China approves two domestically developed COVID drugs - India Times
The drugs are used for treating adult patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections
RT @meetjess
“Reuters left out China Global Times: ‘China approves 2 more domestic oral COVID pills, as effective as paxlovid and cheaper’
- VV116: Similar to remdesivir. Slightly better than Paxlovid, fewer side effects, fewer drug–drug interactions”
RT @tonyn47243342
I don't know all of the data for China's inhaled vaccine, India's nasal vaccine or these pills, but it sure makes me feel like at least they're trying to do something while we're just doing our best to pretend COVID isn't real.
@BE I often wonder whether it’s a numbers game: two of the most populous countries can’t afford to pretend for as long as W. countries that Covid doesn’t exist. We in the U.S. have such a diminished middle class & concentrated wealth in the owner class (not missing from CH or IN either) that we can continue the charade longer.
Not to get too far off from your original post here, but I've thought about this quite a bit. I distinctly remember a Fox News segment in 2020 stating something very similar to:
"The reason you have a country with 330 million is so that you can afford to lose a few million for the sake of the economy."
With that in mind, on the one hand, I feel like Jerome Powell, for instance, now stating that the number of people "missing" from the workforce is a problem signals that the oligarchy realizes it can't go on forever and maybe we're reaching that point where the human toll is too much for the economy/rich people to deal with and maybe this will lead to a change.
On the other hand I have often contemplated this question:
If in upper levels of the government they realized that there was nothing that they could currently do about COVID would their response look any different than what we're seeing?
@BE It’s honestly ponderous for me to consider that the U.S. gov. couldn’t do anything else about Covid when I personally think their vax-only strategy was baked in early realizations that they would refuse to do what’s politically inexpedient & costly: acknowledge public bldgs needed to change their ventilation systems; declare that workers need more than 5 days before returning to work safely after infection; enable workers to file OSHA complaints in mask-optional workplaces; 2/
I'd like to explore that a little deeper. Not that there's nothing that could be done, in a physical sense. Early on there were some attempts at mask mandates, vaccine mandates, etc., right? All of those were derided by the GOP and thrown out by the courts.
I've said before that the Biden administration didn't *really* lean into what they could have done. They didn't even ask for a stay on the mask mandate ruling, they just said "Eh, whatever" essentially.
Sure, they could have doubled down, said "No, we're going to fight for mask mandates, vaccine mandates, ventilation and filtration. We're going to use the DPA to make N95 masks and we're going to send them to every American along with monthly tests" and maybe that would have led to a situation in which it was taken seriously and more money was put into research, and so on and so forth. Essentially, they could have fought for public health.
They obviously looked at losing in court, along with the public attitude where many people weren't going to go along with public health and decided not to fight that fight.
So, here we are, in the "Can't do anything about it" world.
Will it change? I really, unfortunately, believe it's going to have to get a lot worse before there's any momentum in the other direction than where we're headed. Maybe the ruling class losing too many workers is that push that's required.
@BE …But I think forcing employees to do more work w/increasingly fewer employees could continue for an awfully long time. I’m not a sci-fi person, but am considering whether Covid or its successor virus will be humanity-ending eras, w/the wealthiest adopting a Snowpiercer/“let’s populate Mars” solution. You’ve given me some interesting things to ponder awhile. Sincere apologies again for the pessimism. I don’t have much filter nowadays. c/
No apologies! I don't really disagree with anything you're saying. The sad truth is that there doesn't appear to be any way that it gets significantly better before getting significantly worse without some major scientific breakthrough....and I'm always the one telling people to not count on the breakthrough that ends COVID or solves the climate crisis.
@BE I just realize my relentless nihilism re. Covid can be…a lot, lol. You have actually encouraged me a bit; one could possibly say Covid, its affects on the body & societies & how it transmits are not understudied. Underfunded, probably, but there doesn’t appear to be any lack of voracious interest in scientific communities. The scientific world is studying furiously & further gains will be made. Some solutions will be implemented. I hope swiftly.