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by kyazawa
2278 days ago
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Japan doesn't seem to be testing aggressively like some other countries, so the number of Coronavirus cases could be underreported. But I would assume the number of deaths would be harder to undercount? (Also, a government official is quoted in the article as saying there has been no spike in pneumonia cases. You would expect this to not be the case if there were many Coronavirus-caused deaths not being recorded as such.) I'm just bewildered that Japan, which bungled the Diamond Princess response so badly, is packed with people in its largest cities, and is not under lockdown like some other countries, seems to be faring better in this crisis than other countries that have had a much stronger response to this virus. Is this a reason to doubt the effectiveness of lockdown measures that have caused severe economic pain in Europe and the US? |
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Japanese tend to be extremely health conscious and in general take better care of themselves than many other developed countries, though there are exceptions (like high rate of smoking). So it's entirely possible that more people were indeed infected but could have contacted a mild version that wasn't counted in the statistics.
Second, there is a culture of wearing masks. From what I can find, surgical masks don't really prevent you from getting infected. But maybe they prevent you from infecting others. Wish there was more concrete info on that one.
Third, many things are closed in Japan now, if not to the degree that they are in Europe and the US, so there is more isolation than the article would have you believe. For example, Tokyo Disney, Sanrio Puroland, schools, sports events being held without audiences. I belong to a Buddhist temple whose Head Temple is in Japan. They are restricting if not eliminating attendance during the crisis. I didn't see that rapid of a response in Christian churches where I live; in fact, I remember at least one news report of a pastor at a local church encouraging his congregation to get close to each other because God would heal/protect them from the virus. At the beginning of March, in contrast, our Chief Priest told us he would really prefer we not come to our temple now because of the situation.
I do travel to Japan regularly, so I have some knowledge of the culture. Don't claim to be an expert, though. But I really wish there was more of an effort with Covid 19 to keep it under control - I really support and cooperate with the social distancing, but also really wish we would do more to look at how to prevent spread and lessen severity in more sustainable ways. I have my theories on that, but they might be a bit controversial and as a new user here I probably shouldn't go there.