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Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

japantimes.co.jp

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Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#241

Post by SomeoneFromCA »

grey-area wrote: post #99
SomeoneFromCA wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There must be some very special political reason for keeping borders with UK open, so even Fauci seem to approve it. I wonder what is it?

This variant is already widespread. It is very unlikely that it is not already spreading in the US.

It is very likely it is not spreading in US at all, otherwise it would have long been found. US also does fair amount of genomic surveillance, a new strain would not be unnoticed. Anyway, there must be proof that it is already spreading in US before, before keeping the borders open.

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#242

Post by SomeoneFromCA »

Pyxl101 wrote: post #115
GregarianChild wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you elaborate by which moral principle you come to the conclusion that a vague slippery slope and even more vague outrage is more important than stopping a pandemic with hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths? Most moral systems of my acquantance are based on a hierachy of values that puts saving human lives over just about anything.

I don't necessarily subscribe to this point of view (I don't know what I believe; I need to think more), but allow me to play devil's advocate consider: most of the people who die from this disease are old people who have already lived their lives. The young are giving up the opportunity to live their lives by staying home to stop the spread, when they predominately aren't at risk of death. Should the young give up t…

What a bullshit argument.

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#243

Post by henearkr »

paganel wrote: post #197
howlgarnish wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sigh, this old canard again. Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Singapore are all doing fine without "locking people into their homes" and they're not islands. (Ok, Singapore technically is an island but it's connected to Malaysia by the world's busiest border crossing; and Thailand's grappling with a new outbreak now but it seems to be improving.)

Maybe there's a genetic component to this virus? Which is "verboten" to be discussed and analysed because of various reasons ("race is a social construct" and all that), but at some point one has to take this into consideration too. All due respect to Laos, but I don't see it as having the needed expert infrastructure in order to keep this virus under control as well as they have. Similar discussion for Thailand.

Some vaccines that are compulsory in Japan and China (and other Asian countries) but not in the rest of the world are also suspected to geographically shape some immunity differences.

For example the vaccine against Japanese Encephalitis is under investigation for a possible cross-effect on covid immunity.

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#244

Post by zajio1am »

dragonwriter wrote: post #140
zajio1am wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taiwan (and some other countries) used phone surveillance location-tracking to enforce quarantines: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-taiwan... That is like using ankle bracelets for tracking people under quarantine, just worse.

> That is like using ankle bracelets for tracking people under quarantine, just worse. To the extent mandatory quarantines are justifiable, this method of enforcement seems reasonable and minimally invasive given the purpose. I don't see why it's worse than ankle bracelets.

> To the extent mandatory quarantines are justifiable

Mandatory quarantines are justifiable, buth their enforcement using surveillance technology is not. In free countries we trust citizens to uphold laws and only punish those who trespass them, not monitor everyone to ensure compliance. We do not have mandatory backdoors in our computers to monitor copyright enforcement, and we do not have mandatory government cameras at home to prevent domestic violence.

> I don't see why it's worse than ankle bracelets.

Ankle bracelets do not require interaction with wearer, while this monitoring is using incoming calls several times a day to ensure you have phone with you. If i were ill with covid-19 last thing i wanted is to be repeatedly woken up by phone calls.

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#245

Post by matwood »

bestnameever wrote: post #220
matwood wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I’ve seen discussed is that closing borders only works if it’s done totally and immediately. Otherwise, it just slows response and causes super spreader events like we saw early this year in the US.

How does closing a border cause super spreader events?

The haphazard closure in March caused multi-hour long, crowded backups at airports as people tried to get back.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/03/trumps-coronavirus-t...

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#246

Post by inglor_cz »

m_mueller wrote: post #203
jsnell wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TWIW has kind of painted themselves into the corner by insisting that anything except biological evidence is irrelevant. The evidence for B.1.1.7 being more transmissive is quite solid, and seems to be getting more so as time goes on. But no matter how strong the statistical data is, it could never be good enough for them. So their policy recommendation ends up as "do nothing at all until there is 100% certain non-ci…

A lot of COVID discussions remind me of the history of Beri-Beri in Japan. Recommend everyone to read up on that one. Clinical purists who deny any validity to field data have cost many lifes going back longer than you think.

Hi, can you recommend me a good book on that?

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#247

Post by lumberingjack »

I traveled to Florida for the holidays nobody wears masks here nobody's sick. Back in California in the office retarded people were scared out of their minds on lockdown wondering if their mask their glove and the new plexiglass over their desk is enough precaution. Land of the free home of the brave only in Florida now I guess. This whole thing is just red pilling people by the millions creating a massive amount of anti-vaxxers.

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#248

Post by m_mueller »

dageshi wrote: post #227
m_mueller wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then there are places like Taiwan that have kept themselves COVID free and report a grand total of 7 deaths on 22M inhabitants, without any lockdown needed and thus experiencing minimal economic impact. And yet no Western country seems to want to learn from that.

What is there to learn? 1) Act immediately and aggressively at the first sign of potential virus. 2) Get your population used to wearing masks when ill with cold like viruses and thus ensure sufficient supplies and willingness to wear masks when the government mandates it. 3) Preferably be an island or have absolute control of your country (China) There was a period when countries could've done what Taiwan did but on…

Taiwan had an emergency law in place thanks to lessons learned from SARS. Allowed government to track cell phones for quarantine and case tracking. This has turned out to be highly effective, without requiring a total authoritarian government. Even though I'm usually very much pro privacy, IMO with sufficient checks and limitations in place such a law is very effective - I'd gladly give up privacy in case I was tested positive or have traveled abroad in exchange of not needing any lockdowns and live normally otherwise.

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#249

Post by m_mueller »

AntiImperialis2 wrote: post #237
m_mueller wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And then there are places like Taiwan that have kept themselves COVID free and report a grand total of 7 deaths on 22M inhabitants, without any lockdown needed and thus experiencing minimal economic impact. And yet no Western country seems to want to learn from that.

Why Taiwan? China has had even fewer deaths per capita and much larger much more connected population.

Because it's democratic. Much more realistic to implement what they do.

Re: Mutated Covid-19 strain confirmed in Japan as case tally hits record high

#250

Post by globular-toast »

prox wrote: post #69
Threeve303 wrote: post #46

What happens if the world gets into a situation where the virus mutates rapidly and we find the vaccines becoming less effective? We assume the drug companies will be able to adapt the vaccine quickly to the new variants. If this happens then it creates a few problems.. One problem is having to continuously distribute a new vaccine to people indefinitely. Another problem is only certain countries are capable of manuf…

The virus mutates all of the time. Each time it enters a cell and then makes copies of itself. Sofar the consensus seem to be the mRNA vaccines should proof effective.

Most mutations aren't viable. Given the low fidelity of RNA replication (at least compared to DNA replication) it's remarkable just how close each copy is in a large population. Only a few mutations prove to be viable. Much less prove to be strong enough to overpower the current population.
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