Giovanni Pascarella comments

@ Utopia and @Akie

Your comments are highlighting and important point here.

Some countries are stuck in this logic of "who's doing the best job".

This attitude is an ignorant pissing contest in the face of a serious threat.

Countries should come together now more than ever, overcome stupid squabbles and adopt shared and common strategies to face this emergency. It's also important to make the best use of the knowledge Chinese experts have unfortunately accumulated so far, by listening to them and hosting them when possible to seek some help and advice.

@ noriahojanen

Some hospitals in Northern Italy are currently overwhelmed by the number of mild and severe cases that require medical attention, not simply by the number of tested people.

Mild and severe cases require medical attention, oxygen supply, and can easily degenerate if not taken care of properly. With numbers of mild and sever cases going up so fast, it's clear that medic personnel is forced to take some decisions based on priority. Northern Italy has some of the best medical facility and knowledge of all Europe, I trust those doctors can distinguish between non-sever and severe cases.

@Zichi,

my comment was not meant to be critical of the local health system in general, as a whole. And I am relieved that you've had a positive experience and resolution. Take care!

Burning Bush, giving the size of Japan, 9000 tests so far is just too small sample. I am afraid that the number will dramatically higher than that, if the test is performed freely on all possible situations.

You'll be soon "free" to pay 20.000 yen if you want to get tested. In a country where people queue for hours to save 100 yen on a bad doughnut, we are not sure how that is going to work out. Or maybe we are?

SK government is covering the expenses for extensive testing, the sign of a civilized government.

Japan has reported 59 new infections today (highest bump since January) and a total of 19 deaths.

Source:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200310/k10012324181000.html?utm_int=news-new_contents_list-items_019

Yes, it's possible that widespread use of masks is useful after all since most cases are asymptomatic. Yes, it's possible that Japan lucked out and got a less aggressive strain. Yes, it's possible that no hugging, no kissing, no handshaking can bring an advantage in viral spread control. The simple answer is: at this point we don't know. There's rational basis to doubt number from the government, there's also reasons to think Japan is a true outlier compared to other countries. We just don't know at this stage.

Personally, to all people who soak into the pleasure of thinking that Japan is some kind of magical country escaped from the outbreak: I'd like first to see the recent statistics in deaths related to any case of respiratory failure or unspecified pneumonia. I bet we'd see a decent deviation from other years there.

Fresh news:

45 people released from the Diamond Princess and allowed to go back home are now showing symptoms.

Japanese Government should be SHAMED ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE for what has done, for the risk that is exposing its population to. There's no defending this. Abe & co. behaved in a criminal way about this whole story, and still are. We've been knowing for enough time now that Covid-19 PCR testing is not 100% reliable. All other repatriated foreigners have been put into quarantine by their respective governments. Not in Japan. No, here the government is playing its "keep your head low and the crisis will pass" game on the skin of its people.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/feb/26/coronavirus-latest-updates-who-mission-director-warns-world-is-simply-not-ready?page=with:block-5e55f28c8f086a28115b2aa3#block-5e55f28c8f086a28115b2aa3

Caliboy,

Japan is not even testing people who have been potentially exposed.

Check ref. 1 below, just one of many examples.

Besides, the screening capacity for Japan now stands at 3800 tests per day (ref. 2 below). I am a molecular biologist and do this type of experiments (PCR) basically almost everyday. A single person in a well equipped lab can do several hundreds tests, if not thousands. A single person, in a single lab.

So now tell me, what is the country that is doing a better job at keeping its citizens safe? Italy and SK, who have immediately adopted very strict containment procedures and are testing hundreds everyDAY, or Japan who is doing basically nothing? And as a matter of fact, Japan Government has even INCREASED the risk for infection by releasing cruise people who tested negative without further COMPULSORY quarantine. 23 people were not released without having been tested at all. So far, 2 released people have actually tested positive.

Bowing deeply won't reduce the number of infected people.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2020/02/23/japan-wont-test-medical-workers-on-cruise-ship-for-virus https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/880/

You only test if you are exposed. Please name one country that is doing widespread testing. Have you been tested? Yes or no. Why or why not?

Caliboy,

great. Now, can you please normalise those numbers by the total number or screened people per country?

Easy to keep the numbers low when you don't screen.

Japan 170 cases

Korea 977 cases

Italy 322

Funny that those numbers are in the article. Bases on the above numbers, which country is doing a better job?

The Japanese Government has found a conveniente way to keep the virus under control: it's called "not screening enough people". Screen no evil, see no evil. Somebody please explain to me how the same exact virus is not causing much infections here, but in SK and Europe has been spreading like wildfire. It's that simple, really. SK is testing tens of thousands people, Italy as well. How many people have been screened in Japan so far? Yeah.