on the chat rooms it is being talked about the numbers are too low in Japan and are false, page 2

originally posted by: tamusan
a reply to: Byrd

Here is the article I used in the thread I started.

While omicron explodes around the world, covid cases in Japan are plummeting, and no one knows exactly why

The article quotes this but does not attribute it to anyone. I am assuming it was from Taro Yamamoto, professor of global health at Nagasaki University’s Institute of Tropical Medicine, who was quoted earlier in the article.

“Obviously vaccination, masking and social distancing are surely factors, but those alone cannot explain it, especially when comparing the situation to South Korea,” Yamamoto said. “It is unclear yet whether there is a factor X that exists specific to Japanese or East Asian people, but in determining this we hope it can help us to understand and control the virus.”

I spoke with my nephew last night (in Tokyo) and he said hospitalizations were starting to tick up. Perhaps they are just lagging behind the rest of us. Time will tell. They could also be seeing more infections than what is being reported because many do not feel like they need to go to the doctor.

Many thanks! That's a good article. I did note that they also commented on one of my speculations about the lower numbers:

Milder outbreaks — compared with the ravages of the virus in Europe and the Americas — were found in many Asian countries and were attributed often to a public accustomed to health measures from previous experiences with respiratory illnesses like the SARS and MERS epidemics

That was the first thing that came to mind when I read your comments.

I think the uptick is because of Omicron, but I also think that the impact will be less there in Japan.