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Thursday, Feb 24, 2022 - 23:52 SGT
Posted By: Gilbert

Just As Autocompleted

The rumble prophesied from a month ago looks like it's on, with Russia going in on Ukraine yesterday with the Olympics done (but nobody bothers to declare it outright nowadays - yes, that's including you, America - a regression in etiquette if nothing else), with CCP media apparently receiving instructions that "...China will also need Russia's understanding and support when wrestling with America to solve the Taiwan issue once and for all". I'm hoping this won't be The Big One, but it's looking pretty massive already, with the core of the old Second World back together, with Russia indeed looking like the junior partner this time (though they're settling trade in Euros instead of say Yuan, perhaps a reflection of the actual level of mutual trust, and to maintain appearances). Well, we appear to have joined in on the sanctioning trend (or not), but really this is a bit out of our weight class.

Quite a few other subjects discussed in recent posts have also found some prominence; on our government's possible snooping, an Opposition leader has alleged that her phone had been broken into (denied), but I don't think anyone's expecting much to come of that. Credit Suisse has also been hit with their own leak, to the extent that Switzerland is apparently at risk of being blacklisted by the European Union, but I suppose this just means the various Russian/Ukrainian/whereever oligarchs/tycoons/arms merchants will just have to be a bit more creative (hint hint, NFTs). The (let's be frank, horribly mismanaged globally) pandemic has sadly not been letting up either, with the CDC now refusing to publish data (join the club!) and our health minister having to admit that the light has vanished from the end of the tunnel, to top it off.

Leaving the deep dives for the future, here's a couple of quick and not-so-random studies, for some slight cheer:


The Story Behind The Name

I have got to stand behind my hypothesis that we have been in an overt Vaccine Proxy War, from what's been going on, what with Iran for example rejecting AZ vaccines donated by Poland, just because they were made in the United States. There's a lot to be said about Pfizer, but the focus today will be on one specific issue - why is it known as the Pfizer vaccine?

This may sound like a silly question - because they created it, duh - but the fuller story may be slightly more involved. Recall, the vaccine was actually originally primarily developed by Germany's BioNTech beginning January 2020, before the pandemic got widely recognized. For whatever reasons, the tech would be transferred from BioNTech to Pfizer (later under the aegis of Operation Warp Speed) in March... which is however only half of the tale here. The other half belongs to Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co., which also licensed the (Pfizer-)BioNTech vaccine, but only for mainland China, with Pfizer having distribution rights for the rest of the world. In the end, the mRNA vaccine doesn't appear to have found application in China, with Pfizer - and by extension the Americans - seemingly having claimed the mantle of having the most advanced vaccine, in the Cold War II Pandemic Game.


BioNTech, we hardly knew ye
(Source: trends.google.com)


As seen from Google Trends, Comirnaty is far more popularly referred to as the "Pfizer vaccine", than either the "Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine" or the "BioNTech vaccine", despite the German company having put the bulk of the research into it, to the best of my understanding. Of course, this was and remains invaluable as a propaganda tool towards asserting American preeminence in technological affairs, which might be why the U.S. leadership - The Donald included, despite relative resistance from his base - have been unwavering in their support of the vaccine(s), if sadly to the (quite irresponsible) exclusion of other plausible treatments. But hey, war's war, and we will return to the "other treatments" part very soon.


The Machine Expects

Following from the previous posts, let's see how today's text generators fare, in figuring out what's going on. For this example, we have used the first three sentences of a BBC News article on BoJo defending sanctions, more due to them not being behind a paywall, than anything else:

Prompt:

Boris Johnson has defended his sanctions against Russia, saying the UK is "out in front" globally when it comes to action against Vladimir Putin.

He promised a "further package of military support" for Ukraine, with the assets of five Russian banks and three Russian billionaires already frozen.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer urged the PM to bring in laws to stop oligarchs buying UK firms and property.

DeepAI says:

The British taxpayer is £1bn in debt and has to buy back billions of pounds worth of UK assets every day.

A Tory MP said EU-UK relations could end on May 17. It is widely agreed that the talks on Brexit must stay on for two years.

There have already been calls for the UK government to allow Russian assets to be used in the EU market without triggering EU sanctions.

Okay, a little out of point...

Sassbook says:

The UK will consider the "special status" of Russia in its foreign policy, Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Wednesday as he launched a public inquiry into the events in Ukraine.

Mr Hague has called for Britain to have a closer relationship with Russia and for the country to be given "greater responsibility" over the fate of Ukraine's Russia-backed rebels, who have been battling pro-Moscow separatists in eastern Ukraine for almost three months.

"Russia has shown itself to me to not be a country that will stand up to the rest of Europe and has not done that," Mr Johnson said as the Labour leadership contest got underway.

Seems not unreasonable, still a bit odd.

Smodin says:

Mr Johnson said "we are out in front" on sanctions - but critics say they have done little to hurt Mr Putin's government or its economy since the measures were introduced in 2014 after Crimea was annexed by Moscow from Ukraine following an armed rebellion there, despite Russia's continued military involvement in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian separatists continue to occupy parts of two regions, Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts, and where thousands of civilians remain trapped by the conflict between Ukrainian forces and the insurgents.

We have a realist - and run-on-sentence fancier - here.

InferKit Demo says:

But the PM, who defended the sanctions, said Russia had brought the situation on itself.

Meanwhile, the IMF has joined international economic organisations and urged the UK and EU to stick with the sanctions.

Mr Johnson told MPs the UK was acting with "determination, persistence and a clear resolve" to "make a difference to this appalling conflict".

Eh, perhaps at least some journalists - and English teachers - might start looking to re-skill, just sayin'...



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