Eradicating disease used to be a serious goal, even in Western states. The eradication of Small Pox, for instance, was historic. Utopian, even. Vaccination campaigns to eliminate measles, mumps, and rubella changed the nature of the world we live in.
I don't really expect COVID to go away. But at least take it as seriously as we take influenza. Christ.
It's an improbable task, but so was the first vaccine. I'm tired of settling for half measures and getting even less. I will graciously be locked in my house for a few weeks if it means ending the plague. I'll just start gnawing on the raw lasagna sheets I bought five years ago.
But the Chinese basically tried that for years. And while they curbed the spread, limited mortality, and eliminated the risk of new variants for a time, as soon as they relaxed regulations it flared up again.
At some point, the solution has to be pharmaceutical. It can't just be holding our breath and hoping enough people don't harbor infection past an arbitrary cut off point.
My Comrade in christ, the solution is political. Zero covid is class struggle. Sure vaccines are important, but it's the same fight we've been fighting. It's Capital pushing the anti-vax, anti-mask, and anti-lockdown movements. If you're waiting on Capital to give us a pharmaceutical solution you're going to be holding your breath anyway.
It’s Capital pushing the anti-vax, anti-mask, and anti-lockdown movements.
Japan is capitalist af, and I've never seen this level of adherence to masks, sanitizers, and vaccination. They've got this shit locked down.
Not incidentally, rivaling China for low rates of contagion and spread.
The social reaction in relative nations has far more to do with domestic confidence in good government. Japanese capitalists aren't courting the same political forces as their America peers. The Japanese elites see COVID as a real threat to their wealth and power. The Americans don't.
Eradicating disease used to be a serious goal, even in Western states. The eradication of Small Pox, for instance, was historic. Utopian, even. Vaccination campaigns to eliminate measles, mumps, and rubella changed the nature of the world we live in.
I don't really expect COVID to go away. But at least take it as seriously as we take influenza. Christ.
It's an improbable task, but so was the first vaccine. I'm tired of settling for half measures and getting even less. I will graciously be locked in my house for a few weeks if it means ending the plague. I'll just start gnawing on the raw lasagna sheets I bought five years ago.
I mean, ditto.
But the Chinese basically tried that for years. And while they curbed the spread, limited mortality, and eliminated the risk of new variants for a time, as soon as they relaxed regulations it flared up again.
At some point, the solution has to be pharmaceutical. It can't just be holding our breath and hoping enough people don't harbor infection past an arbitrary cut off point.
My Comrade in christ, the solution is political. Zero covid is class struggle. Sure vaccines are important, but it's the same fight we've been fighting. It's Capital pushing the anti-vax, anti-mask, and anti-lockdown movements. If you're waiting on Capital to give us a pharmaceutical solution you're going to be holding your breath anyway.
Japan is capitalist af, and I've never seen this level of adherence to masks, sanitizers, and vaccination. They've got this shit locked down.
Not incidentally, rivaling China for low rates of contagion and spread.
The social reaction in relative nations has far more to do with domestic confidence in good government. Japanese capitalists aren't courting the same political forces as their America peers. The Japanese elites see COVID as a real threat to their wealth and power. The Americans don't.