North Korea has it 'First cases' of Covid

[Bingoman]

Strict lockdown in the Capital of North Korea as it records it 'first cases' of Covid the omicrom variant but did not state how many cases it had?

They also rejected any kind of vaccine offered to them they think they can control the virus by sealing it border?

It been suspected that the Virus has long been in the country?

 

[NoXion]

First cases. Yeah right.

 

[kebabking]

If North Korea was in lockdown, would anyone notice the difference?

 

[nogojones]

N. Korea rejected the vaccine!

I wonder if they would offer asylum to Piers Corbyn and friends?

 

[Numbers]

And now reporting the 1st death.

North Korea announces first death from Covid-19

A day after confirming its first cases, state media reports thousands are suffering fever symptoms.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Magnus McGinty]

I bet Kim Jong Un has had the vaccine/s.

 

[Edie]

Poor bastards

 

[SpookyFrank]

If North Korea was in lockdown, would anyone notice the difference?

South Korea would, as they use northerners as cheap labour in their cross-border 'special economic zones'.

 

[Yossarian]

With no vaccines, no immunity, and apparently very little testing capacity, this is going to be a total disaster for NK, not that we're likely to hear about the full extent of it.

Their understanding of the virus also seems to still be at an early 2020 level, where they think disinfecting supermarkets is going to help.

 

[xenon]

With no vaccines, no immunity, and apparently very little testing capacity, this is going to be a total disaster for NK, not that we're likely to hear about the full extent of it.

Their understanding of the virus also seems to still be at an early 2020 level, where they think disinfecting supermarkets is going to help.

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A bit like with the Ukraine situation, I'm always a bit puzzled when the leadership in these totalitarian regimes can seemingly misread situations so badly. The populus obviously has very restricted access if any, to the web. But presumably these guys can read the news. Maybe it's just the case of being too scared to tell the chief what's actually going on. And the chief being to egomanicle / deluded / obsessed to bother finding out for themselve.

 

[elbows]

With no vaccines, no immunity, and apparently very little testing capacity, this is going to be a total disaster for NK, not that we're likely to hear about the full extent of it.

Their understanding of the virus also seems to still be at an early 2020 level, where they think disinfecting supermarkets is going to help.

View attachment 322548

Disinfection and images of disinfection may be multi-purpose anyway.

They are a way to make an invisible situation visible, draw attention to the abnormality of the situation, be seen to be doing something, give workers a sense of participating in a big, ongoing mission, put people off from visiting certain locations, or alternatively reassure them, provide a simple reason why a particular venue is closed for a bit.

There are also possibly cultural and workforce reasons why the visibility of such activities in the press has varied by country or region. And even in places like the UK which were not big on such images, and dont have spare armies of workers ready to do such things everywhere routinely, it was still possible to find phrases such as "school closed for a deep clean" well into the vaccine era of 2021.

As for the direct merits of such disinfection rather than the other indirect effects, I still dont have a strong opinion either way about how much good it can do.I suppose my default position is not to dismiss the effort unless it being used to disguise a lack of effort in other vital areas.

 

[elbows]

It been suspected that the Virus has long been in the country?

I've always struggled to say much about countries in the pandemic where information available to us is so very limited and controlled.

I suppose now that North Koreas authorities are treating the current situation differently, we can make an assumption that the scale of outbreak there now is different to what they faced in the past. And working backwards from that we might be able to assume that previous outbreaks were modest enough that they were able to handle them without feeling the need to inform their public at large of the threat and impose mass restrictions within the country.

And I suppose that may have been plausible in the past, if there was not much seeding of the virus when the pandemic first happened. Because we saw what advantages the likes of New Zealand had via strict travel and border restrictions, and any leakyness in North Koreas border with China wouldnt have posed such a big risk at times when China had the virus under control internally. But now the situation has changed in China, and Omicron is so much more transmissive, and so North Korea is now far more exposed and measures that were enough in the past wont be up to the task now.

 

[Yossarian]

I think performative disinfecting carries the risk of misleading people about how the vast majority of infections happen - might be more helpful if they showed armies of workers improving building ventilation systems.

But NK seems to be taking many of its cues from China, where it's politically convenient for the regime to pretend mail and frozen food, etc. from overseas could be crawling with COVID.

 

[elbows]

I think performative disinfecting carries the risk of misleading people about how the vast majority of infections happen - might be more helpful if they showed armies of workers improving building ventilation systems.

We were pretty shit at emphasising that stuff visually too though. And some of it is the press going for the easy, dramatic images. Ventilation efforts are not so photogenic. And so images of people in masks tends to fulfil that visual role instead. 'Dear leader' wore a mask in images the other day, and so we can tick that box in regards North Korea. And strict lockdowns have been announced, ticking another box.

But sure, I still know what you mean.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I seriously fear for the wellbeing of North Koreans in a lockdown. They will be invoking the spirit of 'juche' (self-reliance), aka you're on your own. This could easily lead to mass starvation.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

I think performative disinfecting carries the risk of misleading people about how the vast majority of infections happen - might be more helpful if they showed armies of workers improving building ventilation systems.

But NK seems to be taking many of its cues from China, where it's politically convenient for the regime to pretend mail and frozen food, etc. from overseas could be crawling with COVID.

Also, I would guess that image is from Pyongyang. Fuck knows what the state of the country will be outside the capital. And they won't be telling us. Life in the concentration camps during a lockdown? Doesn't bear thinking about.

 

[story]

Also, I would guess that image is from Pyongyang. Fuck knows what the state of the country will be outside the capital. And they won't be telling us. Life in the concentration camps during a lockdown? Doesn't bear thinking about.

Yeah, the main message I see in that picture is “there is plenty of food, we have plenty of food, no shortages (despite things being so bad that we’re now spraying and look, we are actually spraying) the food situation is under control”.

Which leads me to suspect that the opposite is the case