Japan's COVID-19 death toll tops 20,000

@virusrex

i completely agree with you that we couldn’t just do nothing in the face of this pandemic with the death rate almost doubling the usual numbers and many people in relatively good health and youth succumbing to it. However, thanks mainly to the vaccines I believe we are now in a position to lift restrictions and get back to normality for the most part, and I believe we have been for some time. In the UK, they basically did that from July to December - we saw a death rate around 5-10% higher than normal. Not great, but also not destroying the healthcare system. Many of those excess deaths were among people who made the choice not to get vaccinated. These should be tolerated in the same way we tolerate the (way more) deaths among people who made other poor health choices such as smoking or hopeless diet/sedentary lifestyle. With Omicron, excess deaths are even lower, such that we cannot see them in the data beyond other varying background causes (in the uk at least, don’t have the data for Japan). We should get back to normality at this point with perhaps a few efforts remaining to protect those at especially high risk such as those in care homes. I’m glad to see some countries are now doing exactly this.

Nobody says that Corona is not a serious problem for a vulnerable population group. But to pretend that it is this lethal virus rampagaing throughout the whole population is simply wrong.

If all human lives have equal value, if you care about old people, you wouldn't say that. You might catch it and recover quickly, but you could pass it on to a dozen people more vulnerable than you. That's why it's lethal for ALL of us, as a society.

Time to lock the whole country down. With omicron being the deadliest variant of all , and children leading the surge, can’t even protect the frail elderly , a true and hard 3-4 week lockdown would stop the spread . I’m no constitutional lawyer , but I believe Article 25 of the Japanese Constitution gives Kishida to do the right thing and lock this place down. Virtually every hospital is on the brink . Osaka is already over the brink . And still too many people are unbelievably wreck less and just dangerous with everyone’s health. The peak a few wannabe scientists claim is here is nowhere near. The jgov cannot let this deadliest of deadly Omicron continue to rage out of control. Time to protect the old and young .

@Blacklabel

84 percent of 18,400 deaths confirmed earlier were people in their 70s or above. 

these people would nearly all have been vaccinated, correct?

Yes. Yes. And again, yes. But you're still not making a point! It's amazing that it needs to be spelled out, but if you're over 70 years old, your best years are behind you. You're not very likely to be running marathons, partying all night long, etc. You're vulnerable. Vaccinations definitely help, but if you're old, you're still going to be in danger if you catch this thing. Younger people, who aren't obese, don't have other underlying problems very likely won't die if they've had their shots. But no, that's just a con job by the scientists, isn't it. The world really is flat, and only some people are smart enough to understand that. Congratulations.

Glad the numbers by age are shown here. For weeks I’ve been posting here that risk to kiddies is low. As we see from the data there were 4 deaths for 10-19 year old age group, there are no deaths for under 10’s.

Many reasons for lower deaths in Japan than many Western nations, it’s been a better place than most to be during the pandemic.

@WeiWei

If you go to the hospital for any operation and test positive for corona, you are counted in corona patients and if you die, counted as ”corona death” even if the death had nothing to do with it. More than 25% of ”corona” patients went to the hospital for other reasons so corona was just a secondary thing.

Wei wei WEI distant from the realm of reality. While we're making up numbers, why stop at 25? How about 34? 42? Have a ball.

84 percent of 18,400 deaths confirmed earlier were people in their 70s or above. 

.....and how many of these had other health problems? The CDC lists 97% of Corona deaths as having 3 or more co-morbidities. A freedom of information request in the UK showed similar numbers. I do not expect this to be different in Japan- So once again, we are playing the word game of "with" or "from" Covid. Also, while the average vaccinated rate in Japan is not that high, I would expect it among the 70+ crowd to be close to 100%.

Nobody says that Corona is not a serious problem for a vulnerable population group. But to pretend that it is this lethal virus rampagaing throughout the whole population is simply wrong.

Yes the vast majority of deaths have happened after vaccination started.

also same in most other countries.

That’s how many people die every week in the US from Covid.

Some interesting comments in this thread. It’s disappointing to see so many making fun and not taking it seriously. This virus is a worldwide tragedy with over a million deaths attributed to Covid in the last two years, but some people still think it’s funny? The human race is doomed due to ignorance and flippancy.

No, that would be incorrect. They didn't even start vaccinating in Japan until Spring 2021. The first deaths were recorded over a year before that in Feb 2020.

But the vast majority of Covid deaths have occurred since summer 2021.

Blacklabel

"84 percent of 18,400 deaths confirmed earlier were people in their 70s or above. "

these people would nearly all have been vaccinated, correct?

No, that would be incorrect. They didn't even start vaccinating in Japan until Spring 2021. The first deaths were recorded over a year before that in Feb 2020.

Vaccines do very little, if anything, against reducing infection and transmission, they might in fact make matters worse. 

Source for this claim please.

The science says otherwise.

Vaccinated people get less sick and those that are less sick have lower viral loads.

It is true that vaccinated or not the same level of sick have the same level of viral loads.

But seeing vaccinated people get less severely ill that mean fewer people with high vital loads

Not that difficult to understand.

JexanToday  12:53 pm JST

Deaths in Japan actually decreased in 2020 because there were less cases of other illnesses (respiratory Illness-non Covid, flu, pneumonia). 

Your stuff is removed because it has no fact or relevance.

One cancer, suicide, etc... Are not contagious.

Influenza cases are down for a very simple reason that any thinking person can figure out.

The same social distance, mask, working from home etc... Also lowers other infectious diseases and not just covid.

Do you think a mask only affects the covid virus but not influenza?

Actually, this post is very unreasonable. How do you think the virus gets to the "vulnerable?" You carry it.

The smart thing would have been to include vaccination programs for children and young people (who cannot fathom sacrificing their social time) from the start.

Families have 3 generations at home. Kids spread it to their grandparents.

Vaccines do very little, if anything, against reducing infection and transmission, they might in fact make matters worse. They mainly offer a reduction in symptoms, for a few months. So if you're concerned about infecting grandma, giving the vaccine to kids will just increase the chance of not noticing that they're infected.

Sorry i meant boost immune system not metabolism

Having had omnicron, it’s no joke, I recommend everyone do what they can to boost their metabolism, while they are still healthy. It’s a debilitating disease even if you survive. I don’t blame the doctors they are doing the best they can but the medical infrastructure in Japan just plain sucks. This is totally on the government and hospital administrators for the lack of preparedness. Covid is not just a lung disease Post Covid Syndrome is real and debilitating. My Doctor basically doubled my BP Medicine since I caught omnicron. High heart rate for months. The poster above is right, this illness is nothing to joke about even if it was light for you. It exacerbates pre existing conditions especially asthma. Dear god I wish I got my booster before I caught omnicron.

Raw BeerToday  11:52 am JST

Nobody is saying that the elderly don't matter.

OK then give us another view on the following comment?

kurisupisuToday  08:00 am JST

According to the health ministry, 84 percent of 18,400 deaths confirmed earlier were people in their 70s or above. 

Not much to worry about then is there…

The smart thing would have been to include vaccination programs for children and young people.

With an experimental vaccine that doesn't stop transmission, only hospitalization which rarely happens? I'd say even the science doesn't agree with you.

BlacklabelToday  11:56 am JST

84 percent of 18,400 deaths confirmed earlier were people in their 70s or above. 

these people would nearly all have been vaccinated, correct?

Actually we don't know, Japan isn't giving out the percentage of those severely sick that are or are not vaccinated.

I other developed countries the vast majority of those severely sick and dying are from the tiny percentages of the unvaccinated.

I would speculate this is the same in Japan about 15% of those eligible are not vaccinated, I know 2 that died here both were not vaccinated ( one was a family member of my ex-wife the other the mother offy former dentist fervent anti vaxxers the lot).

It would be nice to see Japan do the same as other developed countries and give us the percentage of deaths related to vaccinated and unvaccinated.

@Bubonam justin kayce

You have completely missf my point !

So- the simple math that you are referring to is the belief that the numbers being reported are accurate.

Japan continually apologizes for incorrect numbers being previously reported.

Surely you cannot be this naive ?

And if math is so simple then perhaps you can explain why 1+1 does not always = 2.

Nobody is saying that the elderly don't matter. But what most reasonable people are saying is that the focus should be on the vulnerable, in terms of vaccination and overall protection. While the rest can go about their almost normal daily lives, thus achieving something resembling herd immunity must quicker, and with less disastrous consequences on the economy and mental health.

Instead, the approach that many countries adopted (thankfully less so by Japan) is like forcing everyone to wear a seat belt even when they are not in a vehicle.

Actually, this post is very unreasonable. How do you think the virus gets to the "vulnerable?" You carry it.

The smart thing would have been to include vaccination programs for children and young people (who cannot fathom sacrificing their social time) from the start.

Families have 3 generations at home. Kids spread it to their grandparents.

Furthermore, newsflash, being healthy isn't a safety net. Recent reports are showing that 1/3 of infected people in the US have long covid, which is understood as a continued immune response in the body. So if you've got an active immune system and get covid, you're high risk for developing an auto-immune disease with no treatments available.

And prevented the surge

This IS the surge right now so it actually prevented nothing.

highest number of vaccinated= highest number of cases= rising death counts of over 100 per day.

So why would that many people over 70 not be vaccinated?

it it’s supposedly just unvaccinated people over 70 dying, can’t we just open back up? no vaccinated people can die.

Old people aren’t at the bar and not on the train commuting to work.

But then counting the number of people acknowledged to have died from the vaccines,

Post here how many

And prevented the surge

Deaths surged when mass vaccination started and then settled down to be pretty much exactly the same as before anyone was vaccinated pending the current surge. Judging by that, the vaccines may be only useless and not worse than useless. 

Your reasoning is plainly flawed.

As you said vaccination just started so it couldn't have caused the surge.

@Hokkaidoboy

Iam sympathetic to you and your lost loved ones.

Lets hope nobody else has to perish from the horrid covid virus.

And i completely agree with you about the up-voting and down-voting , as of now there's only 40 comments been made - so i wonder who all the voter's are ?

Just readers that vote but don't comment .

Too shrewd and meek i suppose.

I rarely care to vote, seems ridiculous.

To start answering that question yourself check the number of deaths first before vaccinations even started

Deaths surged when mass vaccination started and then settled down to be pretty much exactly the same as before anyone was vaccinated pending the current surge. Judging by that, the vaccines may be only useless and not worse than useless. But then counting the number of people acknowledged to have died from the vaccines, it's a bit of a stretch to say they aren't worse than useless.

these people would nearly all have been vaccinated, correct?

To start answering that question yourself check the number of deaths first before vaccinations even started

Japan's total coronavirus infections stand at about 3.78 million cases, with about 0.5 percent leading to death.

Even with Japan's notorious testing infection mortality rate is still among the lowest in the world.

https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality

these people would nearly all have been vaccinated, correct?

Surely not. The vaccines don't stop infection but prevent death due to Covid.

84 percent of 18,400 deaths confirmed earlier were people in their 70s or above. 

these people would nearly all have been vaccinated, correct?

Also note that much fewer have died of seasonal flu during the current pandemic while vast majority of covid deaths are very old, at average 80 yo or older.

so what you trying to say that the elderly are expendable? so the young can get their lives back to normal?

Nobody is saying that the elderly don't matter. But what most reasonable people are saying is that the focus should be on the vulnerable, in terms of vaccination and overall protection. While the rest can go about their almost normal daily lives, thus achieving something resembling herd immunity must quicker, and with less disastrous consequences on the economy and mental health.

Instead, the approach that many countries adopted (thankfully less so by Japan) is like forcing everyone to wear a seat belt even when they are not in a vehicle.

*sever

Its ridiculous to see people still doubting on cause of death on reported number. Most of them died at hospital while under "Sevier condition". Most probably underreported numbers. I have lost 10+relatives and friends. This is the typical scenario; patient goes to hospital due to high fever and cold. PCR gives covid+ve result. Things does not improve. Oxygen level decreases. Patient goes under multiple medications. After few days patients is again tested which gives covid -ve results but suddenly doctor declares pneumonia complications and patients die. Cause of death "multiple organs failure".

Alarm bells should be ringing. If it were 40~50 times worse, Japan would be like countries with 3rd world health care systems such as USA.

Also note that much fewer have died of seasonal flu during the current pandemic while vast majority of covid deaths are very old, at average 80 yo or older.

ah daaaah because of social distancing and mask wearing, flu is about 1/10 as fatal and far less contagious than covid, why do you think omicron is now the dominant strain!? ah daah because its far more contagious than Delta and the flu.

amazing when you actually follow the science what you may learn.

at average 80 yo or older.

so what you trying to say that the elderly are expendable? so the young can get their lives back to normal?

you wouldnt even be here if not for the elderly!

just a reminder to all the selfish morons in this world, youll be elderly too one day

I wish all safe and healthy and happy life.

I'm willing to bet the real death toll is much higher than that

More propaganda. These are the tested numbers. We all know that Japan was hopeless at testing, and even more so at post mortem.

Check the excess death numbers for Japan. It has been rather constant since the pandemic outset, without a significant increase in deaths of unknown causes. Means, covid including its variants have had little impact on Japan's overall demographic pattern and death numbers.

Also note that much fewer have died of seasonal flu during the current pandemic while vast majority of covid deaths are very old, at average 80 yo or older.

Weiwei - nothing from what you've said is true - amazing!

Omicron perhaps less deadly, but Japan should also take into account their vulnerable weren't already knocked out by earlier variants like the western world. They really dropped the ball with the booster shots. How many deaths did Kishida cause while focusing only on border measures?

For those who contest that it*s no more dangerous than the common flu, the data is there. You're just to lazy to search or want to stay in denial. The US will soon reach 1.0mil deaths in a span of about two years. Average deaths from the flu prior to Covid are around 12,000 - 50,000 year. https://www.health.com/condition/flu/how-many-people-die-of-the-flu-every-year

Weiwei...

If you go to the hospital for any operation and test positive for corona, you are counted in corona patients and if you die, counted as ”corona death” even if the death had nothing to do with it. More than 25% of ”corona” patients went to the hospital for other reasons so corona was just a secondary thing.

Sorry this is not correct. You will be tested for covid on admission and if positive, recorded as a case. Your death will not be recorded as a covid death unless the virus was the main reason for your death. 25%? whed did you pick that number from? In the UK at the peak of Omicron it was about 5%, a little higher in London. Much lower in Japan.

 I do believe it is important to state whether a person died "from or with" Covid

isn't this the same dog whistle we had with HIV/AIDS?

The " oh they didn't die from AIDS they died from XYZ" .

The underlying factor is had they not gotten Covid 19 they would not have gotten pneumonia, etc .. and died.

In the same time frame, we would normally expect to see something like double that number of people die of flu and pneumonia - many of those that died of COVID would have probably died of flu or pneumonia if they hadn’t died of COVID - especially in the latter waves.

The important part is why these patients did not even get influenza or other respiratory diseases, the last two seasons have not been "business as usual" and other respiratory diseases were almost erradicated by the measures against COVID. This means people still get infected and die from the disease even doing the best that is realistically possible to do. For influenza this may not be enough to justify the huge social, economic investment on the measures, but for COVID this has been clearly the case.

In the same time frame, we would normally expect to see something like double that number of people die of flu and pneumonia - many of those that died of COVID would have probably died of flu or pneumonia if they hadn’t died of COVID - especially in the latter waves.

 I do believe it is important to state whether a person died "from or with" Covid

Indeed. But the problem is, with many having co-morbidities and close to the end of their lives anyway it is often hard to say which was the substantial cause of death. That’s why some places use metrics like “died within 30 days of a positive COVID test”. Obviously that’s far from ideal either. It might be better to look at excess deaths. I can’t get data for Japan, but for the UK, in the first two waves there were clearly huge numbers of excess deaths, close to 10000 per week, almost double what would normally be expected. Once most people had been vaccinated, that dropped to less that 1000 per week. Still not great but a massive improvement . But in this Omicron wave, by far the biggest of any of them, there are no excess deaths. In fact there are fewer deaths than would normally be expected at this time of year. Probably because various precautions people are taking are resulting in fewer deaths due to flu which would usually be peaking around this time of year.

I also bet that the actual numbers are higher than this given just how hopeless Japan is with testing. And why focus on the elderly? Who are the ones packing trains to the brim every bloody day? It's certainly not the elderly I'll give you that. Again, they've had 2 years to come up with a contingency plan should this inevitably happen and what did they do? Nothing as usual.

Is omicron killing more people in Japan than the original strain and delta? It’s so sad to see those numbers.

MarkX

How many of the 20,000 that have died from Covid weren't vaccinated?

The majority.

The number 20,000 is totally irrelevant. That’s the “cumulative” death toll tallied since the beginning of the pandemic, All deaths are sad but for most people the Omicron is no worse than the flu.

It's difficult to have an opinion about the number of infections and deaths due to the covid 19 virus, because frequently the previous reported information by the experts is then excused by other experts as having been miscalculated or a mistake .

Now its reported that the current mutation is less deadly but killing more people.

More propaganda. These are the tested numbers. We all know that Japan was hopeless at testing, and even more so at post mortem.

How many of the 20,000 that have died from Covid weren't vaccinated? That is the number I want to see. Funny we don't get that. I do believe it is important to state whether a person died "from or with" Covid.

I also believe that masks are still important and that Japanese will continue to use them for years to come.

According to the health ministry, 84 percent of 18,400 deaths confirmed earlier were people in their 70s or above. 

Not much to worry about then is there…

I'm willing to bet the real death toll is much higher than that

To have had close people dead from COVID-19 really hurts me to read people mocking the virus. And I don't care about the childish game of up-down-votes. It's my opinion.

The number can be lower, if government didn't do go travel campaign since that proven increase number of cases that will lead increase number of death

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/01/22/national/go-to-travel-infections/

Government is being distracted for almost two years 2020-2021 with Olympics preparation and execution instead focus on Covid outbreak in Japan.

Even with several waves with multiple variant like delta and omnicron people, government should be more prepare for incoming waves by providing facility for people in needs but those people just being told to stay at home. That happens because Japan unprepared for waves that coming even it already takes more than one year from first outbreak in Japan

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/08/03/national/japan-recuperate-home-coronavirus/

If you go to the hospital for any operation and test positive for corona, you are counted in corona patients and if you die, counted as ”corona death” even if the death had nothing to do with it. More than 25% of ”corona” patients went to the hospital for other reasons so corona was just a secondary thing.