The pandemic rages, and it is clear that Hong Kong’s leaders never bothered to plan for the stage when infections hit over 2,000 a day. But relax – the authorities have everything in place to protect us from a singer with ‘seditious intent’ (performing a song including the words ‘Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times’).
The government’s Covid measures are less robust. But beneath the confusion, it seems to be transitioning to a more pragmatic approach. Not through conviction, but because – without extreme large-scale lockdowns that paralyze the city – there is no choice but to accept that the virus is going to spread. Officials can’t admit this, so the shift is likely to be awkward and tentative (don’t panic!) and presented as fine-tuning rather than abandoning the sacred ‘zero-dynamic whatever’ policy.
From Dr Owens…
Counterintuitive, but in a pandemic the last thing you want is infectious people in hospital, unless needing treatment. Risk to other patients/HCWs.
‘More pragmatic’ by the way, does not mean ‘humane’.
Some mid-week reading…
From Michael C Davis – Hong Kong: How Beijing Perfected Repression…
Beijing seeks to justify this [NSL] imposition by asserting its inherent sovereign authority to govern Hong Kong as it wishes. To accept that reasoning, however, would be to undermine the very foundation of Hong Kong’s separate system and make nonsense of the many guarantees that the PRC has offered under the “one country, two systems” rubric. Hong Kong’s comprehensive transformation reflects an effort, common to autocratic regimes, “to hollow out from within critical institutions safeguarding fundamental freedoms.”
And in The Diplomat, how foreign judges are complicit in Hong Kong’s crackdown.
I think it’s funny that in all of my time being a company gweilo I was never once correct, but I totally nailed the government response to this pandemic and also predicted exactly what real doctors would say, and have been saying, but aren’t being listened to enough to be correct.
Weird.
It’s interesting how money laundering has become a catch-all charge, probably because it is the one offence (under “normal” law) that the defendant has to prove innocence rather than the prosecution prove guilt.
Where’s my jet plane – the police and DOJ have always liked the ease of charging money laundering as its elements are easier to prove than the primary offence. If you commit any crime that generates or uses money by one interpretation your use or handling of that money is money laundering, so every crime with such an element can be prosecuted as money laundering. It also is an attempt to divert attention to the thought crimes people are charged with – “look they’re a money launderer” as that makes them sound like dastardly criminal masterminds rather than dissidents.
Somewhere along the line there has been some truth-stretching about how overwhelmed the hospitals are. The key to the mystery lies in the attachment to the HA press release https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202202/16/P2022021600159.htm
Non-surge period (basically summer) reference figures for A&E first attendances and bed admissions to medical wards is 5,900 and 850 per day respectively.
Yesterday (which is in a surge period, ie expected to be busier) the relevant figures 4,249 first attendances (72% of non-surge reference) and 800 admitted to medical wards with an overall medical bed occupancy 0f 96%.
So, if the system is overwhelmed when operating at 72% of non-surge activity, what has gone wrong? It may be that the HA is not counting the positive testees as first attendances, but, if so, they are destroying their own credibility and public confidence in their managerial competence.
Someone I know was being quizzed by her bank’s anti-money laundering inquisitors about various (innocent) transactions in her account, and was asked “Why is your husband giving you money?” She replied “Are you a nun?” You have to wonder if these people are in touch with normal life.
@low profile
I literally guffawed. thank you!
https://www.dimsumdaily.hk/citizen-sues-govt-in-high-court-for-implementation-of-vaccine-pass-and-claims-the-new-rule-unconstitutional/ and https://hkicacc.substack.com/p/open-letter-to-hk-sar-government?r=19i8x8
“@low profile
I literally guffawed. thank you!”
@low profile @donkey
My blood pressure went up and I did not find it funny as it hits too close to home. I have a BVI company and a commercial bank account and deal with this fucking idiots regularly. However lately it’s been Facebook advertising department that have been making me blow my top. Their reps are dumber than bankers and it’s a Kafkaesque nightmare if your advertising account on facebook gets flagged by their inept algorithm.
Given that the imposition of mandatory vaccination with not-fully tested vaccines is in truth a medical experiment, the provisions of the Nuremburg Code should apply on legal, ethical and moral grounds. This arose from the trial German doctors and bureaucrats who had carried out medical experiments during WW2, many of whom were executed for their crimes.
The main relevant provision of the code is:
1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.
This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.
Microbiologist Ho Pak-leung of the University of Hong Kong estimated that most of the thousands of patients waiting to be admitted to hospital or isolation facilities were young and vaccinated.
So, folks get yourselves and your children vaccinated. I wonder when the administration’s brains will catch up with reality.
How many frail old Covid-infected grannies could we provide with proper accommodation in Government House? (rather than having to triage them outside of an overloaded hospital in the February cold).
My guess is that foreign judges are afraid of writing dissenting opinions because they expect they will be sent home if they do.
@where’s my jet plane, can you post the original article? I have searched for that story and the SCMP and a yahoo news story come up but that quote is now missing from those stories.
i’m trying to get context about the quote, instead of just a quote that could tell me all sorts of things but I want to be accurate.
I have found the above quote and its context. It seems actually to be saying that these people are coming to the hospital to be tested and they are not suffering huge problems. The quote is made in the context of doctors saying they worry about these children and other patients staying at home, even if they are mildly symptomatic (which is expected in the vaccinated), because they can infect others at the home.
Please stop with the anti science FUD, jet plane. it’s sickening
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MgqO5opdiE4J:https://ph.news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-hong-kong-more-4-033934949.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=hk
Just an alert to the chat group here that Where’s my jet plane is taking things fully out of context to pursue the weird anti-vaxx agenda of his / her.
Here’s the original story in its context, which actually has the same doctor urging vaccination. the story is actually about the need for these mildly symptomatic to isolate from the home because they could be sickening others at the home.
Cached article: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:MgqO5opdiE4J:https://ph.news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-hong-kong-more-4-033934949.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=hk
@ donkey
For your information I am far from being an anti-vaxxer. However, I am very sceptical about mRNA Covid vaccines, their efficacy, untested long (and short) term effects and the willful disregard of medical, moral and ethical issues by the HK administration. That latter does not surprise me too much but I am concerned about the stance of the majority of the local medical extablishment given the mounting evidence of damage these vaccines are causing tp peoples’ immune systems.
But, of course, you know better. Do keep taking the KoolAid and we’ll see who is right.
well of course i am right. @jet emissions
mRNA vaccines only alter the transmission messages of a strand of chromosones, temporarily, and with nothing living in them, and with no permanent or lasting feature change to anything in the body, so, keep acting like YOU know it all and that YOU will be right, because I can save you the time.
I don’t mind that you are skeptical. I mind that you are skeptical and so intellectually lazy that you prefer to de-contextualise your information to make sure you seem honest when in fact, you have no clue what you are talking about.