Posted on 03/26/2020 9:48:04 PM PDT by jerod
TOKYO — Japan had only a few dozen confirmed coronavirus infections when the 30-something nurse with a slight sore throat boarded a bus to Osaka, the country’s third-largest city, to attend a Valentine’s weekend performance by pop bands at a music club.
Less than two weeks later, she tested positive for the virus, and the authorities swiftly alerted others who had been at the club. As more infections soon emerged from three other music venues in the city, officials tested concertgoers and their close contacts, and urged others to stay home. All told, 106 cases were linked to the clubs, and nine people are still hospitalized.
But less than a month after the nurse tested positive, the governor of Osaka declared the outbreak over.
Ever since the first coronavirus case was confirmed in Japan in mid-January, health officials have reassured the public that they have moved quickly to prevent the virus from raging out of control. At the same time, though, Japan has puzzled epidemiologists as it has avoided the grim situations in places like Italy and New York without draconian restrictions on movement, economically devastating lockdowns or even widespread testing...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The problem for the Times and everybody else who favors and advocates for lock downs... They don't work.
The best proof of all that lock downs do not work... China.
The province in China Hubei that they did ‘locked down’ has 3,169 deaths. The rest of the country that 'hasn’t' been locked down... 122 deaths. Lock downs are a mistake and they have been from the start. Italy was the first western county to 'lock down'... The result... 8,215 deaths and counting. Spain... Not much better there... 4,365 deaths and counting.
Meanwhile, China is not locked down at all now in any province... Japan never locked down. Two of the strongest economy's in the world and this nonsense will make them both stronger. The US on the other hand and many other western countries have destroyed their economies with panic prescribed by the same scientist who brought you global warming.
Mask and actually isolating travelers from everyone including their families, is they key to combating this virus. Not lock downs.
Trump is the only leader the US has right now. He is the only one thinking weeks and months ahead not 1 day at a time. We need to think beyond containing the Virus and make sure the US Economy survives it.
The number of critical cases is 5%. The total number of US Cases is about 85,000. total US population is about 331,000,.000. We cannot destroy the US, and the Worlds, economy out of panic and fear.
There has to start being some rational thoughtful cost benefit analysis. This “fear” mindset we developed over the last few decades needs to be fixed. We throw ourselves into a panic and demand “Government Do SOMETHING” just about weekly over some “crisis” without ever thinking through the costs and problems the “solution” creates. This response to the Virus is the best example
People have to deal with the world as it is right now, not as they wish it would work. There is NOTHING any human can do to make you 100% safe. We need to stop thinking it can be made so.
The US Economy cannot be locked for months without triggering a 2nd Great Depression.
Corporations employ tend of millions of people. Corporations are everything from your local privately own gas station down the street to massive operations like Ford or Delta Airlines.
Corporations have debt they have to play just like people. For example, When they build a new store or plant, they borrow money to finance the capital expense. In addition, they do not usually pay cash for daily supply deliveries. Those are purchased are made on credit with 15-30-45-60 days terms to make payment. All those debt payments still have to be made even thought the Government shut them down or put a lock down on their customers.
Here is an example. I work for a Food Manufacturing corporation that employs about 5,000 people nation wide. Due to the loss of business from the slow down, they just cut all Executive and Sr Management salaries 20%. If this goes one 2 more weeks, they will cut middle management salaries, if it goes on a month they have to cut all salaries. After that they start laying off worker bees like me and shutting down production lines. Why? Because they have to have the money to make their debt payments now and hope they can make it up to employees later.
We are lucky. We are considered an “Essential Business” so we are not shut down like the Airlines or the Car companies. The US, and the World, are on the brink of a financial crisis like nothing seen since the 1929.
Those credit bills have to be paid even if businesses are shut down by Government order. The people supplying them need to be paid so they can pay their suppliers and creditor and so on and so on.
If they are not paid, this will trigger a cascading financial default on scale with what happened in 1929. We not talking about just crashing our economy here, we talking trashing the worlds economy if this is not addressed
The US has to be getting back to work in weeks, not months like the hysteric liars in the professional political class, and their shameless toadies in the Fake News, are trying to convince you.
https://twitter.com/tealabco/status/1242796491946610693?s=21
The above tweet shows that Japan is using another drug that no one is paying much attention to.
One thing that Japan, and indeed all of East Asia, has going for them is they are not reluctant to wear masks. Here if you wear a mask people assume you have the disease and treat you like a leper. This discourages even sick people from wearing them. But in East Asian countries everybody, sick or not, dons a mask as soon as the pandemic starts so there is no stigma. Food for thought.
Only after The New York Times hires a better editor.
This is the Cloward-Pivens they have been waiting for.
Japan has few immigrants and tourist numbers are not that great.
Some cultures understand discipline and sacrifice, some don’t.
Some cultures understand discipline and sacrifice, some don’t.
And yet if we reopen too early and our healthcare system gets overloaded the economy will crash anyway. How’s Italy’s economy doing these days? Our economy has survived and recovered from worse than this. But you can’t bring the dead back to life and there are only so many ICU beds and medical professionals around. As you said, people have to deal with the world as it is, not as they wish it would work. I’d like to go back to work and the gym soon without making a public health crisis worse but that’s not the world we live in now.
The struggles of businesses both great and small are why Congress passed the coronavirus stimulus bill and why many evictions and utility shutoffs are being postponed.
We don’t know what happened in China.
Exactly so.
Potenial lockdown looming ...In the meantime :
” Tokyo is on edge after Gov. Yuriko Koike called on residents Wednesday night to stay inside, work remotely and avoid nonessential outings this weekend to avoid an explosive rise in the number of novel coronavirus infections...”
” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike said Monday that a citywide lockdown may become “the only option left” if various measures fail to prevent an explosive rise in the novel coronavirus in the capital...”
I agree, it is almost as if the Democrat leadership and the Media are hell-bent on turning our Country into another Venezuela.
Yes, it is a nasty flu bug, and potentially fatal - but you don't destroy your Nation because you hide under a bed because of fear.
Although I'd say it is time to get on with life now - I'd be also OK if the Fed's were to establish some tangible guidelines along the lines of 'We will end the shutdowns once we get 20 (or X) Million Ventilators into the system'. And we could track the the production/distribution of the ventilators, and then stop the shutdown once the number was hit.
This perpetual 'duck and cover' until the infection curve 'flattens out', or until no one sneezes anywhere in the United States, is absurd.
They better re-think that. Nancy screwed that up big time this week. Now Dems are going to get the blame because they are holding up the Virus Relief bill
It’s like masks might actually be a good idea. Who would have thought? / s
The Slimes (and Cuomo and Pelosi and the rest of them) hope for even more deaths in the US
Japan is having the same thing happen to them that Singapore and Hong Kong did. A second wave of the disease hit those places after citizens were repatriated. Both of those places have re-instituted restrictions that they had recently relaxed.
At one point Japan and South Korea had the same level of infection, South Korea did massive amount of testing and tracing the contacts to keep the epidemics under control.
Japan succeeded by doing very little.
This makes me suspect that they actually had way higher number of infections and deaths but did not want to ruin the Olympics -- lots of money involved. Once the epidemics became global and the Olympics are off, there is no more reason to be creative... so they would let the numbers reveal the true picture... slowly.
The other country definitely involved in creative statistics is Turkey. About 3 weeks ago Turkey was surrounded by countries with infections and deaths ... huge number of cases in Iran on one side and growing in Greece on another in particular... but showed 0 infections. Reason? Tourism... again, serious money.
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