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The German company that pioneered one of the first mRNA coronavirus vaccines is halting production, handing the reins to partner Pfizer. Bio
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I've been struggling to find a non-AI version of this news.
2024 / 37 - Belated vacation edition
Aperçu of the week
“Never start to stop and never stop to start!”
(Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman scholar, writer, philosopher and politician)
Bad News of the Week
Poverty and a lack of prospects as well as climate change and a lack of livelihoods are the most common reasons for migration. This is an understandable consideration: those who see no future for themselves (any more) can either resign themselves or set off in search of one somewhere else. Leaving your home country is never easy, so such a move can also be seen as the willpower of someone who won't give up.
Now there are many developed countries that even have a need for immigration. Germany, for example, has a shrinking population due to low birth rates. At the same time, many baby boomers will soon be retiring - so there is less working population and more to care for. A delta that could be closed with immigration. So it's actually a win-win situation that benefits everyone.
Germany does not exactly have the image of a classic immigration country. So anyone who is not a persecuted asylum seeker, but perhaps even a sought-after skilled worker, will think about where to build their future. Potential migrants cite the difficult language, complex bureaucracy and lack of a welcoming culture as the main reasons for not choosing Germany. We cannot change the language, but a reduction in formalities and more openness to the world would also do us good as a society.
I therefore react with incomprehension to the current behavior of the conservative CDU/CSU. They are adopting the pejorative rhetoric of the right and are raging without sense or reason against a supposed emergency situation at the borders caused by an increasing flow of irregular migration - which does not exist to this extent in Germany any more than it does in the USA. An ultimatum from this largest opposition party to the ruling coalition, which it was even prepared to take up constructively, was finally declared a failure just in time for the general debate in the German parliament Bundestag. In this debate, CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz insists on the rejection of refugees at the border. Despite all legal concerns and criticism from neighboring countries.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz argues against this: “There is no country in the world with a shrinking working population that has economic growth. That is the truth with which we are confronted”. And “We are a country that offers protection to those who are politically persecuted and that is in our constitution and we are not putting that up for debate”. However, he also concedes that openness to the world does not mean that anyone who wants to can come: “We must be able to choose who comes to Germany.”
So the door to talks is still open. Even if only with vague hints instead of a concrete plan on how immigration could be managed for the benefit of all. However, as long as the conservatives bask in good poll ratings and believe it cannot leave populism to the extreme parties, they will refuse to cooperate out of self-interest until at least the next general election. And we will once again fail to come up with a constructive, forward-looking concept for migration. Which we actually urgently need.
Good News of the Week
Taylor Swift and I agree. Elon Musk and I do not. So it should be clear what I'm talking about: the upcoming presidential elections in the USA. Or rather, the televised debate between the two candidates last week. Because it clearly went to the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, as even the otherwise barely objective right-wing populist broadcaster Fox News admits. The corresponding polls can be averaged out at two thirds to one third.
On the one hand, Donald Trump delivered his usual ghost train of doom-mongering, brazen lies, self-praise and bad humor. If he were to lose, there would be a third world war. The one between Russia and Ukraine, on the other hand, would never have happened in the first place. Thanks to him, NATO would be strong again, the pandemic would have been overcome superbly, the economy would be running smoothly and the whole world would take the USA seriously. The Democrats, on the other hand, if not their current vice president personally, would bring millions of migrants from Latin American mental institutions into the country to change gun laws, abort fracking even after birth, eat the cats off African-Americans and tax jobs. Or something like that - at times it was difficult to follow what he was saying.
On the other hand, Kamala Harris gave a solid performance. She came across as factual, credible, confident and self-assured. Yes, at some points one would have wished for more factual content than pathos, but that was not the point. In the run-up to the event, a majority of Americans had explicitly wished to learn more about the candidate. Who ultimately remained rather pale as Vice President. And who had to manage the tightrope act of simultaneously selling her previous performance well and embodying a new beginning. She has managed this reasonably well. And my hopes have risen that we could once again scrape past the abyss on November 5 instead of falling into it. I'm curious to see how the vice-presidential candidates' debate goes the week after next - I'm assuming that it could be entertaining instead of just weird.
Personal happy moment of the week
I had another great time with great people in Québec this week. Thank you!
I couldn't care less...
...that Google has been fined billions in the European Union. We simply have legislation that attempts to control dominant market positions and enable healthy competition in the interests of consumers. I think that's fine in principle.
It's fine with me...
...that BioNTech is now also launching an mRNA vaccine against lung cancer. After all, it was the German company's aim from the outset to use messenger ribonucleic acid to combat this cruel disease, which is the second most common cause of death in humans. This could be nothing less than a medical breakthrough.
As I write this...
...Germany is approaching the last state election of the year. This time it's Brandenburg's turn. Where the ruling Social Democrats could succeed in the last few meters to deprive the far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland / Alternative for Germany) of what they thought was a certain victory. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for that.
Post Scriptum
After 28 years, the original German internet search engine MetaGer is shutting down. This makes it older than Google, but it has never been able to compete with it. As Yahoo is ending its involvement as an advertising partner without official justification, one of the longest-lived German Internet projects is now being discontinued. However, I have to admit that I have never used it.
Biontec, 50x40cm, acrylics on canvas, julius hofmann
Il CEO di BioNTech, Ugur Sahin, alla giornalista afferma di non essersi vaccinato, come praticamente nessuno della compagnia, perché dovendo produrre miliardi di vaccini devono mantenere intatto il personale. Nell'intervista dice che non possono prendere parte alla sperimentazione, proprio per mantenere intatto il personale "e non danneggiarlo con la vaccinazione".
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Traduzione: si muore o ci si ammala, i dipendenti hanno un gran lavoro da fare e non possiamo permetterci assenze improvvise, quindi la merda spetta solo a voi.
2 Impfungen mit Biontech, seit Oktober vollständig geimpft. Und heute erfahre ich das ich Positiv Corona bin..Und was machen wir jetzt?...allmählich glaub ich an den ganzen shit nicht mehr, wollen die nun sagen die 3 Impfung fehlt? 😐 ..ich hätte eh mindestens 5 Monate warten müssen...also nur 2 Monate Wirkung ist wirklich traurig...
Update. 12.03.22 wieder erwischt vermutlich Omikron 😅..war ja eigentlich noch im genesen Status..🙃
2x geimpft, 2x genesen
1.12.2021, me
14.03.22, me mir geht's soweit gut 👍
