Bruce Chatwin comments

Does this mean that Trump and Melania will not be attending the next debate?

What an unfortunate choice for a name.

Why not just call it Grenfell Tower II?

Can anyone say ONE good thing of his 8 years tenure?

He left before it got to nine years?

Alfie Noakes, very well said!

Agreed.

Kono seems to be the best of a very bad lot, so the LDP will probably pass on him...

Not to mention some of the compelling speakers we have heard, especially Ann Dorn talking about her husband, who was brutally murdered by looters.

After Ann Dorn was announced as one of the speakers for the RNC, David Dorn’s daughters publicly opposed her decision to speak and said they were against their late father’s name or death being used for political purposes. “Our father did not agree with many policies and actions of this president that are aimed at disenfranchising many Black and Brown people. Our father was a registered Democrat. He thought Trump is doing many things to ruin our country.”

Very interesting article.

I wonder how many of the doctors have backgrounds in epidemiology, virology, or immunology.

It would also be interesting to know how many of the doctors are under 40, that is how many of the doctors have training that is relatively up-to-date.

Suga has never had a job outside of politics. Suga is completely divorced from the reality that working people face every day.

It seems Kono and Noda are the only candidates not affiliated with the revisionist Nippon Kaigi.

The Tokyo metropolitan government on Monday reported 95 new cases of the coronavirus, down from 212 on Sunday.

What day is this data from? The Mainichi reports that there is a a three-day lag for Tokyo reporting its data:

*It takes one to two days to obtain results from the virus-detecting polymerase chain reaction tests. A time lag occurs as medical institutions then create reports on new infections and fax them to public health centers in the capital, and the metropolitan government compiles the data sent in by each public health center.*

You can't feel anything else but disheartened when you look at Japanese politics, its the same old club of scumbags that push for policies that benefit themselves or their big businesses counterparts.

They should clear the whole diet and start again.

Sadly, the new guard is not so very different from the old guard. IMO, the system of dynastic politics that permeates Japanese politics needs to be done away with before there can be real change, but that seems unlikely to happen.

Please, not the insufferable Aso again. Please...

Moderator: These are not the results of tests done on Sunday.

No. They are the numbers for August 21st.

Welcome news... until the next Pandemic from China's CCP Biological Weapons Department.

Really? I heard the pandemic is part of a plan by billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates who wants to take advantage of the “false” coronavirus pandemic to implant a microchip in the population via an equally fraudulent vaccination, in a bid to control the population of the planet. All of this with the help of 5G and the lizard men elite...

That or it was Abe and Unit 731...

According to the Mainichi:

The number of new infections in a day tends to fall during the first half of the week, and rise during the latter half. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announces tallies based on reports submitted by medical institutions when they confirm infection cases, and it takes about three days from the time tests are conducted to when new cases are announced. Therefore, figures remain low in the first half of the week as cases from the weekend, during which hospitals are generally closed and few tests are conducted, are tallied during this period. On the contrary, figures announced later in the week include infections confirmed after those who stayed put at home during the weekend visited hospitals earlier in the week. Hence, a gap is seen among figures throughout the week.*

*It takes one to two days to obtain results from the virus-detecting polymerase chain reaction tests. A time lag occurs as medical institutions **then create reports on new infections and fax them to public health centers in the capital**, and the metropolitan government compiles the data sent in by each public health center.*

These are likely Monday's results.

That line gets trotted out a lot.

While others trot out ridiculous lines about "face nappies", "muzzles", and "The media wants us to panic".

What “case burst” - to about what number - do you expect by the end of August? A prediction?

Based on current trends and the govt's inaction, the future looks less than encouraging.

By the way, I see that 1000 cases a day is strangely less than the 1500 nearly a month ago. What happened to the exponential burst of cases?

The number of new infections in a day tends to fall during the first half of the week, and rise during the latter half. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government announces tallies based on reports submitted by medical institutions when they confirm infection cases, and it takes about three days from the time tests are conducted to when new cases are announced. Therefore, figures remain low in the first half of the week as cases from the weekend, during which hospitals are generally closed and few tests are conducted, are tallied during this period. On the contrary, figures announced later in the week include infections confirmed after those who stayed put at home during the weekend visited hospitals earlier in the week. Hence, a gap is seen among figures throughout the week.

Why is there such a time lag between conducting the tests and announcing the results?

*It takes one to two days to obtain results from the virus-detecting polymerase chain reaction tests. A time lag occurs as medical institutions then create reports on new infections and fax them to public health centers in the capital, and the metropolitan government compiles the data sent in by each public health center.*

You can see how the Obon holidays might influence the number of reported cases...

Fax machines... Unbelievable.

By the way, I see that 1000 cases a day is strangely less than the 1500 nearly a month ago. What happened to the exponential burst of cases?

July 19: 512 reported cases

July 20: 411 reported cases

July 21: 634 reported cases

July 23: 980 reported cases

July 30: 1301 reported cases

August 6: 1487 reported cases

August 13: 1176 reported cases

August 19: 1075 reported cases

There were 400 - 650 cases a day being reported a month ago.

The sudden drop in reported cases coincides with the Mountain Day and Obon holidays.

Well, if Taro Aso is in charge of the portfolio, we may as well consider it a done deal!

facts show that his virus will only kill 98.6% of the people unlucky enough to catch it

thus spoke the

bullshitzen

NHK: The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has set standards for whether or not they are "severely ill", but it has been found that Tokyo and Osaka Prefecture compile the number of severely ill persons according to different standards. According to Osaka Prefecture, the criteria for judging patients who are infected with the new coronavirus and are being treated as “severe” are the wearing of ventilators, tracheal intubation, and cardiopulmonary bypass.

The critically ill patients in Osaka prefecture who meet this criterion are:

▽ on the 18th of last month, the occupancy rate of the hospital bed for severely ill patients was 2.1%

▽ As of the 1st of this month, 20 people were classified as severely ill (10.6%)

▽As of 17th of this month, 70 people were classified as severely ill (37.2%)

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200818/k10012572621000.html

What if the percentage of false positives is close to 5%, then all these results would be completely meaningless.

8/9: 331 positives / 5237 tested = 6.3% positive rate

If 5% of positives were false that would make 17 of the 331 positive test results false leaving us with

314 positives of 5237 tested and a positive rate of 5.99%.

Completely meaningless?

Please feel free to correct the math if it's wrong.

BTW, the antigen test that the govt is relying on more and more, has, according to the MLHW, a lower incidence of false positives, but it also has a higher incidence of false negatives.

https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/10900000/000631469.pdf

I highly recommend Fergal Keane's Road of Bones for insight into the gross incompetence among the Japanese military commanders that led to the deaths of 60,000 Japanese troops in one operation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_U-Go

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Dtoku_Sat%C5%8D

Japan's elderly population is fairly healthy thanks to their diet. Plus, they get a fair bit of sunshine that boosts their vitamin D levels.

A 2020 study on Vitamin D Status in Japanese Adults found low vitamin D levels in Japanese adults in Hokkaido and Kyushu: The prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency was 47.7% in summer and 82.2% in winter. ...most Japanese may need to increase both vitamin D intake and UV exposure.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7146414/

Japan ranks 100th out of 127 countries in reported testing conducted per 1 million inhabitants. Japan is reportedly testing at a rate of about 8,100 per million people of whom 4.7% are reported to have tested positive. France has a slightly higher reported infection rate at 5.1%; they are reportedly testing at a rate of about 52,000 tests per million people.

Active cases do not indicate infection; testing positive indicates infection. Over 51,000 cases of Covid-19 have reportedly now been confirmed in Japan. Given Japan's comparatively low testing rate, 51,000 confirmed cases is a disturbingly high number.

Kids after school programs are essential!! Most parents agree. Don't buy into this fear mongering. The coronavirus does not kill children and has an extremely low death rate even for adults.

Where to start?

Kids after school programs are essential!!

After-school programs are a "want", not a "need". After-school programs are not essential; desirable perhaps, but not essential.

Most parents agree.

This is a logical fallacy. Not so very long ago most people agreed that the world was flat... Because people believe something is so, does not make it so.

The coronavirus does not kill children

As of July 30, 86 child deaths in the US have been attributed to Covid-19.

an extremely low death rate even for adults.

160,000+ deaths attributed to Covid-19 in the US; 50 deaths per 100K population

For comparison, there were 34,000 deaths attributed to influenza in the US in the 2018-2019 influenza season

https://downloads.aap.org/AAP/PDF/AAP%20and%20CHA%20-%20Children%20and%20COVID-19%20State%20Data%20Report%207.30.20%20FINAL.pdf

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

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/2018-2019.html

What kind of person refers to Covid-19 as the "CCP virus" or the "China virus"?

Just look up the statistics for yourself.

The Lancet  Volume 395, ISSUE 10242, P1973-1987, June 27, 2020:

Transmission of viruses was lower with physical distancing of 1 m or more, compared with a distance of less than 1 m (n=10 736, pooled adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 0·18, 95% CI 0·09 to 0·38; risk difference [RD] −10·2%, 95% CI −11·5 to −7·5; moderate certainty); protection was increased as distance was lengthened (change in relative risk [RR] 2·02 per m; pinteraction=0·041; moderate certainty). Face mask use could result in a large reduction in risk of infection (n=2647; aOR 0·15, 95% CI 0·07 to 0·34, RD −14·3%, −15·9 to −10·7; low certainty), with stronger associations with N95 or similar respirators compared with disposable surgical masks or similar (eg, reusable 12–16-layer cotton masks; pinteraction=0·090; posterior probability 95%, low certainty).

The findings of this systematic review and meta-analysis support physical distancing of 1 m or more and provide quantitative estimates for models and contact tracing to inform policy. Optimum use of face masks, respirators, and eye protection in public and health-care settings should be informed by these findings and contextual factors. Robust randomised trials are needed to better inform the evidence for these interventions, but this systematic appraisal of currently best available evidence might inform interim guidance.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltext

If you'd like to read more about the topic the link provided by Herve above seems a good start. Very recent study with sources listed.

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/08/07/sciadv.abd3083/tab-pdf

From the article:

In fact, recent studies suggest that wearing face masks reduces the spread of COVID-19 on a population level, and consequently blunts the growth of the epidemic curve (7, 8).