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LDP lawmaker's family member tests positive for coronavirus

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The lawmaker himself has not shown any signs of illness but will refrain from attending Diet sessions for the time being, he said.

Does this imply that he got tested without even having any symptoms but those with pretty bad symptoms, the little people cannot get tested?

21 ( +23 / -2 )

How is it that doctors and nurses in Japan are contracting the virus but their houses, apartments and hospital wards are not being disinfected ?

Isn’t the virus able to survive on a variety of surfaces for an extended period of time?

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Unless you one of those LDP officianados you do not count and have no chance. if you have your nose in the trough then you will be smoothered in special prvileges , very obvious to the average person.

10 ( +12 / -2 )

Atleast, now they remember that they are human too. PLs start to feel like normal human beings.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

Thank goodness he and his family members have been tested and their living quarters disinfected. Their are only so many testing kits available, best to be used to ensure the welfare of the People's representatives elected or not.

You can always train a Doctor/Nurse but a politician is priceless.

14 ( +16 / -2 )

Bet things will start moving faster now and best they should just got off the WHO site and ran into this from them: 1 . World Health Organization officials said not all people who recover from the coronavirus have the antibodies to fight a second infection.

Raises concerns that patients don’t develop immunity after surviving Covid-19.

WHO Comment: “With regards to recovery and then reinfection, I believe we do not have the answers to that. That is an unknown,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s emergencies program.

Interesting yet, nothing about China and its role in all of this. Where are the Clintons? silent too?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

The family member, who lives with Funahashi in a Tokyo apartment for parliamentarians, has only displayed mild symptoms. The lawmaker himself has not shown any signs of illness but will refrain from attending Diet sessions for the time being, he said.

For the "time being"? He should be forced into a quarantine. Even people who had no direct contact, but "contact with a contact" are in quarantine themselves.

Just because he is a politician, he should be treated no differently!

9 ( +9 / -0 )

'Just because he is a politician, he should be treated no differently!'

Absolutely.

I'm sorry to hear his family member caught it, and hope they recover quickly.

But, yes...what is it...14 days of without pay, or burn 14 of your holiday/sick leave. That's the going rate, right? Right??

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I find it quite odd that the word ‘quarantine’ is not present anywhere in this article.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

Do people think that if the person has a mild case they are less infectious? Mild for them, maybe deadly for someone else.

9 ( +9 / -0 )

"...has only displayed mild symptoms".

There are three different forms of coronavirus, A, B, and C. In east asia, form B is prevalent, and has mild symptoms.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Hi Akie, your source please?

5 ( +5 / -0 )

@Akie read the articles on deviates A, B, and C but non specifies that one is deadlier or have mild symptoms.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

FocusDis, given the types of the virus, we can discuss the death rates of east asia, europe, and US. I don't think that east asia has better medical system than both EU and US, which leads to the conclusion that the virus types play a bigger role. Just a thought.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

So only politicians and celebrities can get tested and receive treatment.

Everyone else, even when we have pneumonia and high fever for a week, are never allowed a test after being on a 2-3 hour hold.

If the government want to suppress reported numbers they should at least suppress it fairly.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

@Akie thanks for the link.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Eductator60

Thousands?? They are only testing in the low hundreds each day. In Tokyo, it is so bad, that around 50% of tested people are coming up positive.

And yep have been plenty of cases of celebrities being tested, and with mild symptoms, too. For the rest of us, we are told that if you think you have it, don't bother the healthcare system.

So we are supposed to die in our houses then? That is eventually what will happen. Check Uruagary.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

Edit: Uruguay

0 ( +0 / -0 )

What nonsense. There is no question that the vast majority that have been tested are people you’ve never heard of, just ordinary people. Or can you provide us with a list of those thousands of celebrities and politicians?

Sure there are some ordinary people, but MOST ordinary people CANNOT get tested when they are sick unless they are from overseas or is someone from a known cluster. With mild symptoms that would be impossible as the minimal criteria for ordinary people to even be considered a candidate for testing is severe pneumonia requiring hospitalization. The vast majority of requests to the health office for testing is rejected. If that family member was not a politician, he would have zero chance of being tested even if he had moderate symptoms let alone mild.

Even the doctors association of Japan admits that Japanese government is rejecting doctor’s requests for tests.

Unless you have some serious connections or extremely lucky that the government selected you to fill their daily testing quota, your chances of getting tested is pretty much null

3 ( +4 / -1 )

@Akie Well, when you cite a source, you should clearly state a personal assumption from the source. This is not yet peer reviewed but the article is using a comparative method to show evolutionary paths of virus; not the effectiveness of each generation. Also while your assumption is interesting; it assumes that one type of virus is exclusive to one country, which would happen if a vector for infection is singular which is not.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Thousands?? They are only testing in the low hundreds each day. In Tokyo, it is so bad, that around 50% of tested people are coming up positive.

Japan: 622 tests per million people

Italy: 18,000 tests per million

In other words, for every one test carried out in Japan, thirty are carried out in Italy.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

FocusDis, I am not the best doctor of the world, so I don't make a conclusion based on assumptions, but observations.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

Regarding the “Genetic Network Analysis Provides Snapshot...” being discussed here, that is a proposal and NOT an actual peer/reviewed study. The scientists involved admit their phylogenetic method had not been used before the Coronavirus pandemic.

There are many scientists trying to explain how Covid-19 has manifested itself around the world, but the leading disease geneticists have so far rejected their theories. Trying to imply an “Asian” version is less harmful is basically buying into China’s released figures, which Western nations see as vastly underreported.

And also it means accepting figures from Japan despite its reluctance to actively test its population. As someone who works in public health, I know better than to cling in faith onto one science article that fits my worldview. Most scientists so far see Covid-19 as a relatively stable virus that mutates less often than influenza.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Best of luck to his family. I hope Funahashi is learning to keep his hands clean.

"According to Funahashi, he was called out to a restaurant by an executive of the resort operator in around late September 2017 and was handed 1 million yen in cash when they were leaving the establishment."

from: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20200109/p2a/00m/0na/010000c

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Ordinary people cannot get tested unless they are from known cluster or from overseas. Someone like that politicians family can NEVER be tested in Japan if he was an ordinary person unless he can prove without a doubt that he was in close personal contact to a new cluster.

Japanese government restricts access to both testing AND treatment to its ordinary citizens. Even calling the emergency now doesnt get you treatment if you show covid symptoms.

https://www.fnn.jp/articles/-/32320

those 89,000 people are people with connections, from overseas, and from clusters defined by the government. If you catch covid from community, you have absolutely zero chance of being allowed to test.

if you get sick, dont come crying about not having access to treatment. That is what the government is doing now, they dont mind letting people die so they can report less numbers

0 ( +1 / -1 )

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/000609467.pdf

page 8 shows current minimum requirements for testing. That politicians family member clearly does not pass as he was not from overseas, connected to a known cluster, or have severe disease requiring hospitalization. This is a clear case of using connections to gain access to something that ordinary people do not have access.

Ordinary people who get infected in the community essentially have to wait until they qualify for ICU and ventilator to even qualify to be tested.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

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