EBP comments

Kono: I did vaccines.

Takeichi: Missiles and whatever Abe tells me.

Kishida: What's the right thing for me to say so I don't offend anyone?

Noda: Caring about people, practical solutions.

Noda, among the 4, is by far the most substantive and human in what she's saying. That doesn't win party support, but she is easily the most appealing candidate. Takaichi wants lots of missiles. Kishida doesn't want to offend anyone. Kono is just saying as little as possible because he's likely to win.

I grew up playing baseball, going to games, and I still follow MLB constantly. It's my favorite sport. And I'm glad to see to baseball won't be an Olympic sport anymore. It's even less competitive and relevant than the WBC.

Baseball's barely a global sport and the teams other than Japan and Korea (maybe Taiwan?) didn't represent anywhere near their countries' top players.

Japan puts its pro season on hold and stocked its team with almost all its best national players. I think Korea did, too (and still lost).

The U.S. fielded a team of minor league kids and journeymen and were basically equal to the Japanese all-stars who get paid millions, were in mid-season form, and were on home soil.

The U.S. bunch only lost the first Japan game on a blown lead in extra innings, and then got barely edged out in this game.

Get rid of golf and tennis while we're at it. The Olympics are one-off tournaments played by millionaires.

Softball, however, has a place. For the women, it's their biggest forum. They send out their best players and they're not millionaires. They play on a tweaked baseball field. They live for this.

The dominant variants will be more vaccine-resistant by the time their "studies" lead to any policy. Then more months to prepare paper coupons. More months to distribute supply. This is a silly discussion. Yes, boosters will be necessary. Japan should be laser-focused on producing them domestically. It has the brainpower and money to do it.

It isn’t the virus that’s killing the travel industry, it’s the unnecessary and totalitarian lockdowns that are doing it.

There are no lockdowns.

^ should say I wanted to watch the US women's team win gold in relative peace. Although they might not have even broadcast the final it if it was US–France.

I wanted to watch this in relative peace. Now we get Dramatic Japanese Sports Announcer Guy. How many of those guys are there? It's like they found one for every event with a Japanese athlete.

soudesu ne, sore wa atarimae desu yo neee.. SHUUUTOO!!!!!!

the men's rugby sevens team and rowing teams left a hole in the wall in the athletes accommodation at the Olympic Village

There goes the shikikin.

iraira

So hot countries with lots of UV have lower Covid infection rates....countries like India and Brazil?

Roughly.

On the contrary, the heat in those countries is likely a contributor to the spread because it makes people want to go inside. Mad dogs and Englishmen, etc.

COVID viral transmission is through droplets. Those droplets fall to the ground or get wafted away much more quickly when OUTDOORS (pay attention here). And water droplets evaporate faster in heat. Thus, being outdoors AND in the heat is significantly (90%, without mention of masks) less likely to transmit the virus.

That supposition, however, does not take into account variables such as masks (both presence and quality), distance, how loud you're speaking, etc.

I guess the forums don't like the less than symbol. Continuing... studies have found roughly less than 10% of all COVID infections were acquired outdoors. Compared with an izakaya, the Keihin-Tohoku, or a family dinner, this is a statistically much safer environment. Taking a quick selfie is not putting many in danger, and those that do are taking their chances.

I'll get many down-votes for this. Yes, they are not distanced, but that's about the only thing they're doing wrong. They are outside and they are masked. It's also a high-UV day and droplets are going to burn off faster. Studies have found roughly

Nothing like a long weekend to bring those numbers down. See you next Tuesday. I'm predicting near-3,000.

Russian Olympic Committee daihyou evidently was not briefed on the complexities of wearing a mask.

Users will need to go to the bank with their samples, passbook, and hanko. Monday to Friday, during normal business hours. There they will be given a small piece of paper with a number and asked to fill out and stamp multiple forms. Of those, half will need to be redone because katakana was in hiragana, or vice versa. Or romaji. They will then see a teller who will consult with her manager. After 30–60 minutes, the sample will be processed. The bank will then call the next day, regretful that the hiragana should have been katakana, or vice versa. Or romaji. The user will then have to go back to the bank with their hanko. 50/50 chance the sample will be entered into the database within the next month.

@Dr Maybe exactly and thank you. Tokyo metro is roughly 38M, Australia is roughly 25M. JP and Aus have both stuffed it up in their own ways. I was, however, stunned to see JP has made up a lot of vax ground in the last 2 weeks and is near-even with Aus for 1st dose percentage. Here I thought Aus was a model country. Hard to say which is better without being there. My friends in Oz don't sound too miffed about their situations. Oz being Oz, there's plenty of social distance. I guess it's been one extreme to another there, whereas JP has been this plodding, wishy-washy mix of arbitrary advisories. JP could have been a leader thanks to its people's amazing self-restraint. It could have easily been over 50% by now. Not sure about Australia.

Get your bloody vaccine act together so this isn't necessary. There's an awful lot of whinging on this board about Japan's failures, and those failures are clear and many. But what's Australia's excuse? It has favorable trade relations with most major vax-making countries. Educated and literate population. Strong scientific community. Strong G12 economy. It's OKd AstraZeneca and Pfizer. Its population is 10 mil. less than Tokyo metro and heavily concentrated in a few coastal cities. And it's actually now just about even with Japan for 1st shots. The australiatodaydotcom boards must not be a happy place.

That is not regrettable. It's correct. Better not walk it back.

Have they been to Osaka?

Headline correction: "Nikon to end D6 body production in Japan by end of year".

Others have long been made in Thailand (And elsewhere? I don't know. Some lenses have been made in China). And they're awesome.

Love my Z6, loved my D750 before that, loved my D90 before that. All made in Thailand. I'll love my Thai-made Z6iii or whatever whenever I buy it.

Shame about the D6, but that's how it goes.

Clearly something that couldn't have been done SIX MONTHS AGO OR LONGER.

Good move. The global economy and supply chain suffer the longer the world stays sick and closed up. People in Japan will also suffer more as long as new variants keep emerging and making their way here. Helping people not get sick and die is also cool.

That requires a little thought. I know it's easier to whine. Carry on whining.

Vietnam has gotten by very well so far because they've taken what seems to be a good science-informed approach. This is a stupid idea from a scientific and economic standpoint. The results are useless if they're at a pace of 100,000/day for 9,000,000 people. They'll never be accurate. Do a lockdown, contact trace, test clusters, and test anyone suspected. If they want to go hard while still respecting people's humanity, follow NZ or Australia's examples.

What a disheartening waste of resources for a developing economy. And what will it accomplish unless you test all 9 million simultaneously and get the results back immediately? Even then, what will you do with those who test positive? Lock them in boxes? There are ample precedents for lockdowns hard (Wuhan), medium-hard (Victoria, Aus), medium (California), and soft (Japan). They all work in their own ways. Use one of them. I'm glad I'm not there.

Antiquesaving,

Now what was the new mass vaccination centre daily capacity again? Oh right 10,000.

How many times do you need to hear that clinics and medical facilities, as well as numerous other planned or already operating locations, are providing vaccinations?

That's in addition to efforts like this, which started today – https://global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2021/0521_01.html

You seem to have Japanese people around you to help, but I'll do a search for you and try and find a list of vaccination sites in your ward. Will that help?

Locations: The local ward and prefecture pages I’ve checked have lists of where the vaccines are being/will be offered. These are similar to the lists for national health exams and they include a lot of clinics. Most clinics should have refrigerated storage if they do any sort of injection. −80 cold, I don't know, but I expect the storage standard will be adequate. In my area, there were about a dozen places within 1 km of my home. These are in addition to the “mass” vaccination centers. Many (probably most) areas also are planning civic centers, etc. as larger-scale vaccination spots from June/July. Unsurprisingly, I haven’t found any such lists in English. It does, however, seem most wards will have a hotline to help w/English, Korean, Vietnamese, Portuguese, etc.

Going to U.S. for vaccine: I’d strongly considered it and mapped it out. It's not easy because I'm not in metro Tokyo. Actually, it may be faster to go to Guam these days (read about their "AirVnV"). Leaving would entail expensive PCR tests on both ends, lots of waiting, and then you have to quarantine for 2 weeks when you’re back. Also, if you’re not in Tokyo or Osaka metro, you need a private ride to get home. So for me, it’d mean 2 weeks in a hotel or Airbnb. Not ideal and another considerable expense. I'll wait.

Overall: Japan’s avoidably and inexcusably slow for a major developed country. True. There are other emerging or developed countries in the region that have it worse because they have less clout and messier logistics. Some are moving faster (but also have to settle for Sinovac). Many poor countries have barely made a start. They’re the ones that will continue to truly suffer at a mass scale, for a long time, unless rich nations start sharing more. More likely, they'll get the Sinovac and Sputnik, and whatever future IOUs that entails.