this post was submitted on 25 May 2024
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it shakes my faith in AES governments that all these places seem to have given up on mask mandates, testing, and air quality ๐ข
AES governments are actually democracies, for better and for worse. See, the USSR liberalizing their economy in the late Soviet period, largely due to public pressure.
They're under immense pressure to stop masking and testing, both externally from countries demanding they open up their economies and internally from citizens who have been tricked by the rest of the world into thinking COVID isn't dangerous after vaccination.
I'm sympathetic towards the inability to continue, it just shows that they aren't yet strong enough to totally defy the market forever.
On the bright side, at least when bird flu spreads from milk drinkers in the US they'll be ready to go right back into lockdown.
thanks for the constructive answer. I'm less confused about lockdowns than I am about mask mandates and air quality rules, which seem like they wouldn't be as affected by at least the pressure from other countries.
Capital opposes mask mandates because they discourage certain types of consumption and can act as a constant reminder of the pandemic, which further suppresses consumption as people choose to stay home. Any and all obstacles to consumption are anathema and China couldn't risk capital strike. Further, internal discontent about mask mandates are also a huge concern. The majority of people do not care about getting sick or getting others sick, unfortunately, and asking them to mask forever is not really possible.
Air quality, on the other hand, mostly only improved during zero COVID because of reduced traffic and reduced industrial demands for power. Unfortunately China can't exactly keep what were essentially degrowth policies in place to continue to increase air quality without harming the country itself. They need to be as productive as possible now more than ever as the US begins ratcheting up the trade war and pushing us towards WW3. Their plan seems to be electrification and green energy, though unlike the West seem to actually be doing it.
Not like it's going to matter once bird flu hits :V
Vaccines have been produced and improved. People could not take the lockdowns anymore. So things returned to normal.
"normal" except a new, relatively easily preventable longterm immune disorder is going around, causing different kinds of organ failure, reduced mental capacity, chronic fatigue. even the mostly useless WHO still classifies it as a pandemic, plutocrats still mask and test - governments that have given up caring about it are not doing right by the working class.
They are not nor have they ever been panaceas for Covid. Conditions will not improve if this is the prevailing attitude. Eventually people will realize this but it's going to be very stupid for a long time for this exact reason.