Coronavirus 2019-2020 thread (no unsubstantiated rumours!)
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solarz
Brigadier
I feel sorry for the Chinese Americans. So much work trying to assimilate, and in the end their government still views them as a punchline.
So Kung-flu is literally kicking their butts?
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Kevin Durant has the coronavirus.
Racism is not acceptable, no matter who's the perpetrator. But in a way, it's hardly surprising a white house official should be so bold and blazen, when he/she sees the commander-in-chief and his lieutenants uses the term "Chinese virus" and "Wuhan virus" respectively.
This is the reason, I and my fellow lecturers are very careful of what we say and do in front of our students. We are, after all, role models. And too, so is the commander-in-chief and his lieutenants.
There are tables contian the experience from Italy, and the expected infection curve.
Very bad.
Grey is the implementation time, for both scenario.
Means if the infection can be handled only with school closures, then the school closures have to stay in effect until the vaccine ,or for years.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Well this is the part where Beijing embarrasses itself and brought it upon themselves. I think it was the Wall Street Journal that first got the attention of Beijing for calling it the "Wuhan virus" to which Beijing bothered to complain publicly about it. I don't know if this is cultural for them to speak up about such slights but because they did, it gave it more attention to then give all the China haters an excuse to start using it more. Did they think if they complain about it, they're going to stop? No, they're going to do it more.
It would never stop one way or the other. The conservatives have never stopped using the term "Wuhan virus." WSJ is not the only source of cheap shots coming from the US. From late Feb to late March, China is under tremendous pressure especially from the US. The tipping point isn't WSJ article but Pompeo's assertion that the virus came from Wuhan lab. That is a rumor that China can't allow to spread especially by the secretary of state of the US.
If the virus didn't become pandemic, then the attacks would focus on China and its incompetent and some conspiracy theories. The western media would praise the western system and how it has effectively contained the virus. Since it has become a pandemic and the western countries are so incompetent. Trump has no choice but attempted to divert the attention from his administration towards China. Trump was asked not to use Wuhan or Chinese virus by his subordinates so he has restrained from using it for a few weeks. But things since have changed. The final trigger is a heated exchange between China and the US in the last few days. It is pretty much a war of words and relationship between US and China is at a very low point.
Hendrik_2000
Lieutenant General
Good op/ed from GT
Ideological narcissism causes heavy losses to West amid outbreak
By Tom Fowdy Source:Global Times Published: 2020/3/14 16:03:40
People wearing masks are seen in downtown Athens, Greece, on March 13, 2020. Greek authorities on Friday further expanded closure measures to control the novel coronavirus epidemic by ordering the shutdown of museums, archaeological sites, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, shopping malls and libraries nationwide, as confirmed novel coronavirus cases climbed to 190 from 117 a day earlier. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)
When COVID-19 emerged in China, Western media did not think twice about using the epidemic to launch a full-scale assault on the country's political system and governance. Throughout January and February, commentary framed events in Hubei Province as an exclusive failure of China and its leadership, preaching the virtues of liberal political systems which they implicitly assumed would not suffer from such a catastrophe.
BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell, a staunch critic of China, said the death of Dr. Li Wenliang constituted "an epic political disaster," and laid bare "the worst aspects of China's command and control system of governance," while the American establishment-linked "big three" newspapers took liberties in attacking the country, branding it the "sick man of Asia" with themselves and numerous others pushing to affirm the superiority of the West over China and relishing in negative coverage.
A month later, things look different. Newly reported cases in China have dropped to low levels, even in Hubei. Although there is no question the country has paid a heavy toll in terms of fatalities and economic frustrations, it is clear China has overcome the worst of it and has successfully stifled the spread of COVID-19.
Undoubtedly, the country has shown remarkable resilience and action. On the other hand, as the situation in China has improved, a number of Western countries are now experiencing growing COVID-19 outbreaks in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the US.
The outbreak is a global pandemic and not a game of winners and losers. However, in the early stages, Western media and political classes certainly framed it that way. Their assertion of supremacy and obsession with attacking China effectively caught them off guard and created complacency, having conceptualized it squarely in terms of being a political disaster. Thus, as the virus has spread throughout the world, the same individuals are waking up to the reality that this was not exclusively rooted in ideology, and that China's response was far from incompetent.
What is the West? Evolving from a generic geographic term pertaining to Europe, it alludes to a group of countries who claim a mantle of political and social supremacy over the binary "other" of the non-West, or more specifically "East."
Evolving from Christianity into liberal thought, these countries herald an ideological disposition that they are the sole bearers of a one, single and universal ontological political truth of which they have a righteous mission to disseminate to others. Like the teachings of their preceding faith, they believe strongly that their way is "the only way" and no alternative disposition has any authenticity or legitimacy, for liberalism is "the truth" and all whom do not align with it are simply heathens who are subject to some form of deception or ignorance.
These ideological foundations strongly shape Western coverage and attitudes toward China, advocating a mind-set that the system is completely illegitimate and worthy of no merit, and thus it is the Western responsibility to "change" China to the "right way" accordingly. Therefore, such journalism has a built-in ideological bias which is pre-disposed toward negativity, cynicism and the belief it is doomed to collapse.
These problems have heavily influenced coverage of the COVID-19 which sought to exclusively portray it as a political failure and thus a "crisis" for the leadership what Western nations, owing to their ideology, could not possibly be subject to.
China's contingency efforts were therefore also portrayed as a failure, for example the New York Times branded the Hubei quarantine as a "great cost to people's personal liberties" - illustrating how obsession over a given political system and the overriding effort to affirm liberal narratives clouded an empirical and fair judgment of the situation. Similarly, US politicians championed the outbreak as an opportunity, and scores of political op-eds at major outlets appeared to say the disease proved business in China was unreliable, therefore it was time to "decouple."
Yet these judgments were misplaced and the vested belief in supremacy failed to give policymakers a clear conception as to what was coming next, because they were too busy believing it wasn't really their problem. Thus as China has overcome the virus, a number of Western democracies have subsequently begun to experience outbreaks and have found their own political systems offering no extra immunity and their markets in a state of chaos. The US for one has failed to even organize a sufficient number of testing kits on time. Few predicted or even imagined a scenario whereby Beijing would be effectively declaring victory, while the West descended slowly into a state of panic.
Thus as a whole, it is important to acknowledge how ideology and political bias clouds Western judgment and perception when it comes to China. The belief of self-supremacy has lingered in Western thought since the Middle Ages and thus the idea of a foreign, non-Western system battling a disease outbreak effectively touched upon these imaginations in the belief that these things "simply could not happen to us" due to our "superior way of life" but sadly, it has. Diseases do not respect nationalities or political systems, and it is now thus time for humanity as a whole to work together and stop scoring points over this horrific pandemic.
The author is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. [email protected]
Ideological narcissism causes heavy losses to West amid outbreak
By Tom Fowdy Source:Global Times Published: 2020/3/14 16:03:40
People wearing masks are seen in downtown Athens, Greece, on March 13, 2020. Greek authorities on Friday further expanded closure measures to control the novel coronavirus epidemic by ordering the shutdown of museums, archaeological sites, restaurants, coffee shops, bars, shopping malls and libraries nationwide, as confirmed novel coronavirus cases climbed to 190 from 117 a day earlier. (Photo by Lefteris Partsalis/Xinhua)
When COVID-19 emerged in China, Western media did not think twice about using the epidemic to launch a full-scale assault on the country's political system and governance. Throughout January and February, commentary framed events in Hubei Province as an exclusive failure of China and its leadership, preaching the virtues of liberal political systems which they implicitly assumed would not suffer from such a catastrophe.
BBC China correspondent Stephen McDonell, a staunch critic of China, said the death of Dr. Li Wenliang constituted "an epic political disaster," and laid bare "the worst aspects of China's command and control system of governance," while the American establishment-linked "big three" newspapers took liberties in attacking the country, branding it the "sick man of Asia" with themselves and numerous others pushing to affirm the superiority of the West over China and relishing in negative coverage.
A month later, things look different. Newly reported cases in China have dropped to low levels, even in Hubei. Although there is no question the country has paid a heavy toll in terms of fatalities and economic frustrations, it is clear China has overcome the worst of it and has successfully stifled the spread of COVID-19.
Undoubtedly, the country has shown remarkable resilience and action. On the other hand, as the situation in China has improved, a number of Western countries are now experiencing growing COVID-19 outbreaks in Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and the US.
The outbreak is a global pandemic and not a game of winners and losers. However, in the early stages, Western media and political classes certainly framed it that way. Their assertion of supremacy and obsession with attacking China effectively caught them off guard and created complacency, having conceptualized it squarely in terms of being a political disaster. Thus, as the virus has spread throughout the world, the same individuals are waking up to the reality that this was not exclusively rooted in ideology, and that China's response was far from incompetent.
What is the West? Evolving from a generic geographic term pertaining to Europe, it alludes to a group of countries who claim a mantle of political and social supremacy over the binary "other" of the non-West, or more specifically "East."
Evolving from Christianity into liberal thought, these countries herald an ideological disposition that they are the sole bearers of a one, single and universal ontological political truth of which they have a righteous mission to disseminate to others. Like the teachings of their preceding faith, they believe strongly that their way is "the only way" and no alternative disposition has any authenticity or legitimacy, for liberalism is "the truth" and all whom do not align with it are simply heathens who are subject to some form of deception or ignorance.
These ideological foundations strongly shape Western coverage and attitudes toward China, advocating a mind-set that the system is completely illegitimate and worthy of no merit, and thus it is the Western responsibility to "change" China to the "right way" accordingly. Therefore, such journalism has a built-in ideological bias which is pre-disposed toward negativity, cynicism and the belief it is doomed to collapse.
These problems have heavily influenced coverage of the COVID-19 which sought to exclusively portray it as a political failure and thus a "crisis" for the leadership what Western nations, owing to their ideology, could not possibly be subject to.
China's contingency efforts were therefore also portrayed as a failure, for example the New York Times branded the Hubei quarantine as a "great cost to people's personal liberties" - illustrating how obsession over a given political system and the overriding effort to affirm liberal narratives clouded an empirical and fair judgment of the situation. Similarly, US politicians championed the outbreak as an opportunity, and scores of political op-eds at major outlets appeared to say the disease proved business in China was unreliable, therefore it was time to "decouple."
Yet these judgments were misplaced and the vested belief in supremacy failed to give policymakers a clear conception as to what was coming next, because they were too busy believing it wasn't really their problem. Thus as China has overcome the virus, a number of Western democracies have subsequently begun to experience outbreaks and have found their own political systems offering no extra immunity and their markets in a state of chaos. The US for one has failed to even organize a sufficient number of testing kits on time. Few predicted or even imagined a scenario whereby Beijing would be effectively declaring victory, while the West descended slowly into a state of panic.
Thus as a whole, it is important to acknowledge how ideology and political bias clouds Western judgment and perception when it comes to China. The belief of self-supremacy has lingered in Western thought since the Middle Ages and thus the idea of a foreign, non-Western system battling a disease outbreak effectively touched upon these imaginations in the belief that these things "simply could not happen to us" due to our "superior way of life" but sadly, it has. Diseases do not respect nationalities or political systems, and it is now thus time for humanity as a whole to work together and stop scoring points over this horrific pandemic.
The author is a British political and international relations analyst and a graduate of Durham and Oxford universities. [email protected]
plawolf
Lieutenant General
One of my Italian friends re-posted a message on Facebook from the Italian foreign minister thanking China for the aid and medical personal China has been sending Italy. Reading the comments, there was a huge amount of gratitude towards China from Italians (also some obligatory haters of course), but one of the things that struck me was how absolutely blanket the omission in coverage is on this subject in the UK.
Even specifically searching for key terms yielded zero BBC articles relevant.
But in the process I did come across this.
I picked some particularly telling quotes
It is pretty telling that in that whole long winded article, the author failed to express any actual detectable sympathy towards the Italian state or people, with all his arguments based on the benefits fellow NATO members (and by extension the US) can gain by keeping Italy ‘on side’.
Although such a selfish mentality might explain why he would spend so much of the article nit picking about China’s actual aid efforts to help Italy and characterises it as ‘taking advantage of the situation’, since apparently the only reason he can think of for helping others is if he has more to gain from doing it.
An interesting point many Italian people were pointing out in Facebook was that the entire Chinese medical team sent to Italy are all from Sichuan.
That is because China remembers the help Italy sent during the Sichuan earthquake rescue and recovery effort.
There are touching photographs of the same Chinese and Italian doctors working together in both China and Italy.
That is true class and genuine empathy, and I suspect that even the western MSM recognises it, which is why they are burying this entire story.
I think it is time China became more assertive in taking a global leadership role in tackling COVID19, because the absolute mess the west is making of their collective response is not only creating untold numbers of needless deaths and suffering in their own populations, they are threatening the rest of the world and China itself. Already in most of a China imported cases are outnumbering local ones.
Right now the biggest threat to China of a second wave of the virus outbreak does not come from within, but from imported foreign cases as Chinese nationals flee back home because of how bad the west is dropping the ball on this.
Even specifically searching for key terms yielded zero BBC articles relevant.
But in the process I did come across this.
I picked some particularly telling quotes
It is pretty telling that in that whole long winded article, the author failed to express any actual detectable sympathy towards the Italian state or people, with all his arguments based on the benefits fellow NATO members (and by extension the US) can gain by keeping Italy ‘on side’.
Although such a selfish mentality might explain why he would spend so much of the article nit picking about China’s actual aid efforts to help Italy and characterises it as ‘taking advantage of the situation’, since apparently the only reason he can think of for helping others is if he has more to gain from doing it.
An interesting point many Italian people were pointing out in Facebook was that the entire Chinese medical team sent to Italy are all from Sichuan.
That is because China remembers the help Italy sent during the Sichuan earthquake rescue and recovery effort.
There are touching photographs of the same Chinese and Italian doctors working together in both China and Italy.
That is true class and genuine empathy, and I suspect that even the western MSM recognises it, which is why they are burying this entire story.
I think it is time China became more assertive in taking a global leadership role in tackling COVID19, because the absolute mess the west is making of their collective response is not only creating untold numbers of needless deaths and suffering in their own populations, they are threatening the rest of the world and China itself. Already in most of a China imported cases are outnumbering local ones.
Right now the biggest threat to China of a second wave of the virus outbreak does not come from within, but from imported foreign cases as Chinese nationals flee back home because of how bad the west is dropping the ball on this.