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Chinese turn to traditional medicine as Covid rips through China's population, says this report in the FR24.

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A 1 month study of 2 modified Pfizer vaccines, one targeted specifically for new Omicron variants, and the other targeted at earlier coronavirus and current Omicron variants show increases in anitbodies much higher than what current vaccines do. For Omicron specifically at 13 to 19 times more than what current vaccines increase antibodies, and for earlier variants and Omicron at 9 to 11 times more.

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The new Southern Wall China is building along its borders with Burma and Vietnam. The border stretches for 3000 miles. Yunnan which borders Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos has allocated a half billion dollar fund to fortify security barriers on the border. To close the border for zero Covid-19 policy and protect China's southern gate 100,000 officials, police officers, soldiers and civilians are patrolling this border.

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Xi Jinping's effort to shift the economy of China more towards serving the interests of Chinese who were left behind in the boom years includes a shift away from coal, away from real estate for speculation, and away from reliance on trade with the US and Europe as a driver for growth. This is proving to be difficult as the pandemic has increased demand for Chinese exports making trade a bigger driver for growth than before the pandemic. Introduction of a property tax to cut into real estate speculation has been scaled down to trials in 10 cities.  China did not put stimulus checks in the accounts of its people the way the US did which has led to Chinese domestic consumption not rebounding the way it has done in the US. Figures for consumer spending in China for September show an increase of 4.4% from the year earlier far below the pace of 8% set for 2019. The lack of social security and other safety nets in China makes people to save even more today. Chinese savings rate was 40% in 2019, today it is 45.2% for May 2021, according to one survey. Personal consumption makes up 38% of China's GDP in 2020, it was 39% in 2019. In the US it went up in 2021 June to 69% compared to 67% by the end of 2020. Infrastructure and construction deepened debt problems in China, and expanding exports created trade tensions. Both these problems have deepened with the pandemic. As this report says Chinese exports have gone gangbusters. Problems in production in Vietnam and Malaysia have added to export surge from China. China's trade surplus with the world is now at $535 billion in 2020, and surplus with US increased by 7% to $317 billion in 2020 from 2019.  Chinese government policy is now for "common prosperity" to reduce inequality and spread wealth and income more evenly for all the Chinese people. This is taking time and Chinese government policy is now set for the long run with these short run problems. ...

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The pandemic has affected Brazil, and Peru, Ecuador, the worst in Latin America. Countries where there was a lack of funding for public health and no consensus on how to tackle the crisis such as Brazil have done worse. Brazil has 11 deaths per 100,000 people compared to just 1.0 for Argentina. Chile with a political crisis and months of protests has no consensus in the country. It has done worse with 4 deaths per thousand and 95% of intensive care beds in the country taken, leaving hospitals overburdened and in stressful conditions. 

In Argentina the lockdown has been extended till June 7 and there appears to be a consensus on the government's approach to the crisis. Mexico under president Obrador decided to reopen earlier and now faces more coronavirus cases. Reopening the economy so that people in the informal economy could provide for their families was a priority for president Obrador. 

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Stephanie Shirley pioneered working from home for women and for women in computers in Britain in the 1960's.

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What went wrong to get 100,000 deaths in the UK? A lot says this analysis in The Times. Don't need a big test and contact tracing effort was the early response, no quick decisions to build the infrastructure for this like South Korea or Taiwan. The Cheltenham Festival? Superspreader events a bad idea. Open Borders- another bad idea. After a break in the coronavirus weather by summer- relaxing vigilance and preventive steps, another bad idea. So on till a coronavirus variant stepped in through the open borders. You make your own luck, says this analysis in The Times of London.

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Both the EU and US see another wake up call from China's position of on again off again diplomacy using rare earth as a bargaining chip. US and China separately and in coordination work to develop policy and actions to secure access to rare earth and technologies that is independent of China. China sees it's action on rare earth diplomacy as robust diplomacy in response to DJT tariffs, yet this is getting the US to move quickly to develop its own rare earth access including working with Australia, and taking action to support US industry. The European Union is not far behind in doing the same. This and the action taken by the US to restructure world trade for a level playing field, and getting Asian partners to acknowledge their abuse of the international trading system for two decades and accept some level of temporary tariffs is changing world trade. The US can regain the position it has held for the better part of the period 1900-2000, overcoming periods that included the rise of Russia and Japan after 1945. ...

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Early analysis of its Phase 3 study for Moderna's vaccine shows that it is 94.5 % effective in preventing coronavirus disease, including severe disease.

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Greg Ip of the WSJ looks at the impact on the economy worldwide from the effects of variants of Covid-19 in 2022. He cites IMF estimates that global output will be 3% lower in 2022 than it had projected in 2019, with Western Europe and Latin America taking larger hits. US growth is distorted and disrupted with the effects of absence of workers from illness (5 million American workers not working in December 2021 because they were sick, or caring for someone sick or afraid of spreading it), supply shocks from supply chains, 7% inflation. The boost to productivity from digitization conceals the impact of an overworked and fatigue prone remote working workforce, says Greg Ip.

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Evergrande is asked to demolish in 10 days 39 buildings on an artificial man made island off Hainan on China's southern coast. The island was supposed to resemble man made islands in Dubai. Authorites stated the permits were improperly obtained and cited damage to coral reefs on the southern coast. Apartment sales for Evergrande are down to $113 million in the last quarter of 2021.

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France on August 29 is now at just about the level of 7500 new cases daily reached on March 31. President Macron is not considering another lockdown. This happens just when schools are about to reopen. Hospitalizations are at new lows which makes the situation different now from what it was then.

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BKA German Federal Investigative Police data showing about 2 million crime suspects in 2024- of which 172,000 temporary migrants asylum seekers which 8.8%. There are about 3.06 temporary migrants in Germany out of a population of 83.6 million people, which is about 3.7% of the population, according to BKA figures cited by DW.com. The population of migrants living in Germany including Syria, Ukraine and other countries is about 3.5 million which is about 4.2% of the population. In terms of crime it is more about the anxiety and sense of disquiet this has created in the population, the money invested in benefits when much of German infrastructure has dire needs for investment with the rail and transport systems breaking down, and the wide disparities in living standards eroded in the last two decades in society. All this has to be considered in grasping why it has been so unsettling in some areas of Germany, Europe and the US. There are other factors such as women's safety, a sense of disquiet that was created in English towns where asylum seekers were put up in hotels as in Bedford. Many crimes get wide publicity and this further intensifies the sense of anxiety in the neighborhoods where young migrants from Africa and the Middle East, Asia are staying. The differences in culture and behaviours increases the sense of discomfort in neighborhoods. It is unlikely that this will go away because of incidents of attack by migrants in the towns and cities of Europe and the US every month, increasing homeless situations and deterioration in local neighborhoods.   ...

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Critics say Japan's prime minister Shinzo Abe's declaring of a state of emergency in densely populated areas till May 6 comes a bit late in the fight against coronavirus. 

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An astounding 80% of France's medicines are manufactured in Asia, and France is highly dependent on China and India for manufacturing. Action is now underway to move the manufacturing back to France as part of a complete reassessment of the supply chain for critical infrastructure related supplies going on in France, Britain and the U.S.

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This report in NYT suggests that coronavirus in New York is becoming endemic. Endemic means chronic instead of the acute crisis situation in 2020. This is because hospitalizations are not filling up ICU's the way they did in 2020. The burden of the coronavirus pandemic is now on people who are unvaccinated and people under 45 years.  New York has a higher rate of vaccination than the rest of the country. About 76% of people ages 12 and over in New York are vaccinated. Yet the 24% of younger people who remain unvaccinated is a part of the population that has fears about getting vaccinated which are harder to overcome. As many of these younger people also spend more time outdoors, and are part of the community, more likely to be in contact with families, relatives and friends indoors in winter, and less likely to wear masks and follow social distancing the pandemic, one could see another surge in the winter of 2021.  Another problem could be that some portion of the population of vaccinated has not taken booster shots by the middle of winter which would create a population of a third of the people even in cities such as New York that remain unprotected. The emergence of another difficult variant could also be a complicating factor. In this way chronic or endemic may still be elusive where masking, social distancing and other preventive actions are not taken. For the community as a whole there will be the risk to upward mobility from the people who risk losing jobs because of fears of the vaccine.     ...

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The Oxford vaccine is shown to be effective for older adults over 70 years in age. One of the key features of the Oxford vaccine is that it is designed to be accessible in cost for not just high income countries but across all parts of the world including the countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America where some of the poorest people live. The cost will be a fraction of the cost of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine. Results for regulatory approval are expected by Christmas. This vaccine is expected to cost about $4 a dose compared to $25 for the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Oxford also uses a technology for the vaccine that has already been proved effective with least side effects fr other virus such as Ebola virus. Oxford researchers took the existing vaccine technology and modified it to tackle coronavirus in a way that proves effective for this virus also. Countries such as South Korea say they will not rush into the first vaccine that is available and have not responded to requests for sale from Moderna or Pfizer. India's Serum Institute is the leading manufacturer of vaccines in the world. It is preparing for production of the Oxford vaccine. India's vaccine effort includes other vaccines developed by its research institutes. The focus of India is for a vaccine that is effective as well as meet cost so that it can be used to vaccinate over 1.3 billion people. Because India has strong already established manufacturing capabilities for vaccines and is collaborating with Oxford and Astra Zeneca for a low cost vaccine it is in a position to drive the campaign for an effective plus low cost 100% accessible vaccine for people around the world. Another aspect of the Astra Zeneca partnership with Oxford is that it has committed not to make a profit from the vaccine. This is important for Oxford researchers and its organizational goals. ...