Coronavirus, week 35: Chinese lies, vaccines, more

Big news this past week, and surely flying under much of the US radar screen? China is aggressively upping its efforts to claim the novel coronavirus originated outside of China. That's even as newly leaked documents from inside China show just how much the goverment, at various levels, was covering up early coronavirus problems. (Adding to the problem, Hubei province had an influenza spike that started just before that, AND China hasn't been fully transparent about that, either.) And, stuff like THIS is why I called out the drinkers of Xi Jinping Thought Kool-Aid earlier this fall, including Green Party presidential candidate Howie Hawkins and top advisors Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers. Given that China cut the number of actual early COVID deaths in one third, vs. what it reported, the world's response was crimped indeed.

That's just half the issue, though. Also contra the China-stanners, provincial-level Chinese Centers for Disease Control appear to be at least as underfunded as a lot of the health apparatus in the US of A. Related question: How much of this was laxity from Beijing, and how much of it is provincial governments lying to Beijing, and provincial governors and staffs maybe grifting and grafting as part of that? After all, that latter issue has a long history in China — and not necessarily just in modern times, though the post-Deng black and white cats have brought it to new levels.

And, per Worldometers, China claims to have less than 5,000 COVID deaths. Yeah, right.

Finally, per a combination of the first and second links, why should we trust Chinese reporting on COVID control today? I mean, Beijing lied about SARS case numbers, too.

• Yes, that's all bigger than Moderna officially seeking FDA approval. "Seeking" is not "getting," no matter how rosy Moderna's PR, and no matter that even a mag with Science as its name is reporting PR as straight news.

Related? Yes, the vaccines could be here by mid-winter. Will they be as effective as PR claims? What if the PR doesn't pan out, and people have stopped wearing masks? That one isn't directly covered in this piece about the winter ahead, but other things are.

• Texas, along with being last in the nation in percentage of people with health coverage of some sort, is also basically last in the nation in mental health protections. Wingnuts use the rise in suicide statistics, which is real, to shout stuff like "end the lockdown" (though we've never had a true lockdown). But, none of them will talk "national health care," let alone "national mental health care." (In nations with some sort of national health care, psychiatric coverage can vary.)

• Meanwhile, speaking of wingnuts and rules, and flouting thereof? Gov. Strangeabbott created the "restaurant loophole" for bars this summer. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, nobody's enforcing it, and many bars are staying open as — bars. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins asked Strangebbott to given local officials enforcement authority, and instead, Strangeabbott shot the messenger.

• Wingnuts have repeatedly talked about people who "don't want to work" during the pandemic. Turns out special unemployment aid has underpaid them.