A chilling video records trapped high-rise apartment residents in Shanghai, China, screaming at night amid that megacity’s lockdown, which began on March 28, with nearly 300,000 COVID-19 cases in the city. Health authorities announced today that three people had died.
There are voices, including among some Christians, who hail the supposed efficiency and dynamism of Chinese authoritarianism in contrast to Western democratic chaos. But the draconian COVID lockdowns in Shanghai and other major Chinese cities question the competence of China’s overlords and point to a fatal vulnerability common to autocracies.
Paganly despotic regimes typically lack nuance and prudence. Absent opposition and self-critique, they are prone to maniacal absolutism. The Biblical understanding of fallen human nature could warn such societies of these extremes. But dictators often absolutize themselves and deny any competing transcendence.
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Comment by David on April 19, 2022 at 6:58 am
The problem in China, and Russia for that matter with their “Sputnik Vaccine,” is that it is an older form of technology. The western mRNA vaccines are much more effective, especially with the omicron variant. The Chinese population is effectively unvaccinated leading to severe problems with quarantines being one of the few options.
https://apnews.com/article/china-gao-fu-vaccines-offer-low-protection-coronavirus-675bcb6b5710c7329823148ffbff6ef9
Comment by Jeff on April 21, 2022 at 6:05 pm
No, David. The problem in China — and Russia — and ProgAmerica! — is too much Marx, too much Engels, too much Gramsci, too much UN and Davos and Soros and Klaus Schwab and Ibram X. Kendi — and not enough JESUS CHRIST.
Comment by David on April 22, 2022 at 2:37 pm
“Those who affiliated with no religion had the lowest risk of COVID-19-related death before and after lockdown.”
https://jech.bmj.com/content/75/6/509
Comment by George on April 22, 2022 at 5:00 pm
Horse manure, David. Where do you come up with this stuff?
Comment by Jeff on April 22, 2022 at 5:16 pm
Where does David come up with this stuff?
I think you answered your own question, George, in the phrase that proceeded your asking it. 😏
Comment by David on April 23, 2022 at 6:32 am
I am sorry people do not like medical journals. The difference in death rates is obviously due to different rates of vaccination. Trumpist evangelicals, ultra-orthodox Jews, Muslims, and Amish all have lower rates. Those that are guided by science have fared better.
Comment by George on April 23, 2022 at 7:42 am
You said journals ? Talk about cherry picking. It’s not just apples and oranges, David. The bar graphs resemble fruit salad. It was using a portion of a country and expected the results to speak for the world. I really doubt in its assessment. Our own country has cooked the books when giving out statistics on Covid deaths. Money and politics have corrupted this and you expect to make anti-religious points from a study over in parts of Great Britain ? Your reasoning is off target as usual.
Comment by David on April 23, 2022 at 1:08 pm
Could you kindly provide links to the paper that dispute the findings of this one? Likely not. This is a good example of American anti-intellectualism and rejection of science. It is science that has doubled the human lifespan in the past century or so, not religion.
Comment by Alan on April 25, 2022 at 2:44 pm
David, Here’s a study that disputes your study. Link to study:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/resp.14191
China’s CoronaVac shot caused people to make far more T-cells targeting the coronavirus than those who received Pfizer’s mRNA shot, scientists in Hong Kong have found.
Though it is only one datapoint, the study hints the Chinese shot – which is based on older, well understood principles of vaccinology – may ultimately provide longer-lasting protection than the hastily developed mRNA jabs from Pfizer and Moderna.
The study was published in a peer-reviewed journal called Respirology in November, but has (unsurprisingly) received no attention. It offers a rare head-to-head look at the immune-system effects of the Chinese and Pfizer Covid vaccines, which work in very different ways. The Chinese vaccine is actually more effective than the Pfiser or Moderna.
Which “science” do you want to believe?