Japan starts coronavirus antibody tests on 10,000 people

Japan to test 10 thousand people; a torrent of criticism soon to follow; too little, other countries test many more.

Meanwhile, in another place:

"Who is eligible for an antibody test"

"We’re at the beginning of our antibody testing programme, and are prioritising NHS and care home staff who would like to be tested.

Clinicians will also be able to request the tests for patients in both hospital and social care settings if they think it’s appropriate.

While the results of an antibody test will not allow people to make any changes to their behaviour, such as easing social distancing measures, there’s clear value in knowing whether NHS and care workers and hospital patients and care home residents have had the virus, and in collecting data on the test results."

"https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-antibody-tests/coronavirus-covid-19-antibody-tests"

PTN:

1) The general population won't be tested just yet; only NHS and care home staff who want to do it.

Don't wanna do it? Fine. Next.

2) Clinicians, who will request that patients be treated, but only if they think appropriate to do so.

3) Therefore, no mass, indiscriminate testing in the UK.

Good job Japan.

10,000 tests! Don't strain yourselves.

My guess is that the infection numbers among the population are slightly larger than actually confirmed, yet short of building a herd immunity.

Though antibody tests cannot identify it, a claim has arisen that innate immunity rather than adaptive one may be a determinant factor curbing the infection or fatality rate. More inquiries are needed for a better understanding and response.

Could ‘Innate Immunology’ Save Us From the Coronavirus

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/01/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-vaccine-innate-immunity.html

@Peeping_Tom

Japan to test 10 thousand people; a torrent of criticism soon to follow; too little, other countries test many more.

Japan aims to examine the history of infection scale in the general public, not to give "immunity passport" to particular groups of people. The numbers are inferred from randomized samples, not needing to count actual numbers. Note that tests should be randomized, cannot respond to requests (from medical staff etc.)

"Japan aims to examine the history of infection scale in the general public, not to give "immunity passport" to particular groups of people. The numbers are inferred from randomized samples, not needing to count actual numbers. Note that tests should be randomized, cannot respond to requests (from medical staff etc."

I know that; it seems you did not get my initial post.

The health ministry began testing around 10,000 people for coronavirus antibodies Monday in a bid to better grasp the scale of infection

The timing of this is just bananas. They finally want to ‘better grasp the scale of infection’ after the ‘state of emergency’ has been removed, and months after we’ve all been living through it. Just madness.

A very meaningful step in the right direction. I wish it was done sooner though.

Oh boy here we go. Just as I predicted. This will be used by the nutters as a second wave.

While the Japanese Governments slow pace gets slower, we all admire the attempt at actually doing something. Wow. They are great! Wow...

This article PROVES beyond a shadow of any doubt that Japan has NO IDEA what has been going on, had no plan, just only did\does minimal testing & is only now going to attempt to get an idea of what may have happened......

What is that... 0.008% of the population they're about to test? Wow... Japan is actually making Donald Trump and the US look like angels by comparison to how extremely poor a job they are doing with testing, and yet completely proud of themselves at the same time.

This article PROVES beyond a shadow of any doubt that Japan has NO IDEA what has been going on, had no plan, just only did\does minimal testing & is only now going to attempt to get an idea of what may have happened......

And yet, despite the oldest population by far has fared much better than other countries.

The health ministry began testing around 10,000 people for coronavirus antibodies Monday in a bid to better grasp the scale of infection,

How can they grasp the scale of the infection, somebody explain to me how knowing somebody was infected in the past and no longer is helps grasp the spread of the infection presently.

If they are really interested in knowing the infection rate isn't PCR TESTING more accurate.

Wuhan has decided to pcr test the entire pop of 14M in 10 days. LA also plans 4M pcr test.

therougou: "And yet, despite the oldest population by far has fared much better than other countries."

Especially when you don't test! I'm sure it's just a coincidence, though, that a whole lot of "mysterious" deaths weren't tested, and when some finally were it was found the people died of Covid-19 and had just been labelled as dying from something else, be it pneumonia or otherwise. Hmmm... Let's crack out the rocket scientists!

Until we can see the number of people who died in the second quarter of the year, then we will see if Japan dodged the bullet or not. There is almost certainly no doubt that deaths in Japan from Covid-19 have been given a different cause of death - but then again , they have in many other countries if the death occured outside a hospital or care home - And, yes, the amount og testing in Japan has been derisory.

BUT - until we see the 'excess' death number, if indeed there is one we can stop the hysterics as in the post above.

Tokyo could possibly be moved back to Step One today as the infection rate is being reported above 30 for yesterday. Not totally unexpected.