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Japan’s winning its quiet fight against Covid-19

13 points by tomohawk 7y ago

nabla9 7y ago
>Japan appears to be severely and deliberately under-testing for the coronavirus, although it has stepped it up in recent weeks and >Possibly, coronavirus deaths are being hidden among pneumonia fatalities. South Korea has had 120 deaths from Covid-19, but Japan only 49. So, it is possible that the more populous Japan is sweeping Covid-19 fatalities under the rug? I suspect that they are hiding the spread of disease. Until just recently their main motivation was to make Tokyo Olympics happen. Japan is full of elderly people, so I fully expect the death toll to relatively large.
- xenospn 7y ago
  Exactly. I can't imagine Japan not being affected, my Japanese friends are posting drunken selfies from crowded Toyko bars, like nothing happened.
- Barrin92 7y ago
  The press in Japan is relatively free and I find it hard to imagine that Japan could effectively hide outbreaks on the scale of northern Italy. In the country's urban setting this would surely wreak mayhem that would be visible. Yesterday people here discussed John Ioannidis article and he stressed that hygiene and isolation of the sick are significantly more proven to fight respiratory disease than social distancing and lockdowns. Japan may be a case that this is true given a strong culture of cleanliness and lack of close physical contact in particular between family members. Together with the excellent healthcare system and pneumonia treatment in the country this may be protecting vulnerable patients.
  - nabla9 7y ago
    Japanese media has tendency for self-censorship. They just don't publish inconvenient news until long afterwards. They rarely lead with fact finding for critical news. It has just been increasing when Abe became PM. Japanese culture has strong hygiene standard, no doubt. But sometimes it has bad side effects. People who carry diseases are shunned. Japanese Association for Disaster Medicine has asked people from harassing doctors and staff that treat infected (including their coworkers)
glofish 7y ago
winning the fight? I think for that the fight would need to be over. It remains to be seen which strategy works in what way.
mycall 7y ago
When I first heard that 14% of Covid-19 ICU patients had viral pneumonia, some comment said vaccinations are available. Next day, I got vaccinated. I was in ICU for pneumonia before so I didn't want this high chance again.
__warlord__ 7y ago
I live in Japan and from what I can see, even if they are under-reporting the cases, the hospitals (at least in Tokyo) doesn't seem to be overloaded with cases. Another thing that I notice is that people here are not in panic mode, which might help a lot to not overload the hospitals and might help as well with how people mentally react to the situation. Being stressed all the time won't help at all during this pandemic.

13 points by tomohawk 7y ago

>Japan appears to be severely and deliberately under-testing for the coronavirus, although it has stepped it up in recent weeks and >Possibly, coronavirus deaths are being hidden among pneumonia fatalities. South Korea has had 120 deaths from Covid-19, but Japan only 49. So, it is possible that the more populous Japan is sweeping Covid-19 fatalities under the rug? I suspect that they are hiding the spread of disease. Until just recently their main motivation was to make Tokyo Olympics happen. Japan is full of elderly people, so I fully expect the death toll to relatively large.

xenospn 7y ago
Exactly. I can't imagine Japan not being affected, my Japanese friends are posting drunken selfies from crowded Toyko bars, like nothing happened.
Barrin92 7y ago
The press in Japan is relatively free and I find it hard to imagine that Japan could effectively hide outbreaks on the scale of northern Italy. In the country's urban setting this would surely wreak mayhem that would be visible. Yesterday people here discussed John Ioannidis article and he stressed that hygiene and isolation of the sick are significantly more proven to fight respiratory disease than social distancing and lockdowns. Japan may be a case that this is true given a strong culture of cleanliness and lack of close physical contact in particular between family members. Together with the excellent healthcare system and pneumonia treatment in the country this may be protecting vulnerable patients.
- nabla9 7y ago
  Japanese media has tendency for self-censorship. They just don't publish inconvenient news until long afterwards. They rarely lead with fact finding for critical news. It has just been increasing when Abe became PM. Japanese culture has strong hygiene standard, no doubt. But sometimes it has bad side effects. People who carry diseases are shunned. Japanese Association for Disaster Medicine has asked people from harassing doctors and staff that treat infected (including their coworkers)

glofish 7y ago

winning the fight? I think for that the fight would need to be over. It remains to be seen which strategy works in what way.

mycall 7y ago

When I first heard that 14% of Covid-19 ICU patients had viral pneumonia, some comment said vaccinations are available. Next day, I got vaccinated. I was in ICU for pneumonia before so I didn't want this high chance again.

__warlord__ 7y ago

I live in Japan and from what I can see, even if they are under-reporting the cases, the hospitals (at least in Tokyo) doesn't seem to be overloaded with cases. Another thing that I notice is that people here are not in panic mode, which might help a lot to not overload the hospitals and might help as well with how people mentally react to the situation. Being stressed all the time won't help at all during this pandemic.