Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by IWannAAR

impact of digital monetisation to the future?

IWannAAR — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 11:56:12 +0800

historically, hardwork labour and innovation seems to be the one which produce output and generate earnings generally (eg: agriculture, science and technology)

nowadays, with advancement in the digital world (metaverse), people are getting money from superficial short-term one-off virtual content (eg: instead of planting rice which can feed someone to get money, the person can just draw picture of rice but still get money - the image of the rice is just a virtual thing, no outcome product)

so i just wonder, is there any forecast done by economist on the impact of long term virtual digital monetisation to the future and the longevity/sustainability of this way of life?

can this be contributing to inflation since people nowadays may earn alot from digital monetisation, but because the outcome from the earning is "superficial", the chain of production just stopped there and no longer lead to further propagation? eg: YOLO earn spend earn spend lifestyle

or actually digital monetisation will only go up and better from now onwards? (eg: youtube content creators will be the ones driving the economy?, rice planting just let robot do the work?)

China approves Sinovac for children as young as 3

IWannAAR — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 16:41:37 +0800

https://amp.scmp.com/news/china/science/art...ren-young-three

China approves Covid-19 vaccine for children as young as three

Other countries have authorised vaccinations for under-18s but nowhere else has given the green light for their use on such a young age group

The vaccine maker Sinovac tells state broadcaster CCTV that it has been carrying out trials on minors and found no differences with adults

The Chinese health authorities have approved the emergency use of coronavirus vaccine for children as young as three, according to the producer. On Friday, Yin Weidong, the chief executive officer of the Beijing-based vaccine maker Sinovac Biotech, told state broadcaster CCTV: “Sinovac has carried out a clinical study on the minor population, which started at the beginning of this year, with the first and second phase clinical trials completed.

“Hundreds of cases showed that after vaccination, the group [three to 17 years old] is as safe as the 18-year-old adult group.” Although other countries have approved the use of vaccines for minors, nowhere else has extended it to children so young.

The World Health Organization gave Sinovac’s product an emergency use listing for use on adults on Tuesday

There are relatively few studies on the efficacy or potential side effects of the vaccines on children and they are regarded as a low priority compared with high-risk groups such as the elderly or frontline medical workers.

Younger people are thought generally to suffer from milder symptoms if infected with Covid-19.

It is not clear when Chinese children are likely to start receiving jabs and the country is currently trying to meet a target of vaccinating 560 million people by the end of the month, with a particular focus on high-risk groups. “The National Health Commission will organise relevant experts to promote the use of vaccines in lower age groups in an orderly manner based on the needs of the current epidemic in China and the composition of the population,” Yin said.

In the southern province of Guangdong, a new outbreak caused by the delta variant, which was first identified in India, has seen some cities including Guangzhou entering partial lockdown.

Local health authorities said the variant had nearly twice the viral load of previous strains and has affected all age groups. The youngest person infected was only one year old. Yin said people in China and other parts of the world were increasingly willing to get vaccinated, a trend driven in part by growing evidence that the vaccines are safe. But the increased demand also put pressure on supplies. China’s goal of inoculating 560 million people by the end of the month will need more than a billion doses.

Expanding vaccination to children will inevitably put more pressure on vaccine producers. Yin said the designed capacity of Sinovac’s production plant was two billion doses a year but it was likely to exceed that in meeting demand from the domestic and international markets. “We have now provided more than 600 million doses of vaccines to the world, which means that we have met the quality standards for providing vaccines to the WHO and more countries. We are prepared for further increases in production capacity,” he said.
Sinovac’s product is one of more than 20 vaccines developed in China using a variety of techniques. These range from vaccines such as Sinovac’s made using the old school technique of using a dead, or inactivated, virus to trigger an immune response to those that use viral proteins or mRNA technology.

An easy-to-use vaccine that can be sprayed in the mouth has recently applied for emergency use, according to state media reports.

Brazil city reveal how fast vaccines can curb C19

IWannAAR — Mon, 31 May 2021 11:12:55 +0800

the article maybe slightly bias since may have conflict of interest but hey if the numbers are true, it's all that matters

https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/brazilian-...ing-11620392401

A Small Brazilian Town Is Beating Covid-19 Through a Unique Experiment
Serrana starts to return to normal as the pandemic continues to rage across the rest of the country

SERRANA, Brazil—This town of 45,000 people in southeastern Brazil has been at the center of a unique experiment for the past three months: vaccinate nearly every adult against Covid-19 and see what happens.

In recent weeks, after most of the adults here got their second dose, Covid-19 cases and deaths plunged and life has started to return to normal as the pandemic continues to rage across Brazil.

In the heart of Serrana, children squealed with laughter as they chased each other across the main square, while groups of friends—many unmasked —stopped to chat and bask in the afternoon sun.

“We feel free,” said Homero Cavalheri, 68 years old, a retired architect who said he no longer spends his afternoons cooped up at home. He was strolling with his wife, Irene, and their 1-year-old grandson. “Everything is new to him,” said Mr. Cavalheri, clutching the boy. “He keeps pointing at all the trees and the birds.”

The experiment in Serrana, a town in Brazil’s sugar-cane-producing savanna, provides hope for countries around the world still battling with coronavirus outbreaks that mass vaccination works. It also offers new evidence of the efficacy of Sinovac’s Covid-19 vaccine, which is being rolled out in dozens of developing nations from Egypt to the Philippines.

All of Serrana’s adults were offered CoronaVac between February and April as part of the experiment, known as Project S. It is the first mass trial of its kind in which an entire town is vaccinated for Covid-19 before the rest of the country.

Not everyone in the town was eligible, including minors under 18, adult women who are pregnant or nursing, and others with serious health problems. Of the roughly 27,700 eligible adults, 27,150, or 98%, were vaccinated, according to town officials.

The Butantan Institute, the public-research center that is producing CoronaVac in Brazil and running the experiment, declined to comment until the full results of the mass trial are released later this month.

Town officials and residents said they are thrilled with the results so far. Infections are down 75% from a March peak in Serrana, while there have been no deaths from Covid-19 among the people who were fully vaccinated, suggesting CoronaVac is also effective against the aggressive P.1 variant sweeping the region.

“The numbers speak for themselves,” said Serrana’s mayor, Léo Capitelli. “It worked!”

In the waiting room of the town’s intensive-care unit, the effects of CoronaVac are already visible. “Only three weeks ago, this was so full, people had to stand,” said Lucia Elaine Caldano, the unit’s administrator, pointing to rows of empty chairs. In the past three weeks, only one person has been put on a ventilator—a woman who had refused to take the vaccine.

“There was a lot of fuss at the beginning, many people believed we were lab rats,” said Ms. Caldano. “But it’s been a blessing.”

It is a different story across Brazil, where 7% have been fully vaccinated. Almost a hundred are dying an hour from the disease, while thousands more languish in crowded hospitals.

After registering an average of 67 new infections a day in March, Serrana’s average daily case tally this month has been a quarter of that, about 17 a day. Brazil’s infection rate has fallen about 24% since its March peak.

In April, six people died from Covid-19 in Serrana. Of those, five had only taken the first dose of the vaccine. The other victim had symptoms two days after the second dose, suggesting that the disease was contracted between jabs, according to Mayor Capitelli.

One of the biggest surprises was that almost everyone agreed to take the shot, Serrana’s officials said. In a nationwide survey in December carried out by a Brazilian pollster, half of the respondents said they would refuse to take any China-made vaccine. Sinovac is based in China.

Serrana’s study promises to add clarity to a global mishmash of studies of CoronaVac. In Phase 3 trials carried out by Butantan late last year, it was found to be about 50% effective against symptomatic infections and 100% effective at preventing fatal cases.

The trial’s volunteers were all medical professionals, unlike in the Phase 3 trials of other vaccines such as the one developed by Pfizer Inc., meaning the volunteers were exposed to higher viral loads, potentially leading to a slightly lower efficacy rate, researchers said.

A large-scale Chilean study last month that looked at results across the general public found CoronaVac to have an efficacy rate of 67%, similar to the results of an Indonesian study last year. The Chilean study found CoronaVac to be 80% effective against fatal cases of the disease.

Serrana’s experiment provides some of the first real-world evidence that CoronaVac is effective against the aggressive P.1 strain, which was responsible for at least 60% of the town’s infections in March.

Located in São Paulo state, Serrana was chosen because it is a commuter town with a high infection rate. About a quarter of residents leave the town every day for work, mainly to the nearby city of Ribeirão Preto.

Sinovac provided the doses at no cost for the study in Serrana. With the pandemic largely under control in China, the government in Beijing has looked to hard-hit countries such as Brazil to test its vaccines.

When Butantan first announced Project S, it said it hoped the results would reassure Brazilians that the vaccine works and is safe. Rumors have raged about the safety of CoronaVac after President Jair Bolsonaro told supporters last year that the vaccine could disable or even kill, without offering evidence.

After Mr. Bolsonaro criticized the Chinese vaccine, acquired independently from Beijing by São Paulo’s state government, his administration agreed to buy 100 million doses in January. The right-wing former army captain has continued to cast doubt on its efficacy and safety, while promoting unproven cures for the disease.

Most of Serrana’s residents are grateful for a chance to be fully vaccinated. Jesuel Sacoman, 50, a local electrician, said he wouldn’t have yet qualified to be vaccinated. The state of São Paulo began immunizing people between 60 and 62 this week as the government uses its limited supply of shots to work its way down each age group.

“We’re living in a cocoon here in the middle of Brazil,” said Mr. Sacoman. “It is a big weight off my mind.”

Town officials have asked residents to continue wearing face masks and follow other precautionary measures such as social distancing.

Not everyone was convinced about getting vaccinated. Silvio Franciscone, a 60-year-old supporter of the president who refused the shot, said he believed he didn’t need the vaccine after he said he recovered from Covid-19 last year with antiparasite drugs and vitamins. He said he is part of a minority, even among fellow Covid-19 skeptics.

“One of my friends cured himself with a hair dryer last year, blowing hot air up his nostrils and down his throat, but then he still went and took the vaccine, the idiot,” said Mr. Franciscone, a radio technician in Serrana.

Serrana is now hoping for a faster economic recovery from the pandemic, which sent its jobless rate surging to 25%. The companies in nearby Ribeirão Preto that employ most its residents laid off workers or shut down. While Serrana’s vaccination program has done little to boost employment, hotels and stores in the town have seen more customers since locals received their second CoronaVac dose.

José Ricardo Aranda, 48, who owns a guest house just off the highway between the city of São Paulo and neighboring Minas Gerais state, said Serrana has become a favorite place to stop. “We’ve become a reference point on this highway as everybody knows it’s much safer here,” he said. After scraping through September to the end of last year with no guests, he said business was beginning to return to normal, with half of his 35 rooms occupied.

At a clothes boutique on the main square that is favored by the wives of wealthy landowners, owner Flávia Cedrinho said sales are down about 30% from normal levels, but would likely be even worse if it weren’t for Project S.

Mayor Capitelli said several textile factories and other companies have approached the local government about setting up operations in the town to take advantage of the ready supply of vaccinated employees. An immunized workforce could reduce the risk that they would have to suspend operations because of new outbreaks of the disease, while the town has also offered fiscal incentives to make the most of its newfound fame to diversify its economy, he said.

“Our town will be the golden child of the region,” he said.

cik prika tan - GAGAL, sucks to be you

IWannAAR — Sun, 30 May 2021 21:13:47 +0800

[YOUTUBE]7rRqZR-vGIs[/YOUTUBE]

Fear of haj ban reason for jab no-show in Kelantan

IWannAAR — Sun, 30 May 2021 16:00:59 +0800

https://www.themalaysianinsight.com/s/318511

FEAR of not being allowed to perform the haj due to Saudi Arabia’s position on the Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine is among the reasons for no-shows at vaccination appointments in Kelantan, a doctor on the ground said.

Believing fake news about the dangers of the vaccine is also another reason among the nearly 10,000 Kelantanese who have failed to keep their vaccination appointments, said Dr Nurul Amirah Abdul Hadi, who is currently stationed at a vaccination centre in Pasir Mas.

why msian always rely on viral case on soc media?

IWannAAR — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 01:56:48 +0800

malaysia is becoming like a joke country

everything has to be viral on social media to get things "sorted". but technically not even sorted cause it will become sensationalised for few days then next viral issue comes out then public will hop onto the next social media craze and the previous issue not solved

people who raised issue through proper official channels are ignored and never get response or reply and similarly the issue is not rectified

such a dumb country to live in, worse especially for the younger generations

victim of medical malpractice

IWannAAR — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 14:03:40 +0800

has anyone ever involved in medical malpractice as a victim / patient before or not? is it a common thing in malaysia to fight for patient's life?

the reason i asked this is because it appears that there is very little concerns regarding the medical practice we have in malaysia? is it really so hebat that doctors in malaysia are all error and fool proof?

or is it just that life in malaysia cost so little that any medical errors are just silenced and swept under? maybe is religious culture makes people in malaysia more acceptance of death although it is an unjustified death?

if so, does it mean that being a doctor in malaysia is like having a license to kill?

does browsing /k improves general knowledge?

IWannAAR — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 15:39:55 +0800

i am not sure about other silent readers but i come to appreciate that lowyat /k has opened up my mind and eyes quite abit

i think sometimes the arguments, the complaints and the information can be quite provocative and stimulating (ultimately thanks to all the posters; trolls or not, each of them play a part)

whether or not it's useful in real life, i think some of the social and political issues raised can make one be more aware and sensitive

personally i think it would be beneficial to all malaysians to browse /k, take some of the posts with an open mind, do some self assessment and evaluation

at least not so much filtering and suppression such that sometimes everything become overly biased and controlled (as what malaysia is heading towards unfortunately)

Cop dies while undergoin self-quarantine for Covid

IWannAAR — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 23:24:05 +0800

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2021...mbs-to-covid-19

KLANG: A policeman who was undergoing home quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19 has succumbed to the virus.

South Klang OCPD Asst Comm Shamsul Amar Ramli said they were alerted about the incident at around 8.29pm on Wednesday (Jan 27).

"The South Klang police headquarters operations room received a call from the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital ambulance call centre notifying us about the death.

"Our investigations revealed that the deceased was a 53-year-old sergeant who was assigned to the South Klang police escort unit. He leaves behind a wife and five children," he said in a statement on Thursday. (Jan 28)

He said checks revealed the deceased underwent a Covid-19 screening on Jan 22 after having a fever and the results came back positive.

"He went for a second screening on Jan 23 and the results were positive as well.

"He was supposed to undergo home quarantine in Klang from Jan 22 to Feb 1 but was pronounced dead at his home on Jan 27," he said.

ACP Shamsul Amar said the cause of death has been determined as death due to Covid-19.

"He was laid to rest at the Sungai Sireh Muslim cemetary in Klang at 5.45pm on Thursday," he added.

can people now sue the government for negligence for asking people to home quarantine? 🤔

"i am just a messenger"

IWannAAR — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 23:33:44 +0800

[twt]
https://twitter.com/KKMPutrajaya/status/1353687883308126210
[/twt]

just a messenger saja all these while ~

license to kill? who's most responsible?

IWannAAR — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 22:16:55 +0800

with the increasing number of deaths (which is probably preventable and avoided), it's unfortunate that we are probably going to see even more

who do you think have involved directly or indirectly in the death of these victims? i personally can't bare the responsibility and sins that is resulted from decisions that has been made which may have led to this

do you think decision makers have indirectly led to the recent deaths of this victims which is otherwise preventable? should there be consequences to the decision makers? if not, do you think this kinda thing may reoccur since there is no consequences on the decisions they make?