News Forum - Japan keeps hitting new records in Covid-19 cases

[Thaiger]

Japan keeps hitting new records in its number of Covid-19 cases. Yesterday (Friday), there were over 190,000 cases in the island nation. On Thursday, there had been 186,246 cases. Last week, Japan had hit a record of 110,600 cases. This news comes as Japan faces a seventh wave of Covid-19, caused by the BA.5 Omicron sub-variant. BA.5 makes up nearly 100% of Japan’s cases. The country is now seeing the number of severely ill Covid-19 patients soar. The health ministry said that on June 21, local governments had reported 34 very ill patients. Two weeks later, that number climbed to […]

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[rc1]

Mass masking working very well here huh?

Omicron is to infectious for masks to be a useful public health measure. Transmission reduction is no longer viable.

Countries with universal mask wearing are getting the same case spikes as those with none at all.

 

[BigHewer]

18 minutes ago, rc1 said:

Omicron is to infectious for masks to be a useful public health measure. Transmission reduction is no longer viable.

 

Good point. Japan leading the world in infections this week despite being one of the world’s most “masked up”countries. 

[Chaimai]

20 minutes ago, rc1 said:

Mass masking working very well here huh?

Omicron is to infectious for masks to be a useful public health measure. Transmission reduction is no longer viable.

Countries with universal mask wearing are getting the same case spikes as those with none at all.

 

 

The knowledge available on this forum never ceases to amaze me.

 

 

Soooo many experts!

[palooka]

The Japanese need to contact Pnut for the solution, problem solved overnight.

[Saunk]

15 hours ago, rc1 said:

Mass masking working very well here huh?

Come one  bro, don't trigger the pro-mask, pro-vaccine, pro-lockdown crowds.

[HiuMak]

At least Japan is not ashamed to report the correct numbers 

[BigHewer]

6 minutes ago, HiuMak said:

At least Japan is not ashamed to report the correct numbers 

Spot on. The numbers indicate testing capacity and transparency as much as they do the number of cases.

[brian60221]

16 minutes ago, HiuMak said:

At least Japan is not ashamed to report the correct numbers 

That's good, but keep in mind these numbers being reported are numbers we simply would not have even cared about in, say, 2017. We've all been infected by dozens of coronaviruses, and prior to two years ago, none of them needed to be tested for or recorded. We have immune systems. We'd just call in sick, take some medicine, drink some soup, get over it, and then go back out after a day or two.

[Vigo]

On 7/23/2022 at 12:46 PM, BigHewer said:

Good point. Japan leading the world in infections this week despite being one of the world’s most “masked up”countries. 

Not a good point because it ignores the relationship between vaccination status and the severity of infection.

Japan has very low full vaccination rate for its under age 35 population.(Less than 35%) This is the age group reporting the high frequency of infection. About 2/3 of the total population  has not had a booster (3rd dose).  The spread of variant Omicron infection would be much worse if the people were not  wearing masks.

[BigHewer]

24 minutes ago, Vigo said:

The spread of variant Omicron infection would be much worse if the people were not  wearing masks.

Consider these two hypothetical scenarios:

----

1. "Japan has very few cases" -> Response: "These masks are working".

2. "Japan has lots of cases" -> Response: "It would be a lot worse without the masks".

----

Move the goalposts to suit the argument. I don't disagree with a lot of your ideas, Vigo. But with those numbers, I think it's very hard to convince the doubters that masks are doing a good job to prevent infection.

 

[Marc26]

2 hours ago, brian60221 said:

That's good, but keep in mind these numbers being reported are numbers we simply would not have even cared about in, say, 2017. We've all been infected by dozens of coronaviruses, and prior to two years ago, none of them needed to be tested for or recorded. We have immune systems. We'd just call in sick, take some medicine, drink some soup, get over it, and then go back out after a day or two.

Sorry but just an absurd post that has no factual reality 

 

Yes it does seem these last few strains are akin to past and current viruses(flu, etc)

 

Prior to 2 years ago, we didn't have the deaths and the long term suffering that people are still dealing with from a simple flu

 

[brian60221]

48 minutes ago, Marc26 said:

Sorry but just an absurd post that has no factual reality 

I'm sorry, I'll need you to quote the exact words I used that were incorrect. Thanks.

[rc1]

3 hours ago, BigHewer said:

Consider these two hypothetical scenarios:

----

1. "Japan has very few cases" -> Response: "These masks are working".

2. "Japan has lots of cases" -> Response: "It would be a lot worse without the masks".

----

Move the goalposts to suit the argument. I don't disagree with a lot of your ideas, Vigo. But with those numbers, I think it's very hard to convince the doubters that masks are doing a good job to prevent infection.

Spot on.

Then, take example of countries with no mask wearing at all, that are reporting much less spread. The reason they have lower cases is due to previous levels of infection. Japan is catching up. This is happening in many countries that previously avoided big infection numbers. 

The reality is, the omicron variant is too infectious to be stopped by cloth/surgical masks , and the value of mass mask wearing is extremely questionable for transmission reduction. 

[BigHewer]

I live in Nishinari Ward, Osaka. Just south of the city center. The most infamous district in all Japan. Population 106,000, setting for gangster movies, Japan’s largest red light district and more police stations than post offices. 

When the Japanese government recommended that bars and restaurants closed at the height of the pandemic, the whole country complied, except for Nishinari. Business boomed. I had never seen so many people here in all my years here. Bars and restaurants full night after night. Masking percentage is about 50%, as it has been throughout the entire pandemic. 95%+ elsewhere in Japan.

Does Nishinari have a higher infection rate than other areas? - No

Does Nishinari have a higher death rate than other areas - No

So what is going on here?

[Faraday]

Post removed for commenting on Moderation.

Moderator.

[Marc26]

9 hours ago, brian60221 said:

I'm sorry, I'll need you to quote the exact words I used that were incorrect. Thanks.

 We've all been infected by dozens of coronaviruses, and prior to two years ago, none of them needed to be tested for or recorded. We have immune systems. We'd just call in sick, take some medicine, drink some soup, get over it, and then go back out after a day or two.

 

Implying that the 1st wave wasn't anything more than a common flu, which is absolutely not the case

If that was not your intention, I apologize

[brian60221]

12 hours ago, Marc26 said:

Implying that the 1st wave wasn't anything more than a common flu

What feature of SARS-Cov2 do you think made it a special coronavirus?