Off-topic, but is anyone aware of many English-language news publications respecting the switch to family given name ordering? The only one I know of is the Economist.
Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
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Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#12Glad to see the safety of athletes and the public is being protected. I wonder why Japan seems to have such low numbers even though they had coronavirus very early as well as many cases from the cruise ship.
I conjecture that since there is a cultural norm of wearing masks when sick, everyone had masks at home. Because of this, they put the masks on when apparently-healthy to avoid getting sick. Because of this, the asymptomatic people didn't spread the virus nearly as much.
Masks also help you avoid getting the virus if you’re not infected. It’s a complete myth that they don’t; literally all research points in the same direction.
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#13Off-topic, but is anyone aware of many English-language news publications respecting the switch to family given name ordering? The only one I know of is the Economist.
It’s pretty common to see for Chinese and Korean names. I never read about “Jinping Xi” or “Jong-un Kim”.
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
An overall high level of urban hygiene and general cleanliness, some social distancing already being the norm (generally not touching each other, though there are severe exceptions like the overcrowded trains at rush hour) and a respect for public order.
What is your source for this?
Generally when people tell anecdotal stories/things they remember, there's no source. It's kind of silly to ask him for something like hand washing statistics for Japan vs the world, that's clearly not what he's providing.
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#15More so than the games themselves in July, you have to consider all of the training and qualifiers that the athletes must participate in leading up to the games. All of that has been put on hold, making it impossible to properly prepare for the games even if the virus were to somehow be totally eliminated by July. There was no other possible outcome.
also a ton of investments for events, tourism that may or may not be doable months later.
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#16Glad to see the safety of athletes and the public is being protected. I wonder why Japan seems to have such low numbers even though they had coronavirus very early as well as many cases from the cruise ship.
Fairly early government measures for containment and mitigation: selective border closure or preventative quarantine for people from affected regions (much easier to implement as an island nation), closing of schools.
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
An overall high level of urban hygiene and general cleanliness, some social distancing already being the norm (generally not touching each other, though there are severe exceptions like the overcrowded trains at rush hour) and a respect for public order.
What is your source for this?
Visiting, watching and talking. You can get some sense of it just from watching any of the street walks/tours on YouTube and other unscripted videos of daily life there.
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#18We need to let Japan know that this is not their fault.
It's ingrained in Japanese culture that they often put too much pressure on themselves. They might think if they had put extra 120% effort, the Olympics would have gone as scheduled. But this is not on them.
Although it's only speculation, we wouldn't want another case of heartbreaking suicide[0] because of a Japanese blaming himself/herself too much.
[0] https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/japan-confirms-t...
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#19We need to let Japan know that this is not their fault. It's ingrained in Japanese culture that they often put too much pressure on themselves. They might think if they had put extra 120% effort, the Olympics would have gone as scheduled. But this is not on them. Although it's only speculation, we wouldn't want another case of heartbreaking suicide[0] because of a Japanese blaming himself/herself too much. [0] https:…
I agree no one should kill themselves as a result of this. If a social condition were to force someone to that point, perhaps the social condition could be questioned.
Re: Abe, IOC agree to delay Tokyo Olympics by one year
#20Glad to see the safety of athletes and the public is being protected. I wonder why Japan seems to have such low numbers even though they had coronavirus very early as well as many cases from the cruise ship.
What's interesting is that none of the answers seem definitive.
1) 'Mask wearing' - we know even cloth masks will help reduce spread, but not by what factor overall. We don't know the real vectors here.
2) Someone mentioned 'hygiene' - do the Japanese really wash their hands every time they enter the house? Or do they 'rinse their food' i.e. maybe package handling is a big vector.
3) 'Early border closing' - it only takes a handful of cases to cause the spread. Nobody has been able to 'keep it out' this way.
4) Some cynical commenters indicated it's due to low testing and governments wanton to 'keep the numbers down' which is hard to buy because the truth would hit hard when hospitals start to fill up.
5) Timing. Taking strong measures early may have made all the difference. If you can truly keep the numbers small, it becomes more manageable on a case by case basis.
Or all of the above.
I hope we are able to isolate the real transmission vectors that affect R0, but we may never really know.