More and more countries are now opening their borders to foreigners.
Will China be the last country to open its borders?

Well Europe isn't exactly opening up right now, rather closing down.

North Korea is more closed than China right now

Aesma wrote:

Well Europe isn't exactly opening up right now, rather closing down.

Europe??
If you are vaccinated, you doesn’t even need a test to enter Europe (I mean European Union)!

c933103 wrote:

North Korea is more closed than China right now

That has very little to do with Covid.

johns624 wrote:

c933103 wrote:

North Korea is more closed than China right now

That has very little to do with Covid.

Regular smuggling operation between China and North Korea have also been forced to stop since the start of coronavirus according to reports

"according to reports"

Like where is this from? Some industry magazine like "Smuggler's Weekly?"

meecrob wrote:

"according to reports"

Like where is this from? Some industry magazine like "Smuggler's Weekly?"

Like as officially reported to the South Korea government
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20211122005700325

The article didn't discuss "regular smuggling operations"

Also, sorry this is a bit of a throwaway joke, but is it really smuggling if its between China and North Korea? Like they don't really follow laws anyways...

meecrob wrote:

Also, sorry this is a bit of a throwaway joke, but is it really smuggling if its between China and North Korea? Like they don't really follow laws anyways...

Besides limited amount of official relations, there're some black market trades conducted by individual border-crossing smugglers, which North Korean government banned, but the ban was not very effectively enforced, and have become a major way for North Korean to get anythings from outside. That is until coronavirus hit and North Korean government decided to stop all movement of people and things across border.
Most books covering people's life in North Korea will have relevant descriptions if you are interested.

Well here comes the super mutant, so expect worldwide chaos in the 90 days as everyone slams borders shuts once again as the mutant is confirmed in country after country.

I think it's about time for a Pyramid style Pharaoh's project (or Marshall Plan), to find a lasting effective vaccine or therapeutic which diminishes COVID to the status of a runny nose. We cannot go on like this anymore, with total world disruption every time a new mutant emerges. Get ALL the nations of the world to invest at least 3% of GDP, and make all companies on Earth commit 5% of their profits, and have all citizens of the planet pay an emergency pandemic tax. Get all that money and bring the best scientists in the field (both in private companies, public government agencies, or academia), from all over the planet temporarily under ONE roof and get the thing done. Make the vaccine and medicine, manufacture enough of it to deliver to all nations in a very short time (even if it means delaying for a time), and cut the head of the snake.

Derico wrote:

Well here comes the super mutant, so expect worldwide chaos in the 90 days as everyone slams borders shuts once again as the mutant is confirmed in country after country.

We don't even know whether it's actually more transmissive or not.

I think it's about time for a Pyramid style Pharaoh's project (or Marshall Plan), to find a lasting effective vaccine or therapeutic which diminishes COVID to the status of a runny nose. We cannot go on like this anymore, with total world disruption every time a new mutant emerges. Get ALL the nations of the world to invest at least 3% of GDP, and make all companies on Earth commit 5% of their profits, and have all citizens of the planet pay an emergency pandemic tax. Get all that money and bring the best scientists in the field (both in private companies, public government agencies, or academia), from all over the planet temporarily under ONE roof and get the thing done. Make the vaccine and medicine, manufacture enough of it to deliver to all nations in a very short time (even if it means delaying for a time), and cut the head of the snake.

The problem now isn't lack of R&D of vaccines and medicines. Tons are going on. They all try to use different approaches to get the same thing done and have varying success. Some will siccess sime will fail, but that's definitely better than entire human place olacing all the resources betting on a single project which we won't have any alternatives if it fail.
Plus, eveb the latest mRNA vaccines, have been under work for multiple decades already. Woth repeated testing and evaluation. This is not something you can just oull money and people together and expect a better result coming in shortly.

Strictly speaking Chinese borders are not completely shut
It is possible for people with full vaccination status, negative COVID-PCR and IgM to go to China. They will need to quarantine for at least 14 days and be subjected to multiple COVID-19 tests during this period.
Not feasible for most tourists, of course, but at least there is a way.

Cerecl wrote:

Strictly speaking Chinese borders are not completely shut
It is possible for people with full vaccination status, negative COVID-PCR and IgM to go to China. They will need to quarantine for at least 14 days and be subjected to multiple COVID-19 tests during this period.
Not feasible for most tourists, of course, but at least there is a way.

That is not correct. This is only possible for people with particular work visas. No inbound tourism has been allowed for almost two years now.

Derico wrote:

Well here comes the super mutant, so expect worldwide chaos in the 90 days as everyone slams borders shuts once again as the mutant is confirmed in country after country.

I think it's about time for a Pyramid style Pharaoh's project (or Marshall Plan), to find a lasting effective vaccine or therapeutic which diminishes COVID to the status of a runny nose. We cannot go on like this anymore, with total world disruption every time a new mutant emerges. Get ALL the nations of the world to invest at least 3% of GDP, and make all companies on Earth commit 5% of their profits, and have all citizens of the planet pay an emergency pandemic tax. Get all that money and bring the best scientists in the field (both in private companies, public government agencies, or academia), from all over the planet temporarily under ONE roof and get the thing done. Make the vaccine and medicine, manufacture enough of it to deliver to all nations in a very short time (even if it means delaying for a time), and cut the head of the snake.

South Africans are vaccinated to the tune of 24% only, so what's happening is not really surprising.

I agree with the idea to do more, the problem is it might start to look a bit ugly. In my own country where the government has been quite successful with the carrot and stick approach (well the carrot is "normal life", and the stick is being banned from restaurants and other places), there are still pockets of resistance, even amongst the most vulnerable. Right now there are riots with shots fired on cops (something that never happens) in Martinique and Guadeloupe, where they're a lot less vaccinated, and the virus killed many over the summer, but they still want to live as if there was no pandemic.

Many poor countries got free vaccines but proved unable or unwilling to administer them. Should we invade countries with low vaccination rates to enforce a mandatory vaccine, something we don't even do in our own backyard ?

Aesma wrote:

Derico wrote:

Well here comes the super mutant, so expect worldwide chaos in the 90 days as everyone slams borders shuts once again as the mutant is confirmed in country after country.

I think it's about time for a Pyramid style Pharaoh's project (or Marshall Plan), to find a lasting effective vaccine or therapeutic which diminishes COVID to the status of a runny nose. We cannot go on like this anymore, with total world disruption every time a new mutant emerges. Get ALL the nations of the world to invest at least 3% of GDP, and make all companies on Earth commit 5% of their profits, and have all citizens of the planet pay an emergency pandemic tax. Get all that money and bring the best scientists in the field (both in private companies, public government agencies, or academia), from all over the planet temporarily under ONE roof and get the thing done. Make the vaccine and medicine, manufacture enough of it to deliver to all nations in a very short time (even if it means delaying for a time), and cut the head of the snake.

South Africans are vaccinated to the tune of 24% only, so what's happening is not really surprising.

I agree with the idea to do more, the problem is it might start to look a bit ugly. In my own country where the government has been quite successful with the carrot and stick approach (well the carrot is "normal life", and the stick is being banned from restaurants and other places), there are still pockets of resistance, even amongst the most vulnerable. Right now there are riots with shots fired on cops (something that never happens) in Martinique and Guadeloupe, where they're a lot less vaccinated, and the virus killed many over the summer, but they still want to live as if there was no pandemic.

Many poor countries got free vaccines but proved unable or unwilling to administer them. Should we invade countries with low vaccination rates to enforce a mandatory vaccine, something we don't even do in our own backyard ?

I see a lot of people insinuating that yes, we need to vaccinate people by mandate or force.

My opinion, people should vaccinate themselves, and not worry about other people’s medical status. It is none of my business.

Why shouldn’t people be allowed to go about their lives? Isn’t it their right? Or, do I have a right to them being vaccinated instead? If so, who gave me that right? Whether others choose to be vaccinated or not is none of my business.