and advising against other information, and in contrast "who risks" providing certain information to their own detriment - i find it helps provide balance.
Why does every disease have to be treated with medicine? Why not rest and sleep for a few days, as countless generations have done before us?
> paracetamol ... which are of course just fever suppressants
AFAIK paracetamol does not suppress fever. It suppresses pain, is slightly addictive, and has a small chance of damaging the kidneys. It has no positive effects at all.
> In countless cities, 80% or more are infected
How would a virus suddenly spread to 80% of people in countless cities, at the same time, while staying within one country? What model of contagion is compatible with this observation?
A bioweapon made to target certain targets 🤷🏻♀️
A selective bioweapon would mean foreigners in China do not get Covid. Or just a less severe version. I bet the Chinese would have noticed that.
The best explanation I've found is from Denis Rancourt:
"The behaviour of the USA all-cause mortality by time (week, year), by age group, by sex, and by state is contrary to pandemic behaviour caused by a new respiratory disease virus for which there is no prior natural immunity in the population. Its seasonal structure (summer maxima), age-group distribution (young residents), and large state-wise heterogeneity are unprecedented and are opposite to viral respiratory disease behaviour, pandemic or not. We conclude that a pandemic did not occur. We infer that persistent chronic psychological stress induced by the long-lasting government-imposed societal and economic transformations during the COVID-era converted the existing societal (poverty), public-health (obesity) and hot-climate risk factors into deadly agents, largely acting together, with devastating population-level consequences against large pools of vulnerable and disadvantaged residents of the USA, far above preexisting pre-COVID-era mortality in those pools. We also find a large COVID-era USA pneumonia epidemic that is not mentioned in the media or significantly in the scientific literature, which was not adequately addressed. Many COVID-19-assigned deaths may be misdiagnosed bacterial pneumonia deaths."
https://denisrancourt.ca/entries.php?id=107&name=2021_10_25_nature_of_the_covid_era_public_health_disaster_in_the_usa_from_all_cause_mortality_and_socio_geo_economic_and_climatic_data
Foreigners get sick just like Chinese. There is no difference.
As to the applicability of Mr. Rancourt's theory to China, how could it possibly be used to explain the course of events which have played out over the past two weeks?
Mr Rancourts theory says a pathogen cannot explain the observations. This seems true for China as well.
Its no accident that millions all fall ill, all at the same time, in the same area!
It reminds me of stories from mid-evil times when someone would "poison the well" to cause mass illness and then blame it on a fictional "virus".
What else will be sacrificed, in order to appease the gods?
We would agree that it is certainly no "accident"!
Indeed, paracetamol has a pretty bad rap. As you note, it can create all sorts of problems. It is arguably rather irresponsible to recommend it as a fever suppressant.
To your question regarding the need (or lack of a need) for treatment: Sure, if you are young, or have plenty of extra time and don't mind spending a few more days with a high fever and a splitting headache, then you can clearly opt to forgo treatment. This is after all at this point the status quo for most mainland residents. Some people in fact prefer to do things this way, but it comes at a price.
To your question about the nature of this contagion: Such an incredibly high R0 value is indeed highly unusual to put it mildly. Chickenpox, a childhood disease which is highly contagious, allegedly only has an R0 of 10-12. Perhaps there have been other such epidemics at certain points in history, but in modern times this seems unprecedented. The obvious 'explanation' for this is 3 years of playing an aggressive game of hide and seek with the virus (or whatever you want to call it). How exactly that led to this exceptional high R0 value we can only guess, but one explanation might be that it is the result of artificially protecting peoples' immune systems.
Hmm, as far as I know paracetamol has a very good rep? It helps to compare alternatives.
If you compare paracetamol to other medicines, it is very good. It softens pain. In the list of medicine side effects, paracetamol is almost at the bottom. Compared to any other medicine, you would be better of with paracetamol.
If you compare paracetamol to not taking any medicine, paracetamol loses out by a tiny bit. Paracetamol cures nothing. The side effects are rare but they do exist.
Given that people demand medicine, paracetamol is a great choice.
Some people will agree with you; others won't. As stated in the article, our argument is that of Friedrich von Hayek's: namely, that human welfare is best maximized by permitting people to come to their own conclusions, to act accordingly, and in the next round, to learn from the results of the range of choices made in the previous one.
Usually, after a few hours the worst is over and I can "sleep and rest for a few days", without any medication, not this time.
My fever set in fast and furious soon after indigestion, and didn't relent for almost 48 hours.
Ibuprofen reduced my headache enough that I could get a few hours of sanity in between the chills and hot flashes.
Well.... it could be worse! How about your friends, colleagues and family? Please share how it went on the other thread: https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/dec22-covid-outbreak-poll/comments
What works for me is keeping my vitamin D levels in range and then when I catch an upper respiratory infection, sucking small amounts of zinc citrate in tablet form several times a day after eating or drinking so it coats my throat. I usually cut the tablets in half to spread out the dose because too much zinc can be harmful. It's been almost 6 years now that I've been doing that, including two and a half years of daily travelling on packed commuter trains in a big city, and I've had numerous colds but they've all been super mild, usually 0-2 sneezes in total, no blocked nose, no need for paracetamol, all but one were gone in 48 hours with a further day or two of feeling mildly post-viral. More recently I added quercetin as a zinc ionophore although the additional benefit has not been obvious. I think I had omicron earlier this year (no proof) and it lasted 24 hours with a further day of feeling post-viral, again super-mild.
Why do you think it was omicron? It definitely does not sound like what is going around this month here.
That said, my very subjective feeling is that the symptoms we experienced in the spring and those being described this month seem to be significantly more uniform than those shared by friends located outside China over the past year. This could be attributable to a larger variety of strains outside China, but there is also a second possibility: It could also be connected to the fact that the immune systems of China mainland residents got far less practice over the past three years than those of their counterparts abroad.
It was during a local omicron wave and an elderly relative caught it off me - for her it lasted 10 days with another 10 days of post-viral recovery. Also, the description I gave has to be seen in the context that for me, before I came across the topical zinc citrate treatment, colds used to run for 4-5 days with lots of sneezing, blocked nose, liberal use of paracetamol, often with sinusitis to follow. Treatment makes a big difference.
It would have been infinitely better for communities to deal with the threat as it came, slowly, rather than to suppress it for nearly 3 years. We can see what happens when it finally broke out, the huge spike in cases. That so many Chinese citizens thought this was the best way of dealing with the threat is truly sad, but of course it was only one component of the overall Covid agenda so it seems. My question is whether this will be seen as a learning opportunity to (A) have a more rational policy next time, or (B) do more of the same, but stricter next time.
As was the case almost everywhere around the world, opinions among the citizenry did not seem to have much impact on policies pursued. There was substantial resistance within the party however, especially after the hopelessness and extremely high cost of the zero-Covid strategy became apparent in 2022.
Did some Chinese support the approach taken? No doubt, especially initially. But how many remained supportive until the end? And more crucially, how many among the entrepreneurial and managerial classes, and even with the party itself? Not many.
As to your question, the disastrous conclusion to the 3-year saga which everyone experienced in December was a huge loss of face for the government and for the idea of the nanny state in general. At least for the moment, the result is a government which seems far less interventionist than the government pre-2020. In this light, a repeat any time in the near future seems unlikely.
How do they test for COVID? The PCR test is not reliable -- according to the inventor (Kary Mullis) PCR should never, ever be used for diagnosis. In any event, if you are sick, you are sick. FLCCC.net has the best protocols I've seen divided into 1) Protection; 2) Treatment; 3) Recovery. https://covid19criticalcare.com/treatment-protocols/
According to a colleague there, the testing is called Nucleic Acid Testing. I don't know if that is a different process or not.
Nucleic acid testing (核算) is simply a literal translation into English of the term used in Chinese. Most of the so-called "Covid-19 PCR tests" used worldwide are produced in China, so it's a fair guess that the technology is the same. They look for specific genetic snippets and yield a "cycle" number for each. This "cycle number" reflects the number of cycles needed to produce a positive result for that gene snippet. The tricky part is deciding how many cycles are meaningful. The short answer seems to be: "it depends." Under intense pressure over time Chinese health officials clearly did come to some reproducible conclusions in this regard.
14 JUL 2019 . . . Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband, students escorted out of Canadian Level 4 lab in Winnipeg, removal of unauthorized material from Winnipeg to China, group involved in setting up Level 4 lab in Wuhan . . .
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/chinese-researcher-escorted-from-infectious-disease-lab-amid-rcmp-investigation-1.5211567
The results on the ground in China hint that Kary Mullis might have been wrong. But don't forget, unfortunately he is no longer with us, so we can't know what he would think today in light of the scientific progress made since then and the huge amount of data which is now available. We will take a look at what Mullis actually said + review some of this evidence in an article to be published soon.
Kary Mullis is essential reading, for anyone not versed in PCR. What an utter sham how it was used. And what is worse, THEY KNEW. Corman / Drosten was a joke of a paper, never differentiated between the different Covid families, and then the WHO / CDC's recommended high-cycle PCR amplification. I used to think they were just careless in this recommendation, but it is safe to assume THEY KNEW. That was a huge part of the psyop, i.e. faith in the test. Even Mullis asserts that a diagnosis must also include the presentation of SYMPTOMS, which the vast majority of 'cases' did not have. Anyway. It gets tiresome complaining about the same things since Summer of '20.
This article addresses your question. In it we also took a look at what Mullis actually said:
https://austrianchina.substack.com/p/lessons-to-be-learned-crematoria-over-capacity
This is a wonderful primer for any audience. I’m sorry I didn’t read it earlier.