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Medicine Cellphones

Pakistan Province May Block SIM Cards of Citizens Who Didn't Get Covid-19 Vaccines (msn.com) 70

The government in Pakistan's largest province, Punjab, has decided to block SIM cards of unvaccinated citizens, reports the Hindustan Times (one of the largest newspapers in India), citing reports from news agency ANI.
Dr. Rashid, the provincial health minister in Pakistan's Punjab, said that there has been a "considerable decrease" in Covid-19 cases in the province due to mass vaccinations. However, a report compiled by the Punjab primary health department shows that the province still failed to achieve its set target for Covid-19 vaccination, reports ARY News, adding that around 300,000 recipients of the first dose of the vaccine never returned for the second dose since the start of Pakistan's mass inoculation drive on February 2.
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Pakistan Province May Block SIM Cards of Citizens Who Didn't Get Covid-19 Vaccines

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  • by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday June 13, 2021 @03:13PM (#61483678)

    At least in Pakistan!

    • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Sunday June 13, 2021 @04:03PM (#61483826)

      I'm not sure what the big deal is with Pakistan coercing people to get vaccinated.

      Many countries have mandatory vaccines.

      In some EU countries, polio vaccines are mandatory with no opt-out.

      • by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Sunday June 13, 2021 @05:27PM (#61484012)

        I'm not sure what the big deal is with Pakistan coercing people to get vaccinated.

        Many countries have mandatory vaccines.

        In some EU countries, polio vaccines are mandatory with no opt-out.

        It's an interesting sociological experiment. You can threaten people with all kinds of consequences and they'll obstinately refuse to acquiesce to what you are asking them to do while citing all kinds of constitutional articles, real and imaginary. However, take away their social media access and they'll climb over each other's backs to be the first to do whatever it is that they have to do to get it back. The truly wonderful thing is this works equally well on people from both the left and the right wing of politics.

        • Funny thing is that they'll climb over each other after they've been infected [youtu.be] as well.
        • by raslin ( 110940 )

          you can not have it both ways either the state can tell you what you can not do with your body. or it can not. i am sure most in the group will agree that you have the write to terminate an unwanted pregnancy.
          and before you call me an anti vaxer. i looked at pros and cons with the information available and am fully vaccinated.
          better and more trustworthy information needed. persuasion not dictation. or you are going to get sim issues as we had in the world war. both in USA and germany

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Indeed. Vaccines are no big deal. Unless you do not have them or do not take them. As we now have some people that want to stress their own perceived specialness by refusing vaccination, creative ways to remind them that they are part of society and that privileges come with obligations are in demand. The one described in the story is pretty nice.

  • ... and there won't be a second chance because you have no device to register from - sounds reasonable! Especially for a country in which previous vaccination campaigns were abused by the CIA to collect intelligence from people vaccinated [newscientist.com].
    • by mark-t ( 151149 )
      Or you know, you could just physically go to the a lab and make an appointment.
      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Or you know, you could just physically go to the a lab and make an appointment.

        Naaa, that would be an actual easy solution to the imaginary problem the OP created to stress his victim-status. You are discriminating against him by pointing out solid facts that show he is just full of hot air! Cannot have that.

        Incidentally, where I live you could go to any pharmacy that offers vaccination and register in person. Your GP could register you as well. And, to add insult to injury, you could register over _any_ phone here or _any_ web-browser, not just your own!

      • What lab? Where are they? What are their hours? Things that today are primarily answered with an information device and not a special book.

        • by cusco ( 717999 )

          It's Pakistan, it's not like there is a surfeit of healthcare locations. You go to **the** clinic in your area, it ain't rocket surgery.

      • You mean people can do things without using their cell phones or a computer? What world is this?!?
    • by ac22 ( 7754550 )

      You can use any phone to register for your vaccine in Pakistan according to the Pakistan government website:

      Register yourself by sending your CNIC no to 1166 (free sms) from any mobile no or visit http://nims.nadra.gov.pk/ [nadra.gov.pk] and just walk-in to nearest centre for vaccination.

      https://ncoc.gov.pk/covid-vacc... [ncoc.gov.pk]

    • I think you're exaggerating.

      If a cell phone was really a hard requirement to get the vaccine, then millions of poor people and elderly people in Pakistan wouldn't be able to get the vaccine at all.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        He's not just exaggerating, he's wrong. Still, he's been modded up to +5, and the posts showing that he's wrong, complete with links, have received no upmods. Presumably people would rather believe that Pakistanis are stupid than waste a few seconds checking ffkom's claims.

        Welcome to Slashdot.

      • by gweihir ( 88907 )

        I think you're exaggerating.

        If a cell phone was really a hard requirement to get the vaccine, then millions of poor people and elderly people in Pakistan wouldn't be able to get the vaccine at all.

        Also millions of old people. Cell phones are not a requirement for registering anywhere. Incidentally, were I live they will be opening up no-registration, no ID needed, no cost walk-in vaccination to quite officially and legally make sure illegal immigrants get vaccinated as well and no, the police will not try to spy on that.

    • Good Idea. You will find those cut off, will find a way to get back on, to cure their phone addictions. Cutting off Facesnook may have been enough. If you want to tough it out as an individual, you don't need a phone.Like to see this extended to non-taxpayers as well.
  • The anti-vaxxers won't be able to post more bullshit that vaccine makes your left testicle wither and your dick go all floppy unless there is a 5G station nearby.

    Good Idea. I approve. Now if we could also blacklist their WiFi Macs somehow...

    • The anti-vaxxers won't be able to post more bullshit that vaccine makes your left testicle wither and your dick go all floppy unless there is a 5G station nearby.

      Some Ayatollah in Iran claimed that the vaccine contains something that makes you gay. Which in Iran is admittedly something that you would want to avoid.

      Now logical thinking should kick in. Obviously nobody has any idea how you could create any drug where injecting you with a tiny single dose makes you gay. But if it was possible, just hypothetically, it would also be possible to give people an injection that turns them from gay to not gay. Now in many countries nobody gives a damn whether you are gay o

    • Wifi Macintoshes? Oh, you must mean MAC addresses. Guess what? It must be capitalized because it is an abreviation!
  • and i bet cell towers get destroyed soon in the soon to be civil war along with local radio and TV stations, if you think evangelists and fundamentalists are wacky in the USA they are 10 times worse in islamic nations
  • Another poster says that people can register for a shot using another person's phone - so there is a workaround.
  • So backwards (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Beryllium Sphere(tm) ( 193358 ) on Sunday June 13, 2021 @04:29PM (#61483910) Journal

    Someone's un-vaccinated and therefore dramatically far likelier to spread COVID.

    So do you let them stay home with their phone and use the phone for everything, or do you turn off the phone and force them to go out and do business in person?

  • by 140Mandak262Jamuna ( 970587 ) on Sunday June 13, 2021 @04:34PM (#61483914) Journal
    It is not a surprise there are lots of anti-vaxxers in Pakistan.

    One of the rare co-opeation between India and Pakistan was in the vaccination drive to eradicate polio. UN, volunteers from India, doctors from Pakistan govt all had a massive effort to make sure every last village and farm in Pakistan and nook and crannies of the slums of Karachi were vaccinated for polio.

    And that was when CIA had this bright idea to use its operatives searching for Osama Bin Laden to be polio vaccination workers. CIA succeeded in locating Osama in Abbadabad, and so it counts as success in its books. But the backlash against the vaccine workers were severe. They were excoriated as stooges for The Great Satan, and the permanent enemy number 1 India.

    Humongous set back for the anti-polio effort. Today polio still remains alive in three pockets in the world: Slums of Karachi, some parts of Nigeria and some parts of Indonesia. The common link: Haj pilgrimage and hard line Wahhabi faction of Sunni Moslem clergy and their congregations.

    • by kbahey ( 102895 )

      Humongous set back for the anti-polio effort. Today polio still remains alive in three pockets in the world: Slums of Karachi, some parts of Nigeria and some parts of Indonesia.

      Actually, the north west frontiers in Pakistan, and Afghanistan are now the world last remaining wild polio spots.

      In Africa, the polio that is there is because of the oral vaccine (Sabine), which mutates in the gut and becomes virulent. Those who got the vaccine are protected, but those who are infected from their feces can suffer. T

      • Thank you. I will stop mentioning Haj and Wahhabism in connection with polio vaccination henceforth.
        • by kbahey ( 102895 )

          Here is more info, at TWiV #756 [microbe.tv].
          Start listening at ~ 43 minute mark to 1hr31m.

          There are links under the video to the relevant papers (The OPV2 and Poliopolis). Basically this research tries to avoid the issue of reverting to virulence in the Sabine oral vaccine.

          Again, the oral vaccine that exists today is safe and effective, but the catch is that everyone has to take it, so they are immune against the reverting version which other immunized people shed in their feces.

          Pakistan and Afghanistan are different:

          • Thanks, the link made me nostalgic about my grad school days. Mine was in computational geometry, but the general tone and driving down to details....
    • As already noted, your information on where polio remains is incorrect. In addition, the CIA didn't use the polio vaccination campaign, it was a fake HepB vaccination campaign [grunge.com]. Doesn't change the fact that they made people of vaccines in general, crippling the effort to wipe out polio in the region, they just didn't do it with a polio vaccine (which wouldn't have worked; they've been using the oral vaccine in isolated areas, and they needed needles to collect the DNA they were interested in).
  • Sounds like the creation of a self-limiting solution. If you cancel the SIM cards of people who refuse to get vaccinated, then they cannot call 911 if they get sick, which means that they will die in their Yurt and not plug up hospitals (and will not be counted as "cases") thus ending the plandemic.

    Together with cancelling the SIM card, anyone who does not have a working cell phone should be denied medical care.

    All totalitarian restrictions should be lifted. All the morons will then die of the COVID (that

    • In many countries (particularly on the GSM mobile standard) providers are obliged to take calls to emergency numbers like 911 in the US or 112 in Pakistan (112 is a GSM standard emergency number, which may be connected directly or forwarded to the appropriate emergency number like 911) even if the phone does not/has never had service or has been blocked (as stolen/lost).
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      Sounds like the creation of a self-limiting solution. If you cancel the SIM cards of people who refuse to get vaccinated, then they cannot call 911 if they get sick

      Typical. You, like all the anti-vaxx idiots and sympathizers mouth off with no clue about the actual facts and no idea how things really work. All mobile standards can do emergency calls without a SIM card even present. You do not get to select who gets called, and providers can block it, but the standard is that it is required by law to work.

    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      Yurts are Mongolian felt tents, no one in Pakistan lives in a yurt.

  • and I may think of getting the shot...
  • by SuperDre ( 982372 ) on Monday June 14, 2021 @06:16AM (#61485304) Homepage

    Any real pressure to get people vaccinated is ridiculous. Yeah, I understand why some think it's good to have everybody vaccinated (especially the pharmaceutical companies who earn billions now), but pressuring people into it is not the right way. And funny enough we still don't know the exact side-effects on longterm, especially now more and more seems to be it not to be as safe as was said.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      You want to live in society? There are obligations to do so. You're free to disavow those obligations, but then you disavow society and its benefits as well. You don't get it both ways.

  • Pakistan wants to magnetize its own people!!!

Keep up the good work! But please don't ask me to help.

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