Yeah they had a tremendous surge and they need to postpone the Olympics.
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It’s bizarre to see this in such a developed country. I wonder how much is due to the high importance placed on saving face in its culture, which could lead officials and others to slow-walk vaccinations and other measures so as to preserve the illusion that things are just fine and no one’s made mistakes or screwed up. And the Olympics absolutely should be postponed, but probably won’t, because it would be seen as embarrassing. But wouldn’t lots more deaths be vastly more embarrassing, and of course horrible? I’ve been pretty much writing off sports since this started. It’s just not the same without everyone participating and spectating normally and everything achieved should have an asterisk next to it for all time.
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Most cops here don’t wear masks and haven’t the whole time, way before the vaccines came out. I assume it’s a macho cop culture slash Trumpie thing. And they don’t understand why the public doesn’t respect so many of them.
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Plus! It takes a huge huge huge medical staff to host the Olympics. Vast healthcare and emergency needs. And their whole healthcare system is maxed out as it is.
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This is apt. Hand washing was considered feminine so docs wouldn’t do it, even when it was shown to keep patients (women, mostly) safe from disease. Too girly, not gonna do it.
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This is still very much the case with many men, who I see leaving restrooms after doing their business without washing. It’s why I HATE shaking hands and one of the few positive outcomes of the pandemic. Real men aren’t afraid of germs!
Yeah, “real men” are also quite stupid.
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No more blowing out birthday candles either.
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That was always an incredibly stupid and reckless tradition that I hope ends after things are back to normal. Yeah, I really want to be eating that “special icing” little Petey added to his birthday cake.
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Yeah that’s the other thing about the surge in Japan and the Olympics - excellent point.
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I think it’s not so much saving face, as the fact that Japan has a more rigid, inflexible set of rules and regulations slowing things down.
Compare that to the quick EUA and massive vaccination effort in the US, some of which involved bending regulations to fit the crisis. There may be a degree of cultural hesitancy about “non approved” medical treatments as well, but if the Japanese government said this was important, the people would fall in line. As far as I can tell, it’s lack of supply more than anything else. I have a daughter-in-law in her 30’s living in Osaka, and she probably can’t get vaccinated until the Fall.
What amazes me is that Japan didn’t manage to create its own domestic vaccine, and instead is relying on foreign supplies. That’s another reason they’re having problems; they didn’t get in line soon enough with vaccine orders. I would have thought they had the medical infrastructure like India or Russia to create their own vaccines, but maybe again it was a case of a rigid bureaucracy that couldn’t get in gear fast enough.
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Is that how you got to be a grandma at such a young age?
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Well, they do say that having an underlying condition increases the risk of a bad outcome with COVID-19.
The underlying condition in this case being idiocy.
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And when it happens, the inevitable question will be - “Who to blame, Joe Biden or Barack Obama?”
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I wonder if this is also the cause of its now decades-long economic stagnation, this bureaucratic rigidity and over-reliance on fixed rules. When we need to adapt and change, we do so (well, most of us), and it’s one of the reasons for our success. It’s a cliche but there is a “can do” spirit in the US that many countries don’t have and can’t fathom. Anyway, I hope they find a way past this and that your daughter in law gets vaccinated soon.
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Not quite:
These adjusted numbers paint a far less optimistic picture: Washington’s case rate among unvaccinated people is as high as it was in late January, near the peak of Covid infections. Source.
It’s not universal but the numbers are troubling in quite a few locations:
But [adjustments for vaccinations] show the rate among susceptible, unvaccinated people is 73 percent higher than the standard figures being publicized. With that adjustment, the national death rate is roughly the same as it was two months ago and is barely inching down. The adjusted hospitalization rate is as high as it was three months ago. The case rate is still declining after the adjustment.
It’s not “cherrypicking” to point out that the unvaccinated are still at risk in many states and communities nor is it “innumerate garbage,” which is why you carefully did not point to the actual Washington Post story. It absolutely is “cherrypicking” to ignore these data.
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No shit? This changes everything!
Leaving more quiche for the rest of us.
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Except I wasn’t the one who decided to not source my claim as you did. So no, it was not upon me to reference anything. Try harder, or well, smarter.