So Taiwan can’t buy vaccines from any of the three American companies that the FDA has given approval for? I know, blame China!
And at the same time make a big deal about charity thereby ensuring you aren’t sending these to somewhere that would struggle to afford them.
I can only imagine. If I saw someone with that kind of paraphernalia here (US), I would be so mad and probably incoherent. I can’t even imagine seeing it in Germany. Verdammte Arshloch. (Forgive spelling errors, getting rusty).
And I may be biased because most of my friends/family in Germany are historians or historian-adjacent, but I’ve always had the impression that, as a nation, you do a really good job of keeping history alive and visible.*
So it’s even more unsettling that you’re seeing people comfortable displaying this kind of thing.
*my “German Mom” lives at Bayerischer Platz, and those signs make an impression every. single. time I see them.
The first time I saw this, we were actually coming out of the station to go to KaDeWe. It told me all I needed to know about how seriously the country takes the motto “Never Forget”:
http://brigittesion.blogspot.com/2005/07/memorial-of-week-wittenbergplatz.html
We were visiting the Memorial at Bernauer Straße, so moving on its own, and when we headed back to the U-Bahn, an older guy was coming up the steps and stopped us to tell us how he’d lived there the whole time, and they’d bricked up the entryways to the U-Bahn, and, “we could hear it passing under us, but we couldn’t get on…” He was saying, “can you imagine? I came down these stairs, and there was a wall.” And I could imagine, because of him.
ETA: sorry, just realized I’m on a total derail. Got distracted about what thread I was on.
Me too! But to be fair to both of us, this slight derail came from the story above showing that people are conflating public covid protections with the Holocaust.
But his emails…
The initial lab release and bio-weapon claims were one in the same.
And then there were the claims that China stole COVID-19 from Canada…
Some conspiracy-minded people made that claim but it’s absolutely untrue that all early concerns about the possibility of an accidental lab leak were based on conspiracy theories or bio-weapon claims. I’ve already referenced a number of serious researchers in posts upthread.
It was echoed all over the right wing Internet. It was probably repeated on Breitbart (their search is “broken” right now), and I’d be surprised if it never got a mention on Fox.
Yes, the fact that right wing nut jobs have spouted many wild conspiracy theories about this very loudly from early on in the pandemic has obviously never been in dispute. Where you and I seem to be in disagreement is on the idea that ONLY conspiracy-minded folks ever talked about the idea of an accidental lab leak, and that the idea of an accidental lab leak is one and the same as a conspiracy.
This is the one argument that might get through to people: not getting vaccinated probably cost this golfer $1.675M.
Just as reminder: it is still thought to be unlikely by most serious researchers.
The zoonosis hypothesis is the most likely explanation, it is scientific consensus.
Japan has finally stepped up its vaccination game. Just yesterday, we reached 10% of the population who have had at least one shot and 3.4% fully vaccinated. They are up to over 600,000 shots per day (though the number dips a bit on weekends).
A few months ago, I was looking at maybe getting vaccinated next spring, but at this rate, I might just be able to do it before the year is out. My company is also offering paid time off to go get vaccinated (though only people who have already retired are eligible right now).
Somebody has suggested that instead of running lotteries to encourage people to get vaccinated, states should run “regret lotteries” where everyone is entered, but if the winner isn’t vaccinated they don’t get the money.
I had to read this twice to understand it. 
And I am really glad this happens.
I have some friends and social contacts who have family in Japan. They have been quite anxious about the apparent reluctantly to get vaccinated in Japanese society, and the missing drive to change that.
It’s true that the majority of scientists currently believe the zoonotic origin to be the more likely scenario. But there’s also a growing recognition that it was inappropriate to completely dismiss the lab leak theory as a real possibility, which many did early on.
Sadly, conspiracy theories related to vaccines are gaining traction in Japan just as in the west. I read a news story about a town that extended vaccination eligibility to children between 12 and 15, only to get death threats. A lot of people here are open to getting vaccinated only after “waiting and seeing that it’s safe,” according to opinion polling.
From geek holy ground to ghost town
That’s my comment at the top there!
