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Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

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Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#51

Post by cgarrigue »

needle0 wrote: post #19
duxup wrote: post #3

Seems like a logical decision. Japan has managed to avoid a massive outbreak so far.

Not anymore. Tokyo is already [edit: entered the hockey-stick part of] an exponential trajectory as of around 5 days ago. https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en Every press conference ending with Koike (Tokyo governor) or Abe (PM) babbling along with no material countermeasures being announced has been making me feel all the more dreadful. They needed to have already shut down everything long ago. We will be joinin…

The interesting thing is that like many people, they guessed that a lot of people would be contaminated during the 3-day weekend a week ago (great weather, cherry blossoms, and last carefree moments for people who will start their first job on April 1st). It's not innocent that Abe called for postponing the Olympics just before that weekend. Koike could have asked the parks and popular venues (department stores) to be closed a week ago, but instead only asked people to refrain from going. What was poised to happen happened, and the number of infected people exploded half a week later.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#52

Post by tenpies »

drpgq wrote: post #37

As a Canadian I think there's a pretty strong possibility that we get the virus under control while it still rages in the US for quite some time. I'm not really sure what that will mean.

I have seen this mentioned, but I'm honestly now sure why Canadians think this.

What special measures did Canada take early on? What makes Canada exceptional compared to the US who at least banned some flights?

The only difference is that the media doesn't absolutely despise Trudeau, but we're effectively the same. The US is actually surpassing us in testing at this point and some of our most populous provinces have multiple day backlogs in their testing. Our population isn't quite all Florida, but Vancouver very much acted like the Florida of Canada up until just recently. Sure, we can smugly point to our healthcare system, but our healthcare system hasn't scaled to anywhere the capacity the US has in regards to testing.

Don't get me wrong, I hope you're right, but I am not sure where the Canadian smug exceptionalism comes from in this case. From a policy perspective we're basically the same as the US.

I'm actually kind of worried we'll get it worst here because in January we were in active denial: "the real pandemic is racism" mode. In February we were shipping PPE from our own reserves to China to help them out. In March, we took the "enhanced" screening measure of giving travellers a pamphlet in the airport. We are so comically behind the curve that our only consolation price is to look at the worst of the US media for consolation that maybe we won't have it so bad.

It wasn't until the global markets took a nose dive that Canada really realized this might actually affect them.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#53

Post by brigandish »

This would've been a good idea before Chinese New Year for those coming from China but the Japanese government, in its infinite wisdom, didn't want to miss out on the money all those tourists bring.

At least they've done well suppressing the true number of cases until the Olympics was cancelled. Even if it should've been bloody obvious they have been lying, most of the rest of the world - as per usual - decided that the Japanese government is trustworthy because Japan football fans take their rubbish home, or anime, or some other nebulous reason.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#54

Post by ojbyrne »

whymauri wrote: post #8
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #5

With all these provisions: if you've decided it would be a good idea to do, why not do it now? If it's a good idea now, it's going to be twice as good of an idea in three days. And it's going to be four times as good of an idea in six. Etc. Over and over again the organs of governments announce decisions that would be a good idea today that don't come into effect until a few days from now. Which means that the harm d…

>The restriction applies even to Japanese nationals returning from the United States. That's probably the answer. Some amount of heads-up is owed to Japanese nationals. A Taiwanese friend was in a similar situation w.r.t. Taiwan closing borders. Uncertainty of timeline and parameters can be incredibly disruptive for citizens trying to travel back to their home country. They might not have permanent lodging in the U.S…

The article is somewhat unclear but it says the new measures apply to foreign nationals. The part about Japanese nationals seems to refer to an earlier restriction (14 day self-quarantine).

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#55

Post by Phylter »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #5

With all these provisions: if you've decided it would be a good idea to do, why not do it now? If it's a good idea now, it's going to be twice as good of an idea in three days. And it's going to be four times as good of an idea in six. Etc. Over and over again the organs of governments announce decisions that would be a good idea today that don't come into effect until a few days from now. Which means that the harm d…

Anything is better than nothing and as far as the time frame goes... I'm sure they have bureaucracy like anybody else. Sometimes it takes time to get things done.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#56

Post by ojbyrne »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #47

Japan has had a low infection rate because of their strong mask-wearing culture. Western countries are experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 infections compared to Asian countries because of the West's aversion to wearing masks. Please help me spread this message http://www.maskssavelives.org/

It seems more likely at this point that they have a low infection rate because they aren’t testing.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#57

Post by bouncycastle »

needle0 wrote: post #19
duxup wrote: post #3

Seems like a logical decision. Japan has managed to avoid a massive outbreak so far.

Not anymore. Tokyo is already [edit: entered the hockey-stick part of] an exponential trajectory as of around 5 days ago. https://stopcovid19.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/en Every press conference ending with Koike (Tokyo governor) or Abe (PM) babbling along with no material countermeasures being announced has been making me feel all the more dreadful. They needed to have already shut down everything long ago. We will be joinin…

I am currently in Japan and I can tell you it's like nothing happened. Today is especially a nice sunny day and the park I'm at is crowded with people enjoying their annual Hanami picnics. I am being told that since people are wearing masks then it should be OK. Although it looks like the majority aren't wearing them, probably because they are impossible to buy now.

We will find out the results after 2 weeks I guess.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#58

Post by Animats »

vkou wrote: post #20

My only question is: "Why hasn't the world done this two weeks ago?" The US is failing to test on a massive scale, and the outbreak has been growing exponentially, week after week. Control measures are being taken, but on an inconsistent, fragmented basis.

The SF Bay Area did. We are 12 days into lockdown here. In a week or so we will know if it worked.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#59

Post by booleandilemma »

ridewinter wrote: post #4

Not too long ago a headline like this would be absolutely massive news. Now it barely even registers. Crazy times...

I mean, it’s not like it’s because we’re going to war with them. They’re just trying to protect their people. A lot of whom are elderly.

If we were smart we would ban people from leaving and entering the US, instead of waiting for another country to ban travelers from here.

Re: Japan set to ban entry from the U.S. as early as next week

#60

Post by brigandish »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #47

Japan has had a low infection rate because of their strong mask-wearing culture. Western countries are experiencing higher rates of COVID-19 infections compared to Asian countries because of the West's aversion to wearing masks. Please help me spread this message http://www.maskssavelives.org/

I don't know how many times this is going to come up on these page but this is unsupported by any study for the kind of masks people actually wear and for a non-clinical setting, and anyone who has spent any time here will know it's rubbish.

Just last night my wife was telling me about a conversation with her work colleagues about masks. She wears one per day, one to work and the same one for the way home - this is already going outside the bounds of any study I've read. Her colleagues told her that she must be rich to use that many masks, they use the same one for two or three days in a row.

Just one of the many anecdotes you can hear and confirm with your own experience if you're ever here. I have others, the ones about coughing and sneezing behaviour in public will make you shudder.

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