sicksound comments

@Flute

NHK said this yesterday.

"The health ministry said that as of last Friday, 61 patients were in serious condition and either on respirators or being treated in intensive care units. Thirty-one of them came from the Diamond Princess cruise ship."

In Italy there are 700 people in ICU, this a baffling number, but very easy explainable as the virus lingered for about one month in the hospitals around Milan (not only), and obviously if you are already unwell for other healthy reasons is more easily to end in ICU if you get coronavirus.

There's a weird case about this old lady in Rome who was admitted on the 15th of January who died for an heart problem few days ago and she was tested positive for Sars Cov 2.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to downplay this, actually I'm taking as much precautions as I can and I'm really worried about my relatives in Bologna, but for now, I feel a lot safer here in Japan than back home.

I'm from Italy and I live in Sapporo, and I can tell you that Japanese people (at least here in Sapporo) were more aware of the coronavirus since it started in Wuhan (masks were already sold out the day after basically) when italians basically started to care just last Saturday. The way we behave is completely different, we touch people, we hug people, we kiss people, we shake hands we gather in bars after work with usually at least other 10/15 people and grandparents are the core of most of the families in Italy (young people spread the infections to the olders who are most likely to end in hospital), we have friends.

In Hokkaido the community spread started in mid-late January (as in Italy), and now there are 108 people infected (50 recovered, obviously the toll is much more high), and I think how people behave is making a difference. Just one more info, in the two weeks after the Wuhan lockdown influenza infections in Japan dropped by 60% from the same week the year before.

I read two paper stating that death rate for Sars Cov 2 is around 0,8 to 1,8% so this not obviously a death penalty, the problem is how fast is spreading and the risk of sending ICU and hospital completely in tilt, if it's coming like a tsunami wave(that's what happening in Lumbardy). Just one more info, Japan has the highest hospital curative (ICU) bed count compared to the population in the world. https://twitter.com/ThManfredi/status/1234881154056171520/photo/1

What are you reading about Italy lockdown is misleading, people are still going to work, while obviously doing teleworking where they can. Schools are off, as in Japan, big gatherings are off, as in Japan, supermarket are open, restaurant and bar are open until 6pm (here in Sapporo a lot of business are closed because a drop in business), the only thing they clearly asked is to stop to go out for non essential things like work, doing groceries and health reason. So in the end it's mostly on us and how we behave.

There is just one little piece here that seems missing though. Italy has around 400 people in ICU, Japan (without counting the cruise) just around 40 or something. This is not related to how many test you do, if you test them post mortem and things like that, this is an objective fact, and probably even the hardest to hide.

Sorry, not 3000, but 9500.

In Italy they ran 3000 test in 4/5 days and found 400 hundred infected, in Japan they run about 100 test per day. Make your math.

According to a report from Imperial College in London (that works with WHO) at least 60% of Coronavirus infection are going undetected.

I must say I'm not worried by coronavirus itself, but how the Japanese officials are handling this situation. If you see the John Hopkins map places like Europe didn't really had a substantial increase of cases of coronavirus in the past two weeks, even if flights from China are coming everyday (just British Airways and Lufthansa halted their services and Italy closed the flights to and from China). The real problem in Japan is how slowly they reacted to this ongoing situation, I mean, Italy not the country you would think when thinking about "best emergency response" had the two infected tested in 24 hours, the poor fella here in Hokkaido had pneumonia for 11 days before they thought to check him if he had coronavirus or not. I can understand that he didn't go abroad, but in this situation when you have an influx of chinese people coming and going without any restrictions, why wouldn't you think to check him a bit earlier?

I’ve been raised in Italy and since you are a kid you’ve been taught that one of the most disgusting thing to do is to cough or sneeze and not cover your mouth. I could remember countless episodes where I have been reprimanded for not covering my sneezes or coughs, and therefore the act of covering myself is now automatic. Since I came here I don’t know how many time I saw people sneezing and coughing and spitting without not even have the grace to turn to the other side.

Not only they should teach how to your wash hands properly, but also teach these simple manners that not only could mitigate the Coronavirus situation, but also would affect the spread of other respiratory infections, meningitis and tuberculosis which altogether killed 4.000.0000 people in 2017.