shockedcanadian
Diamond Member
- Aug 6, 2012
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Nobody knows for sure but it seems that it was a combination of factors.
One reason I am always skeptical of healthcare experts advice for large populations, it's usually the loudest voice that wins, not necessarily the sharpest.
Japan ignored the usual rules but contained COVID-19. How did it work?
Japan’s state of emergency is set to end with new cases of the coronavirus dwindling to mere dozens. It got there despite largely ignoring the default playbook.
No restrictions were placed on residents’ movements, and businesses from restaurants to hairdressers stayed open. No high-tech apps that tracked people’s movements were deployed. The country doesn’t have a centre for disease control. And even as nations were exhorted to “test, test, test,” Japan has tested just 0.2 per cent of its population — one of the lowest rates among developed countries.
Yet the curve has been flattened, with deaths well below 1,000, by far the fewest among the Group of Seven developed nations. In Tokyo, its dense centre, cases have dropped to single digits on most days. While the possibility of a more severe second wave of infection is ever-present, Japan has entered and is set to leave its emergency in just weeks, with the status lifted already for most of the country and Tokyo and the remaining four other regions set to exit Monday.
One reason I am always skeptical of healthcare experts advice for large populations, it's usually the loudest voice that wins, not necessarily the sharpest.
Japan ignored the usual rules but contained COVID-19. How did it work?
Japan’s state of emergency is set to end with new cases of the coronavirus dwindling to mere dozens. It got there despite largely ignoring the default playbook.
No restrictions were placed on residents’ movements, and businesses from restaurants to hairdressers stayed open. No high-tech apps that tracked people’s movements were deployed. The country doesn’t have a centre for disease control. And even as nations were exhorted to “test, test, test,” Japan has tested just 0.2 per cent of its population — one of the lowest rates among developed countries.
Yet the curve has been flattened, with deaths well below 1,000, by far the fewest among the Group of Seven developed nations. In Tokyo, its dense centre, cases have dropped to single digits on most days. While the possibility of a more severe second wave of infection is ever-present, Japan has entered and is set to leave its emergency in just weeks, with the status lifted already for most of the country and Tokyo and the remaining four other regions set to exit Monday.