livvy comments

I have just been through a flu severe enough to stay home for a week and ask for a PCR nasal swab test! Symptoms started Thursday Sept 30 and I'm still trying to get rid of the last of a deep cough. It turned out to be a "regular" flu virus that gave me a fever of 37.7C / 100 F for three evenings.

I don't know anyone who has this, though in the trains I have heard people coughing a similar/sounding cough.

A medical doctor friend of mine recommends that everyone be sure and get a (regular) flu shot this year, as soon as possibie. She cautions that no one getting the flu for 18+ months + kids back in school = many flu cases

@factchecker:

With numbers this low why are fully vaccinated folks still being made to self isolate on arrival?

Because elections are on the horizon!

It seems that French delays notwithstanding, it will be another 20 years or so before the first submarine is made from the UK. That is several Australian national elections away.

Does anyone have a sense of how amenable the Australian voters are to acquiring nuclear-powered subs? Neighboring New Zealand, also Canada seem wedded to their anti-nuclear stance, so I'm wondering if this a permanent right-wing shift on nuclear-related politics for Australia, or not.

I daresay it's smart for France, strategically, to put a lot of pressure on alliances and try make lemonade out of the lemon of losing the Australian sub-making contract.

I remember how Korea protested Japan's hosting of the 2002 World Cup FIFA Games, eventually gaining admittance as co-sponsor. In this case, as has been stated above, France has many overseas territories in the Pacific and rightly should have been approached to join the new alliance -- and perhaps still can be! AUKUS could just as easily be FAUKUS, now couldn't it? I believe Biden was too hasty in this project. More collaboration with room and a orocess for adding other nations which have nuclear-powered submarines (India?) down the road would have created more of an alliance, and less of a club structure.

Quoted from TheTruthisOutThere 8:22am: Are you aware that France is present in all oceans ? There are French territories in Pacific Ocean (French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna), Indian Ocean (Reunion Island, Mayotte), Atlantic Ocean (Guadeloupe, Martinique, French Guyana, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Martin) and even in North America (Saint Pierre and Miquelon). So France is a power in the Indian-Pacific and has interest too.

At first I went for the idea of urgency, that Australia was super-ready to support the US Navy in current strategies to keep international sea channels safe from Chinese control, but the fastest that the UK could deliver subs is 10 years, so it seems quite reasonable to make room for France in AUKUS.

Anecdotally, in Japan the population segment most affected by doubts about the impact of mRNA vaccine spread via online rumours as text messages and through SNS is college-aged women and teenagers.

I hope that respect for advice from official sources helps to get this age group of young women into vaccination centers. I expect a higher (eventual) rate of vaccination among those aged 30 and above.

Sorry, not Ravi but Rovi company:

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/rovi-make-active-agents-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-2021-04-12/

@Jim, others still trying to make vaccination appointments

Readers of all ages who live close enough to central Tokyo, if you are having trouble finding an appointment to get a vaccine, there is plenty of availability every day for free vaccination with Moderna vaccine at the Clinic For Tamachi, located in the building right at the Shibaura Exit of JR Tamachi Station. You register and confirm your identity using a Line account with password set up or Google account, then you can use their online calendar to book apoointments. Just bring your city or ward issued ticket or voucher, and completed questionnaire to the appointment (not needed for the booking).

For myself, I used the Shinjuku Home Clinic located near Yotsuya-3-chome Station, 20 min walk from JR Yotsuya Stn. Online calendar is not back up yet -- so call 03 6273 2109 -- the doctor said he's expecting more doses soon. It's a tiny 1-doctor clinic.

Private clinics accept tickets from any city or ward. Stay away from crowds and get vaccinated soon. Don't delay.

So most probable contaminant is traces of rubber from the vial sealing material. That makes some sense, considering the endless, high speed production that must be going in around the clock at the Spanish Ravi company that puts the vaccine into vials. I'm guessing that lidneys are able to clear traces of rubber from blood, and that urine is the exit path. Perhaps some people with weak kidney function will have trouble? Need more info on this from a real bews reporter who has the background to report on medical topics. This one-party LDP country survives due to such weak news reporting, I suspect.

@M3M3M3

....no way for current shareholders or prospective investors to discover this by reading the annual reports. Failure to make these required disclosures is the crime here.

It seems to me that this perspective conveniently absolves the international audit firm from responsibility -- but if you take this vewpoint further, it seems to me that a signed agreement between Nissan Board and Ghosn on future consultancy and fees would have been required by the audit firm to then make (at least) a note about the arrangement for disclosure on company financial statements -- yet as Ghosn immediately pointed out, there is no such signed document.

I think Ghosn was too clever by far, so clever that mere excellent managers and directors could not hope to retain him. They should simply have let him go, of course paying out huge sums in severance. There are limits to what can and should be disclosed even to shareholders and this is a great case study about that.

Nissan executives threw out the baby with the bathwater, damaging their own company irretrievably, both in credibility if their management prowess and value of their stock when they went to the Japanese prosecutor with this matter instead of handling it internally. I'm with Kelly. He should not be in court. All of this could have been resolved three years ago at a meeting of Nissan's BOD.

Readers if all ages who live close enough to central Tokyo, if you are having trouble finding an appointment to get a vaccine, there is plenty of availability every day for free vaccination with Moderna vaccine at the Clinic For Tamachi, located in the building right at the Shibaura Exit of JR Tamachi Station. Just bring your city or ward issued ticket or voucher, and completed questionnaire For myself, I used the Shinjuku Home Clinic located near Yotsuya-3-chome Station, 20 min walk from JR Yotsuya Stn. Online calendar nit back up yet -- call 03 6273 2109 -- the doctor said he's expecting more doses soon. It's a tiny 1-doctor clinic. Private clinics accept tickets from any city or ward. Stay away from crowds and get vaccinated soon. Don't delay.

Readers who live close enough to central Tokyo, if you are having trouble finding an appointment to get a vaccine, there is plenty of availability every day for free vaccination with Moderna vaccine at the Clinic For Tamachi, located in the building right at the Shibaura Exit of JR Tamachi Station. Just bring your city or ward issued ticket or voucher, and completed questionnaire For myself, I used the Shinjuku Home Clinic located near Yotsuya-3-chome Station, 20 min walk from JR Yotsuya Stn. Online calendar nit back up yet -- call 03 6273 2109 -- the doctor said he's expecting more doses soon. It's a tiny 1-doctor clinic. Private clinics accept tickets from any city or ward. Get vaccinated soon. Don't delay.

Readers who live close enough to central Tokyo, if you are having trouble finding an appointment to get a vaccine, there is plenty of availability every day for free vaccination with Moderna vaccine at the Clinic For Tamachi, located in the building right at the Shibaura Exit of JR Tamachi Station. Just bring your city or ward issued ticket or voucher, and completed questionnaire For myself, I used the Shinjuku Home Clinic located near Yotsuya-3-chome Station, 20 min walk from JR Yotsuya Stn. Online calendar nit back up yet -- call 03 6273 2109 -- the doctor said he's expecting more doses soon. It's a tiny 1-doctor clinic. Private clinics accept tickets from any city or ward. Get vaccinated soon. Don't delay.

Readers who live close enough to central Tokyo, if you are having trouble finding an appointment to get a vaccine, there is plenty of availability every day for free vaccination with Moderna vaccine at the Clinic For Tamachi, located in the building right at the Shibaura Exit of JR Tamachi Station. Just bring your city or ward issued ticket or voucher, and completed questionnaire For myself, I used the Shinjuku Home Clinic located near Yotsuya-3-chome Station, 20 min walk from JR Yotsuya Stn. Online calendar nit back up yet -- call 03 6273 2109 -- the doctor said he's expecting more doses soon. It's a tiny 1-doctor clinic. Private clinics accept tickets from any city or ward. Get vaccinated soon. Don't delay.

Readers who live close enough to central Tokyo, if you are having trouble finding an appointment to get a vaccine, there is plenty of availability every day for free vaccination with Moderna vaccine at the Clinic For Tamachi, located in the building right at the Shibaura Exit of JR Tamachi Station. Just bring your city or ward issued ticket or voucher, and completed questionnaire For myself, I used the Shinjuku Home Clinic located near Yotsuya-3-chome Station, 20 min walk from JR Yotsuya Stn. Online calendar nit back up yet -- call 03 6273 2109 -- the doctor said he's expecting more doses soon. It's a tiny 1-doctor clinic. Private clinics accept tickets from any city or ward. Get vaccinated soon. Don't delay.

@Fizzbit

Yes, mass vaccination campaigns are part of the total environment in which a virus reproduces and mutates. The best mass vaccination campaigns are those implemented as close to lightning speed as possible, to a very high percentage of the population. Achieving this ideal is of course highly challenging, but in a democracy, the solution is surely not to vaccinate only the elites -- this solution might be inferred from reading your quote of the Dutch expert.

The key concept is surely velocity. In the out-of-control spread situation, a virus mutates naturally, and failure to adopt a mass vaccination campaign is criminal negligence for a society with a modern medical system. To reduce velocity of transmission (which reduces the speed of mutations), lockdowns, remote work and schooling, mask-wearing, and handwashing all must be used because they are proven methods to slow down viral transmission.

This is where we are now, struggling to reduce velocity of transmission while also keeping up as rapid a pace of vaccinations as possible, to as many people as possible.

Giant sports events and all kinds of festivals and cultural events are vectors of community transmission, and to be avoided in a pandemic.

I am relieved to finally, FINALLY see this of count being publicized. Ever since the start of the pandemic, the policy has been no PCR tests, no autopsies conducted on persons found dead at home, even who died alone. I have doubted the official tallies of deaths from covid-19 for a long time now because of this policy. This is a step in the right direction.

Please, please everyone continue to diligently wear masks and take whatever precautions you can to prevent the spread of coronavirus!

The variant is a very opportunistic hitchhiker. Prevent clusters!!

The roller coaster hasn't yet come to a full stop yet. Give it a few weeks until the data can catch up to the images on TV on on the computer screens.. Way, way too early to shift the discussion to the Paris Olympics. Doing so makes my stomach churn!

The abrupt shift to thinking of the Paris Olympics makes my stomach churn. This roller-coaster hadn't yet come to a full stop!

We don't even have the full information yet on the virus spread consequences, and psychological consequences on the hosts of these games. I appreciate that the Olympians are going home in good health -- but they were never the main risk in this pandemic, being young and in extremely good health.

I'd still like to know, for example, why the accounting manager of the JOC committed suicide just before the games? And how many Olympics volunteers will end up in the hospital with covid-19? And how about the thousands of shuttle bus drivers who came from outside Tokyo, worked 12-hour shifts with no anti-virus protection, no PCR testing protocol, nothing but a mask, and who slept in dormitories during their time in Tokyo. They are presently headed home to places all over Japan.

My stomach churns at all these things and I'm in no way prepared to read news about the Paris Olympics.

@falseflagsteve

Pre-existing conditions includes smokers of all age groups, as well as those suffering from hypertension. The scenario you paint is vastly too rosy!

@Tara Tan Kitaoka

France has sent, and has promised Japan that they will continue to send heavy-duty naval warfare equipment to Japan for military exercises. France has territories still today in the South Pacific, and wants to keep the current order in the Pacific. They want to help check China's expansion into the Pacific. What's not clear is how France intends to work together with the US-Japan joint military operations under the US-Japan Security Treaty since they are not a signatory.

Here's the educated person's critique of the safety protocols at these games: we have a one-size-fits all testing regime that was built around the lack of a requirement for all athletes to be vaccinated, and doesn't sufficiently relate to various degrees of transmission rates that are due to the of how the sports are played, nor intrinsic differences among the venues (indoor or outdoor, various amounts of airflow, etc.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/covid-risks-at-the-tokyo-olympics-arent-being-managed-experts-say/

The issue here is purely the increasing numbers of people traveling this summer, and how many need to be screened before admission from the airport into the country. It's an admission that capacity to process all the incoming flights is not there.

Remember what happened recently at Finnish border control when a huge wave of Finns returning by car and bus (not airports) from EU championship games overwhelmed the border. Customs officials were ovrrwhelmed and started letting returning Finns through eithout PCR tests. Soon their infection rates went up twenty times.

Japanese authorities are signalling they're willing and able to cancel flights rather than just let people through.

According to the JT of June 11, far fewer than 18,000 volunteers out of a total 70,000 volunteers will have received both vaccinations by two weeks before the start of the Olympics, with some volunteers starting to work already on July 1 (airports). Only volunteers who would have duties that placed them in frequent, close contact with athletes were invited to be vaccinated at the special venue. Sooner or later, these volunteers are going to become vectors of transmission. Heaven forbid they come down with symptoms and show up for work anyway, as many are used to doing ....

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/06/11/national/olympic-worker-vaccinations/

@Zoroto: my infirmation is that only some of the volunteers were offered a special chance to go ahead of their age group for the vaccine. There are a very large number if volunteers. Only those who will be working in the same space with the athletes have been provided special early access to both doses -- I guess with the assumption that there is no community infection risk in Japan (ludicrous!). It has also been reported that many temp workers have been hired to assist the Olympics volunteers. (through Heizo Takanaka firm Pasona, at great cost to taxpayers). I've seen no reporting about their special access to vaccination, and will assume none as a consequence. What could possibly go wrong with these preparations in a pandemic?

Am going straight home and staying there!

I feel fortunate to lead several groups of English conversation hobbyists in Tokyo with members who are old enough to have memories of many Olympics, including 1964 Tokyo Olympics. What I observe is they have varying levels of enthusiasm for sport on the one hand, but much stronger feelings that they would like to see coronavirus under control instead of these games. Five of them are older women with grandchildren who patiently jumped through the hoops to become volunteers, but who have all resigned.

They feel that the risk of becoming sick is too high, and the timing of holding them is wrong. That is the cautious, pragmatic Japanese spirit I know and recognize.

The current government seems to be imbued with an idealism and willingness to take risks that I don't see in the voters. They are really gambling that they can pull off this event. Time will tell.

Although the number of domestic ticket-holders is being held to a max of 50% capacity of the stadium or 10,000 fans, whichever is less -- by order of the JOC -- the number of tickets issues to corporate sponsors is not being reduced, and in some events 70 percent of seats are reserved for the corporate sponsors of the Olympics! One of my friends is a volunteer for the Olympics and has recently received instructions to expect a full stadium. Another friend told me the corporate sponsor ticket holders will have a questionnaire to fill out before entering a stadium about about their health and recent contacts with infected individuals, and a fever check -- but it sounds very much like TV cameras will show full stadiums. There's no problem finding enough Japanese to attend games. If anything, hosts will find it easier to manage their guests lists!

It's guaranteed to be a giant mess because the athletes who test positive upon or just after arriving in Japan got their slots by winning top competitions in their home countries. although a country may be fortunate to have a deep field of top athletes, it's not at all the case for every country in every sport. I have to question the value of an Olympic medal when many countries are asked at the last minute to provide alternate players.

Tbis Olympics may turn out to be the worst, most notorious Olympics in history for any number of virus-related administrative reasons.

The strawberry farmer has stumbled over the emperors outstretched leg and made a most ungraceful recovery!

(un croche-pied, in French)