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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

#131
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was tested this past Thursday and came back negative yesterday. Two weeks ago I was exhibiting the classic symptoms. Last week I had five days of noticeable shortness of breath, lethargy, sinus infection and a dry cough. I wanted to get tested a week ago this past Monday but did not meet the criteria. Now I am awaiting the availability of serological tests to see if I have the antibodies. I pulled the kids out of s…

China bought us eight weeks of ramp up time? Was that before or after suppressing information about the issue for almost two months including getting WHO to claim there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in January?

After

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

#132
No surprise here; Americans aren't taking as seriously as they should while Japanese people are very clean and highly protective of their health. Hopefully people are still allowed to go back to Japan if that's where their home is and only travel for pleasure or business is banned.

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

#133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if a mask doesn't protect a person sneezing into your face from transmitting the virus to you, that hardly means that it is 100% ineffective otherwise... and hospitals wouldn't be clamoring for them if they were ineffective ( https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/why-would-... ). With just a bit of common sense you can reason that masks absolutely do help prevent the spread of the virus: 1. A strong…

I'll take this in parts which I always think looks aggressive but I assure you it's not. We're all concerned and want the best :) > that hardly means that it is 100% ineffective otherwise It may not be 100% ineffective for a single event, it needs to be effective over the entire period of use. Point 1, yes, sick people should wear masks. This is already known. Most people aren't sick. > 2. The mask prevents you from…

> Point 1, yes, sick people should wear masks. This is already known. Most people aren't sick.

> Most people aren't sick.

How do you know this given the vast majority of cases are asymptomatic.

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

#134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 a…

I know this is outside the usual way of arguing what's true, but: the studies are wrong. They're underpowered and poorly designed. The smart money is on masks working, at least when used in a widespread way by the population as a whole. Benefit to individuals is much harder to show, hence why studies have failed to show it. The chloroquinine drug, or whatever it's called, I bet that will turn out to be effective as w…

> Did you know Parachutes have never had a randomised controlled trial to determine whether they are effective?

Because people used them and it was obvious when they worked and when they didn't. That's not the case for masks.

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

#135
post #79

Okay... but why specifically the United States? Shouldn't they ban entry from just about every nation right now? Did the article just fail to mention existing travel bans for other nations? The US has a very high number of confirmed cases, but it still pales in comparison to many other nations in terms of percent of population. Banning international travel is a reasonable precaution, but why specifically the US? I ca…

From https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-travel-restricti...

As of March 15, Japan has banned entry to foreign travelers with Chinese passports issued by Hubei and Zhejiang provinces, as well as those who have visited regions in China that have been affected by the virus, South Korea, Iran or Italy within the last 14 days.

On March 18, Japan added two provinces of Switzerland, four states in Spain and the entire country of Iceland to the list. The ban will become effective at midnight on March 19.

The government said that starting March 21, travelers from 38 countries would need to self-quarantine for 14 days in facilities approved by the Japanese authorities.

Those countries include the 26 members of the European Schengen countries, as well as Ireland, Andorra, Iran, Britain, Egypt, Cyprus, Croatia, San Marino, the Vatican, Bulgaria, Monaco and Romania.

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

#136
post #80

Japan is not anywhere close to the first to do this. Many countries in SE Asia have pretty much banned any foreigner from entering. If you are a foreign resident, you go into quarantine for 2 weeks.

The fact that Japan is only banning US travelers, instead of banning all foreigners, is pretty newsworthy.

Plenty of other countries are already on that list.

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

#137
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was tested this past Thursday and came back negative yesterday. Two weeks ago I was exhibiting the classic symptoms. Last week I had five days of noticeable shortness of breath, lethargy, sinus infection and a dry cough. I wanted to get tested a week ago this past Monday but did not meet the criteria. Now I am awaiting the availability of serological tests to see if I have the antibodies. I pulled the kids out of s…

China bought us eight weeks of ramp up time? Was that before or after suppressing information about the issue for almost two months including getting WHO to claim there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission in January?

Reliance on the WHO is insanity given their kow-towing to Chinese political pressure. The U.S. intelligence agencies were on this in January.

See https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/03/25/coronavirus-worst-intel...

See also https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/us-intellig...

We had 56 days (8 weeks) to prepare. To ramp up masks, gowns, ventilators and possible treatments such as hyrdoxycholorquine/Z-pak as a treatment despite the lack of double blind peer reviewed data. This is an unmitigated disaster brought on by a failure of national leadership.

On that note, I am watching Dr. Who "The Talons of Weng-Chiang" on PBS in self-isolation to distract me from the unfolding horror that is our hospitals.

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

#138
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One improvement over a full travel ban would be mandatory government-run 2-week(?) quarantine every time someone arrives from abroad.

Australia is now requiring a 2 week hotel isolation

Except the hotel is in the middle of the city, and there are other non-quarantined residents living in the same hotel who are almost certainly going to get sick. I think the correct solution is what Vietnam has done -- convert military barracks into a quarantine centers so that suspected cases cannot infect the general public.

This is also much better than the self-isolation policy that they had until a few days ago (because food and other basic services are provided to the isolated people, so there's no risk of people coming into contact with others when trying to get groceries delivered).

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

#139
post #80

Japan is not anywhere close to the first to do this. Many countries in SE Asia have pretty much banned any foreigner from entering. If you are a foreign resident, you go into quarantine for 2 weeks.

The fact that Japan is only banning US travelers, instead of banning all foreigners, is pretty newsworthy.

Nope. Over 30 countries are banned: https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-travel-restricti...

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

#140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US is currently testing ~100k people each day: https://covidtracking.com/us-daily/ The failure at the beginning was not to have capacity ready. The huge US medical system and its very, very large medical industry has finally gotten pointed in the right direction in regards to testing.

It took a very long time to get started. Check the history using the news headlines as your timeline. The Federal government rejected non-US tests/guidelines, while the CDC worked on a test. The test didn't work. The U.S. State of Washington had a solution, but the Federal government rejected it. Meanwhile some countries were conducting tests like crazy and were able to do some initial containment. In The U.S. we con…

Stay safe. This too shall pass.
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