Mpqholygrail comments

Or, the voters may just look for the best candidate and vote what they want, not what other people tell them to want. You know, having personal agency. Funny how this is more a question of, "may I be allowed to make my own decision or should I be forced to accept yours based on the fact that you are saying it?" It feels like this had been the centerpiece of what is going on around the world. Stop pushing things. Make your case, face opposition or opinions and leave people to have their own agency.

Glad I am over here. I can’t wait for the ripples to happen after the election.

This ^

I hope some of you get the care you need after November 6th. I want to take this time to let you know that there is help out there if you’re feeling bad after the election. I mean this with deep sincerity since I think there is going to be a larger mental health crisis in the states when the election results come out. So be kind to your neighbors after and realize that they are your neighbors. You love eat and work next to these people. Your actual physical community is more important than having your soul crushed because some you believe in is gone.

now for my opinion because the above was genuine concern.

I agree with Bass4funk on all previous comments. Downvote away!

@Base4funk

been reading your posts for years. Your comments strike too close and near. You get my upvotes. (Ducks head, and runs for the bushes)

Ahhh always nice to see commenters here using the Tu Quoque - Ad Hominem as an argument when someone brings up a comment about Japanese cultural appropriation. It is of course, it is logical fallacy but hey who is catching it right? No one said the appropriation was good or bad. Perhaps there is no need to get defensive?

Ok, let me try that again. Honestly how or why was this even downvoted? It posed coherent questions...

It also highlights the absolute farce that is cancelling all summer festivities. Shame on this government, and all governments in the world for lacking any creativity, vision and courage to take this forward. This is no way to live.

Festivals and other public gatherings in Japan consist of large crowds of people enjoying themselves by crowding together, talking together, cheering together, sweating together, laughing together, eating together, drinking together, using public toilets together, and generally carrying on in a carefree way. Together. That's a great part of the appeal. To try and apply the practicalities of social distancing and anti-infection measures in that kind of environment would be impossible.

You've (presumably) read in the article the measures being taken by cinema and kabuki staff to clean, disinfect and keep some distance between patrons.

Which cinemas and theatres do you go to where the attendees behave in a way that would be the equivalent of the crowds at your average matsuri?

How would you propose to hold a festival or fireworks display or any large public gathering without creating conditions leading to a spread of the coronavirus? You'll need more than masks.

Could you suggest examples of the "creativity, vision and courage" you think should be shown by governments?

Festivals and other public gatherings in Japan consist of large crowds of people enjoying themselves by crowding together, talking together, cheering together, sweating together, laughing together, eating together, drinking together, using public toilets together, and generally carrying on in a carefree way. Together. That's a great part of the appeal. To try and apply the practicalities of social distancing and anti-infection measures in that kind of environment would be impossible.

You've (presumably) read in the article the measures being taken by cinema and kabuki staff to clean, disinfect and keep some distance between patrons.

Which cinemas and theatres do you go to where the attendees behave in a way that would be the equivalent of the crowds at your average matsuri?

How would you propose to hold a festival or fireworks display or any large public gathering without creating conditions leading to a spread of the coronavirus? You'll need more than masks.

Could you suggest examples of the "creativity, vision and courage" you think should be shown by governments?

Honestly how was this even downvoted??? Lol.....

The virus will be tackled only through measures “that would not further harm the economy,” according to Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike

There is your answer to how the virus is going to be handled in Tokyo. Leave, Stay, the decision is yours. No surprises no need for anger. Elections took place, Tokyo spoke and according to the election, the majority of the citizens that voted opted for this response. For those of us who are ex-pats, unless we are citizens we are just guests and entitled to nothing, again nothing new. This would be the same in our home countries too if we were ex-pats there. Only citizens have the right and responsibilities of running the show in their land.

Also, constitutions are never set in stone and are living documents. With political will, if the people of the land truly demand a change it will happen. Currently, Japan cannot restrict personal movements however businesses are not entitled to constitutional protections a person receives. Therefore, it is well within the rights of the local city, prefecture, national government to regulate these entities as they see fit. Hence why you have to register them. Is it the answer? Not my call. I'm an ex-pat and a guest so I'll make decisions for my own safety. And if it's not in my best interest to stay I'll go, quietly at that. Stay informed, don't rationalize your ineptness to make personal decisions that are hard or may cause short term pain, make the hard calls move forward to win. We're lucky today we can find all the real information about this virus and bypass political nonsense that's being spewed. However, as you can see they are being quite clear on priority.

IMHO

5000 is actually relatively small when compared to other countries.

If this were "exponential, then we'd be at 5 million by now since it started on January 16th, almost 4 months ago.

It's also important to note, they're counting the accumulated total, not the currently active cases.

A lot of people have since recovered and should be removed from the so-called "confirmed cases" count.

This is a false assertion. Way to many broad assumptions with this statement seeing as no large general population testing was done with the public. Therefore your assumption that this number is low is based off false positives. The community at large including Japan itself, which is now beginning to make efforts to test more individuals has accepted the fact that it requires more testing.

The Japanese media has repeatedly pointed out their there are numerous clusters showing with no links as to how they started. This horse has been beat to death, resurrected and beat to death over and over again.

Japan did not do wide testing and therefore there clusters are appearing with no links as to how the infected were infected. Therefore, a comparison between countries in this instance is dubious at best. Surely you understand that. If not, please further investigate the principles of statistical sampling because as a professional that uses statistics daily, the statistical baseline or your argument is incorrect.

A lot of scientists around the world are starting to claim that the test kits are faulty and delivering false positives.

Even people who die of pneumonia from another infection are testing "positive" for corona with the simple test but failing it on the more advanced blood tests.

So their deaths are being incorrectly attributed to corona.

Statisticians are comparing morbidity rates in Italy from March 2020 to March 2019 and actually finding only a small increase. Meaning that a lot of the old people who died were likely to die at that time anyways, they didn't die because of a new virus.

This is a logical fallacy. The argument was that you were asserting that this virus does not deem the amount of attention in the media, political, and economical realms for several weeks on this comment area. Your argument does not refute what the above person stated.

For your comment, thankfully the government of Japan, albeit a tad tardy but it is not alone in that category, seems to disagree with you. The government has went from definitively hosting thew Olympics during a pandemic to canceling the Olympics, releasing a stimulus package, governors instituting a lock down within the definitions and confines of their legal systems, increased testing, and declaration of emergency. It would appears that the government of Japan along with various other nations, healthcare professionals, and scientist disagree with your assertion that this deserves less attention.

I personally agree with the rest of the world on this seeing as my immediate family is on the front lines in two fighting this and I am actively working with my agency to fight this epidemic. After seeing the results of those sick with this and how it effects people of all ages, This disease is serious and it needs to be taken seriously. As a citizen of one of those nations, i can say we did not act fast enough and we should have treated this virus with much more respect than we did. Watching someone fight to breath while trying to pull out ventilator tubes because their lungs are filled up is not a pretty site. It is especially uneasy when it is someone in the same age demographic as you. ( I'm 38 btw).

Meanwhile, the Association of Coronavirus Infected Droplets (ACID) has agreed to also pause its activities in the country to abide by the Governor's request. The official spokesperson of ACID has said it will resume normal operations from Monday, like the rest of the population of Japan.

I see what you did there ;-)

The doomsayers were wrong and I was right.

Wow... current situation at hand around the globe and you want validation and kudos? I mean this as no insult; however, I am honestly amazed.

Hmm perhaps Hidetaka Miyazaki should be directing the Olympics. Olympic Souls 1, Aso's Curse. Hurry light that fire and Kindle that flame!

Before reading below, I am not condoning anyone go out an purchase a mask or buy one from 3M. That being said:

If you have a properly/professionaly fitted N95 or other mask with a P100 N99 or N95 filter. It should protect you from air particles in vapor from from entering your mouth, nose, and lungs. Note, your eyes are exposed, and filters usually have a life of 40 hours or 30 days if your using a 3M styled mask. 3M is a major manufacturer of these products and you can find documentation of their products on their website. The masks commonly worn here in Japan don't prevent but only stop people from spraying their insides all over the train somewhat. 3M is not the only company that makes the masks, I only know of them from work. Of course, don't take my word for Gospel. Also, funny seeing how so many are buying off Amazon, Rakuten, ECT. The last place I would go for a mask that I'm using on my face and breathing in would be from anyone except an authorized reseller. My two cents.

Just a heads up, for more information as to why the WHO took so long to announce. This article doesn't really describe why the Who took so long. I attached my source below. It appears that last time they announced it was a pandemic our governments complained that they spent money on vaccines that were not needed. I'm not saying I agree but sure we can all understand why they delayed after reading that. In my area of work, I can say the governments I have worked with are mostly hesitant to work proactively and more inclined to apologize after.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/03/11/who-declares-pandemic-coronavirus-disease-covid-19/?outputType=amp

"We are deeply concerned by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction."

Hmm..... Interesting. Doesn't matter what us JT internet doctors (sarcasm) on the forum say. Clearly we can all agree with this comment.