Westerners, heed my COVID-19 warning, please!
To all Westerners (European, American and all of the other human beings who still don't wear masks, don't keep social distance and don't care about the COVID-19 pandemic): Yes, everyone needs to take this virus seriously (and not just in his or her attitude, but in their actions too). It's so disappointing and unbelievable from my perspective and the perspectives of many, many Chinese, Koreans and others when we see people in Europe, America and other places without masks on the streets, in the pubs, in different crowds celebrating something, etc.! Compare them with those Chinese, Koreans, Japanese and others, who are wearing face masks (no matter if they're healthy or ill). Look at this responsible Chinese person -- she is wearing a mask and gloves even now when already PRC almost get the coronavirus under control:
1) a photo: (http://www.seo-forum-seo-luntan.com/pics/responsiblechineseperson.jpg)
2) a very short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5HzIkCCkos
The moment you got your first case of COVID-19 in your area is the time when your governments needed to shut down. But not everywhere this happens. So, at least, you (personally) may be more responsible for your health and the health of others around you (and those all around the world)! Is that so difficult to wear a mask at least?! Everyone who knows anything about this new coronavirus already knows what is going to happen. I am a European philosopher living in China (since 2004). I have already seen with my own eyes what happens next, even when the measures here were taken almost immediately and when people started to wear masks (and some of them even protective glasses and/or gloves). But I'm afraid to think what's going to happen in many of those countries and regions where many of you still go out unprotected and even gather together in groups! :o ::)
The average Westerners aren't in the best of health already. Many are overweight, many are inactive, many have underlying health issues already. The chance you to get sick (and hopefully not to die from the COVID-19) is getting bigger day by day. This coronavirus is highly contagious and it's already not just a COVID-19, but COVID-19S and COVID-19L! Both can be deadly to the elderly, but there are cases of young guys being infected of this coronavirus, so it’s not just an "elderly people’s decease". At least think once about it: Why did China and South Korea almost get the virus under control? One of the most important reasons is: because we all wear masks! Start it in your area too, be a good and healthy example for the people around to follow! Be a healthy change! Otherwise, there will be more and more ill people, more and more dead people (keep in mind that many hospitals are not equipped for a huge viral outbreak), more and more economical problems, which will lead to more poverty, more suicides, more crimes and then this pandemic may become a beginning of the human civilization destruction.
Please start now: wear masks, wash your hands (or use sanitizers) before you touch your mouth, eyes, nose, ears and before you eat or drink something (in that case wash your mouth too), ventilate well your house/flat, keep the necessary social distance and stay at home as long as you can (use this time to do more sports, to learn more and to develop yourself in a good way). Every one of us now is responsible for the mankind's future (you know "the butterfly effect", right?), so just be good, wise and responsible in order to save yourself and to save the world!
Best wishes to you all: Geser Kurultaev
"Zero COVID" -- policy of the impossible against which I protest
From the very beginning of COVID-19 pandemic I wrote a lot about how people are not responsible -- that they should not protest against masks (http://www.seo-forum-seo-luntan.com/index.php?topic=8427.msg42120#msg42120) and they should follow the good Chinese habit to wear masks when there are viral diseases (http://www.seo-forum-seo-luntan.com/health/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)/msg41603/#msg41603) (i.e. I am not an antimasker), that they should not gather in crowds (i.e. I am not against distance and keeping away from the viruses), that hygiene is not at the good level at all and should be increased (http://www.seo-forum-seo-luntan.com/health/'how-to-have-good-hygiene-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-always'-(free-ebook)/) (i. e. I support the increased measures of washing, disinfection, etc. and am not against them), even about the vaccines I wrote that there are not (in the future) necessarily invented successful (and useful) ones, but despite my scepticism in this regard, I was never an anti-vaxer.
But the new policy in China, which is for "0 COVID" ("Zero COVID") runs with mass testing (which goes to daily testing more than 10 times or once every few days in order to give you the right to use transport, enter a supermarket, etc., otherwise you can not), various lockdowns (some of which literally lock you up and you can't even get out on the street or in front of your block (or another kind of home)), traffic/transport, business, sports, etc. limitations led to:
1. Ordinary people to be more and more dissatisfied because they are limited not only their freedoms, but also their incomes.
2. Smaller and larger businessmen to grieve.
3. Journalists, think tank scientists, even sinophiles and more classical oriented socialists like me to criticize, directly or indirectly, Xi Jin-Ping's policy.
4. Even from the WHO (World Health Organization) there was criticism that this 0 COVID result is not possible.
Of course, there are some people that like this 0 COVID policy (for example, insured pensioners with pensions who even hope this will last longer and then they to be able to get free food (in some places the local government really give them a few vegetables for free) and/or because they really believe that the present COVID variant is a very dangerous thing and it is possible to be achieved 0 morbidity).
My main reason to be against it (apart from the already listed the restrictions on freedoms and the economic damages) is that this no new COVID cases (0 COVID) is impossible! It cannot be done once the COVID virus is imported even sometimes from abroad (through unwashed imported products, through illegally crossing the border people, through legal travelers after resumed international flights, etc. ) to achieve permanently 0 COVID (no COVID). It will come from somewhere (either through an unwashed/unsterilized package from abroad, or through an untested (mistested) foreigner or a Chinese citizen returning from abroad) and then what? Again all these mass testings, lockdowns and suffering? There is something I want to add to these: these queues (lines) of people waiting for COVID tests are also kind of like mass gatherings of people (some of them do not even keep the required distance), which also increases the risk of transmitting the infection.
I'm not a fan of talking without evidence or spreading conspiracy theories. Quite logically, however, I think that this policy is hardly based on the pure belief that it is possible to have 0 COVID in one country, given that in the rest of the world COVID is practically everywhere. It is possible (again I say -- a purely logical guess) that there is some other, unknown, hidden economic, political or another kind of motive behind all this.
"Zero COVID" -- policy of the impossible against which I protest (Part 2)
I am adding something important -- I live in China since 2004. I am with socialistic believes and I was very satisfied during the Hu Jin-Tao's period and the beginning of the Xi Jin-Ping's period. Recently, I am not and I don't want to live in lie stating that I am satisfied. I can say absolutely the same about the anti-COVID measures in China. At the beginning everything was reasonable and I did my best to support it online and offline. I think that the small lockdowns (like those when there is a confirmed COVID case in some community and then only the community is tested and locked for a week or two, not all the city) and the one-time mass tests (when the citizens are tested only once, not daily or many times per month like now) were enough to take measures against the COVID and to keep the ecomony and the people's life normal. But now, I can't stop thinking of it as something nearly "irrational and inhumane" (It's from an article of Ako Tomoko, Associate professor in the School of International Liberal Studies, Waseda University. Link to his article about "Zero COVID in China": https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00821/ (https://www.nippon.com/en/in-depth/d00821/)).
I really try to stay away from the politics and I'm uninvolved (I'm not a member of any party; I don't receive any payments for political posts) but when it comes to something that affects my life and the lives of so many people, I can't stay silent.