comment: >
  
  It's a plan by the global elite to force people to wear masks so they are conditioned to do what the government tells them! Also, it's so people feel bad for them. (Do I really need a /s?)
context: Nearly 37 million people in China may have been infected with COVID-19 on a single day this week, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing estimates from the government's top health authority.
  About 248 million people, which is nearly 18% of the population, are likely to have contracted the virus in the first 20 days of December, the report said, citing minutes from an internal meeting of China's National Health Commission held on Wednesday. >
  
  Looking forward to the next major mutation.
  I wear a mask every day when I go out. Obviously protecting myself and others is the primary reason, but also, the optics are important. We need to know that this thing is far from over. >
  
  We live in rural no where and wear well-fitted N95s when we go into town. Getting COVID, RSV or the Flu is just bad news --  being so far from a major hospital, the weather being so intense and not being able to get wood, stay warm etc if we are sick. It's just not an option. >
  
  
  not being able to get wood, stay warm etc if we are sick.
  
  I had to re-read that a few times to understand what you meant! >
  
  Sorry about that lol 😆 Now I can't stop laughing! For clarity, I meant our house is wood heated via a large stove. If both of us are bed ridden we'd likely freeze to death. >
  
  Pellet stove conversion? Those things look pretty neat and hands off. But I'm not super familiar with it as the primary heating source. >
  
  Most folks out here use diesel fuel (heating fuel) and Toyostoves But the cost can get high, so since the place is small we use wood, its everywhere on our property and our stove is crazy efficient. The modern ones are no joke. >
  
  Collecting, splitting, and stacking wood takes a fair  amount of planning, time, and energy. I commend your efforts! >
  
  It also saves tremendous amounts of money.
  Canadian here. When you can't afford convenience and have your health and a few decent tools and know what you're doing, burning self-harvested firewood is a super economical way to go. >
  
  How many acres of forest do you need to sustainably supply enough wood to heat a house year after year? >
  
  0 covid to 37 million covid in no time >
  
  Which is why they tried. But the irony of this happening to them right now is pretty ridiculous >
  
  I don't necessarily think it's ironic. Instead, it's an inevitable consequence of attempting zero covid. 
  When the controls are lifted, there's going to be a massive wave - exactly what we're seeing now. >
  
  What’s ironic is they spent the entire time trying so so hard to not have any cases and now that the rest of the world is kinda normalizing their relationship with covid China is getting ** >
  
  The cynical side of me thinks that the government is going to use this wave of infections to point fingers at the people who protested the lockdowns. In a sort of 'see? This is exactly what you wanted' sort of way. >
  
  Wait until their Luna New Year rolls around next month. >
  
  In fact, Lunar New Year 2020 was the reason why it spread across the country and then around the world. >
  
  I would argue their attempts to deny/downplay the virus and limit investigations is why it spread across the country, and then incompetence helped it spread across the globe >
  
  I’m in email correspondence with factories in China. I can confirm they’re going through a bad fucking time right now. >
  
  Any light on the horizon? >
  
  The guy I’m talking to is doing better! 👌 >
  
  To be fair I thought this was how it was going to be when everyone else was having out breaks. >
  
  I am afraid that it might be a really conservative estimate >
  
  If that is what they are reporting it is almost invariably worse. We won't ever know the real death toll. >
  
  So another go around for everyone in the world in 2023-24? >
  
  Jeeze, at this rate there may be a second largest death toll since China’s famine from killing sparrows or maybe worse >
  
  I work for Stanford Hospital, get vaccinated and get the boosters, it will save your life. The majority that still die in the US are not vaccinated. I get the statistics every day. >
  
  I was vaxxed, dual boosted, and still got Covid.
  For like four days. 
  Had covid brain for a month but I'm fine now.
  I felt like total and absolute shit for those four days. Felt like the air went bad. I had to take two breaks to go up one flight of stairs. I could have gotten my ass kicked by an irate kitten. 
  But it only lasted four days. 
  I do NOT want to know how I would have lasted if I hadn't been vaxxed and dual boosted. >
  
  You can still catch COVID with the vaccine. Some people get no symptoms and others still get symptoms. Some just never catch it at all. 
  My kid got COVID 2 times, I never got it. I tested and nothing. That could be because I already had the strain he got before him and didn’t know or I’m one of the few people that Covid doesn’t effect at all. 
  I’d like to point out that all hospital workers patient facing and non patient facing get vaccinated, not just for COVID but for everything. We get physicals every year. 
  However people vaccinated have a  better chance of surviving. I was reading a study that most people where already exposed to COVID at least 2 times in America. 
  Most cases that come into the hospital are there for other reasons non COVID related, get tested for COVID and test positive.  The death rate has dropped significantly due to COVID in the area I live in but we also have a high vacation percentage rate. >
  
  Oh yeah, it doesn't protect you completely, but it's better to get it with the vaccine than without it.
  Vaccines are like seat belts. They don't keep you from crashing but they do keep you from going head-first through the windshield. >
  
  Bc they didn’t vaccinate the elderly, aren’t boosting them, and have less effective vaccines than everyone else. No shit this was going to happen. >
  
  Why isn’t it happening in Africa then? >
  
  It probably is but no one cares enough >
  
  I've actually heard that Africa is handling covid fairly well >
  
  Combination of most of the continent being young and thin so it does not effect them as much, plus the experience with ebola prepared them for jumping into mask wearing >
  
  Yeah they have surprisingly robust public health policy >
  
  I wonder how many have actually died in China considering how bad it was in the West >
  
  It takes a while to die of Covid. Especially if you haven’t overwhelmed the hospital system yet. >
  
  How do they arrive at these numbers? >
  
  This is honestly a really bad thing cause it'll just tighten the CCP's grip on its people.   
  For those unaware of the circumstances, there have been mass protests on the scale that haven't been seen in 30 years over the country's Covid Zero policy. This policy kept covid spread to very low numbers, but in exchange people had their freedoms severely restricted, being locked inside your home by the government was not uncommon. This had minor pushback until 2 things happened, the World Cup & a fire that killed some people who were locked in their homes. The World Cup which was able to be viewed in China showed the rest of the world in big crowds maskless not worried about Covid which was the catalyst, and the fire that killed people ignited the protests.
  So, these protests started & kept getting bigger until a large amount of the population was calling for the immediate end of Covid Zero, and after about 2 weeks of massive protests, the CCP decided to end the Covid Zero policy with no plans on the impact. So, what does this mean? China uses their own vaccines which aren't as effective as the ones in the rest of the world & has an extremely dense population which means the spread of covid was going to be like this, insanely fast. This is a bad thing beyond just people getting covid when you zoom out, because this will be spun as "Look citizens, your protests have lead to sickness and death sweeping the nation" & will give the image of the CCP knowing best all along. >
  
  China has always seemed like a pressure cooker to me. I feel like one day it’s just going to “pop” but no idea what will be the tipping point. >
  
  That's because you get all your China info from reddit and Western propaganda about a geopolitical enemy. They're enormously more stable than the US is right now and nothing is going to 'pop' or 'collapse'. Xi is extremely popular and the party is extremely popular. Just about everyone there is sick of constant chaos and revolutions and wants to chill for a bit, and they're on an upward trajectory so they're perfectly happy to do so.  I think you're also just projecting what you WANT to see and confusing it with what you EXPECT to see. >
  
  You literally could not know less about me, what I know about China, or the Chinese people I personally know. Take your bullshit projection and propaganda somewhere else. >
  
  Yeah this response tells me everything I need to know lmao, you're clearly not forming your opinions objectively at all and have been completely brain broken about China by reddit articles >
  
  
  Yeah this response tells me everything I need to know lmao
  
  Same, bestie >
  
  Everyone in this thread is going to be affected by this in about 2-3 months when you realize there are no pain medications in your local CVS and there's a 1 year wait for a new cell phone. >
  
  Jesus, that’s sketchy. I was worried about the about the uptick in my state to 9000 infections last week. >
  
  ...and everything is going according to plan.
  The Problem from the very beginning was the fact that Russia and China made vaccine production a matter of nationalism. They engaged in the wildest conspiracy shit just to save face. They kept doing that for over 2 years without actually coming up with a solution other then to "hope it goes away on its own". There was no new development of better vaccines and adoption of the ones available remained low as skepticism about its effectiveness and safety was high (if its so great, why ban the foreign ones? And why nobody else is using it?).
  So then came omicron, which turned the whole thing into a giant game of whack-a-mole as the infectiousness is even higher then Delta. Then came the economic turmoil due to Zero Covid, backlash from the lockdowns as in 2 years they havent really solved food supply and other basic things. Hence being in such a lockdown was akin to punishment. So people protested.
  So they panicked. Covid is not going away, vaccine adoption is stagnant, people are pissed and omicron isnt that deadly (even though risks of long covid remain high)
  So the quick fix is to say "fuck it, let it rip, and let it rip hard." let the virus be the vaccine and get it done with. In lieu of the risk of the emergence of a deadlier variant through spillbacks (which are going to come!) and the associated and expected higher pathogenicity it was the only option they had left....
  ...well not the only option.
  They could have imported proper vaccines...but nah that would make mr xi feel bad in his pee pee.
  With so many new infections though the risk of a new varient arising from humans is in my opinion lower. As the virus finds plenty of hosts there is no evolutionary selection to change in either direction. Sure it can happen, but if a large amount of the population is somewhat resistant that causes actual pressure. to escape immunity.
  Again, its the best plan they have...to save face. And lets be honest, its not like the people didnt ask for it. >
  
  Sinovac needs 3 doses to get 90%+ protection, two doses is not a full vaccination currently >
  
  That is the case for basically all vaccines, that's why people are on their 3rd or 4th booster. >
  
  China's vaccines have proven to be ineffective. They are under the rule of an autocratic government that's unwilling to admit failure and unwilling to reach out to the West for help. I also doubt this will alarm the antivaxxing assholes in the US. >
  
  Their vaccines are fine enough according to recent studies. Like western vaccines they don't prevent infection, just make the illness insignificant and slash risk of hospitalisation.
  China's actual problems are more to do with the elderly being anti-vax and if the hospital system is strong enough. >
  
  Source for these claims? 
  AFAIK, the Chinese vaccines are between 50-60% effective which is considerably less than western mRNA vaccines.
  Also the mRNA vaccines do prevent infection, just at a low rate. >
  
  So it's effective after all. I have to stop listening to redditors with china hate boner >
  
  You can easily tell because when people say the chinese vaccines are ineffective they never post any sources to corroborate their claims.
  In the rare cases they do, it only focuses on the poor protection against infection and completely neglects the very strong protection against hospitalization and death. >
  
  The dangerous part of this? 37 million transmissions a day = 37 million additional opportunities for the virus to mutate into something more lethal. >
  
  Tell me again how that will not unleash new mutations around the world? >
  
  Not a surprise that this post is downvoted into the ground.
  Let's make it visible. >
  
  Too too many wankers refuse to believe COVID-19 is worse than a cold. I've been to over a dozen funerals for people who refused to believe it was real..  until they went on a ventilator. Edit: of course someone who doesn't believe in science and is against vaccines downvoted this. Hey, ignore the facts at your own peril. >
  
  You know over a dozen people who have died of covid?!  You are either the world's unluckiest person or are straight full of bullshit >
  
  Might just be elderly, or an elder care worker, or a nurse.
  I know nurses who watched people die all day everyday for months. >
  
  I was an insurance agent that sold a lot of guaranteed issue policies. A lot of my clients had health issues and I was referred to a lot of them as a last resort. >
  
  they've gone from Zero Covid to Herd Immunity all in one month!
  the silver lining is that at least this omicron variant is less virulent and we aren't hearing of massive triage centers springing up in major city centers. >
  
  That is a doozie. It would be like the entire population of a BIG country like Brazil being infected in 5 days. With mortality at a meager 0.1% that is 185k dead. >
  
  $100 says they reimplement ZCP. >
  
  Zero Covid was to make sure there was never enough transmission to get out of hand.
  If these numbers are right, 
  Even if they tried they wouldn’t be able to put this genie back in the bottle >
  
  The way it seems to be implemented at the local level, what is loosening relative to China is equivalent to what "lockdowns" were in the West. The essential workers are being compelled to work regardless of condition, and people who are better off are trying to distance as best as they can >
  
  And yet they still claim only like 2-3 thousand covid deaths.
  And people believe that for some damn reason. >
  
  CoronaChan: And now, with your permission, I’m going to do my stuff!
  Xinnie the Pooh: What are you going to do?
  CoronaChan: I’m gonna do the best I can!
  Xinne the Pooh: Oh bother…. >
  
  The CCP has no idea what they are doing. Went from zero Covid policy to 37m infected in a day over the course of a couple weeks. >
  
  they're going for herd immunity to try to salvage the economy. They now realize that the West are jacking interest rates to curb inflation & quell consumer demand for Chinese-made products. For a huge nation that relies on exports to support their economy that's troubling. Coupled with work stoppages & clamp downs & quarantines, it's simply unsustainable over the long haul. They rather rip off the BandAid rather than peel it away bit by bit each week. >
  
  So China brings this into the world with unsanitary live animal markets and then creates a string of endless variants by using a less effective vaccine that they’re failing to distribute effectively. Awesome. Fucking crushing it China >
  
  The virus was lab generated, but yeah…Go China >
  
  All the first cases form a “shotgun” pattern around the Wuhan wet market. Virus shows much genetic similarity with other coronaviruses isolated from bats in the area. Not lab generated. >
  
  That’s just not true. Unless you believe Chinese state media. But hey, whatever floats your boat. >
  
  Even if we disregard all of the papers published in western journals that align with what I just said, what is China’s incentive for creating a virus that embarrasses them on the world stage, wrecks their economy, and disproportionately kills their citizens? Go on, I’m waiting