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samurai

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Everything posted by samurai

  1. One academic reporting on this has said that they believe that keeping schools closed has only resulted in a 2% decrease in infection. In Japan daycare have been open the whole time. The daycare right next to my office has been open the whole time - has probably over a 100 kids. No problems reported which I would have been privy to. The kindergarten was open the whole time until the school year ended at the end of March. Primary school kids here for the past month have been able to go to school each day and play with other kids for an hour and half. After that they all head over to the parks and play for hours and hours. The evidence does not support keeping schools closed. What is starting to emerge in the debate is that not all 'social distancing' measures are the same. But as you point out you have some scared teachers and parents and so options will have to be figured out for them.
  2. Yeah, in relation to BC. You have evidence that Asians spread the disease in Canada or in B.C. for that matter? You line of argument could apply to Italians in Vancouver or Toronto as well.
  3. What does Asia have to do with it? Richmond which has a very large Asian community and has had very very few cases. A family member works as doctor in the main hospital.
  4. when you say every life matters I am guessing that includes the recent number the UN put out regarding starvation resulting from the lockdowns - I believe 137 million.
  5. Which happens every year with the flu and other coronaviruses. And which happens when you lockdown everyone and force children to live in close quarters with family including the elderly. There is no evidence to date that shows that children have been massive spreaders of this particular virus - perhaps you have some to share?. All clusters to date have not been at places where children do no congregate. The preliminary research shows that closing schools (kinder, and primary) have had less than a 2% impact on lowering the infection rates.
  6. As long as the ICU's are not overrun then there is nothing to worry about.
  7. Or when it is said and done what we did may be mind boggling. I don't know.
  8. For those of you who know Hitchens.
  9. Dude, I am not as drunk as you cause it is only lunch here, but the media, all of it is screwed. You want facts you gotta listen to the people who aren't on TV right now
  10. all those men are drunk. Work and then forced to go drink. You rarely see it anymore, except in a few regions of japan - it is very uncommon now. they were starting to get robbed so the police watch for it now. It is socially acceptable in Japan to 'close your eyes' in meetings. It requires certain skill to be able to do it and then wake when something important is said. After a very long time here I am still unable to do it. Tried yesterday in a zoom meeting that was supposed to be only an hour but ended up being 4 hours - a few end of the world is upon people took over the agenda.
  11. Faulty tests (well documented) combined with people not fully recovering in the first place.
  12. A the end of Feb. the gov't closed schools and asked people to stay home. People did. Businesses got hammered. In Hokkaido at the same time they declared a state of emergency (they had the first spike) and people were told to stay home - they did. Everything closed. Not surprisingly, people wonder why the declaration was only announced after the very large snow festival they have every year which attracts millions including lots of Chinese tourists. There is speculation that it was a spreader. That emergency lasted only 2 weeks about. In this time weather got warmer and the gov't was fighting to keep the Olympics on. End of March you have the cherry blossoms, end of the school year, and year end parties of all kinds - high school graduations. Not to mention the lifting of the state of e in the north So yes, there was a creeping back for sure. I saw it. The Swedish approach I have never understood. In the case of Japan you cannot look at their policy to date without the Olympics coming into play. Korea was similar to Japan in that they did not lock down, but Korea went to widespread testing whereas Japan took the limited testing and tracking route which seemed suspect because for it to work you need to know that you have limited infections. To date the results of the two paths are quite similar except now Japan has this problem in its main population centers which is not the case in Korea. As for my experience with Camus. Well, it started with my move to Japan as a young adult and for the first time in my life being confronted with 'mass existence'. You see quickly how insignificant you are and this is realized as least for me in a society that contains so many constraints, histories, and pressures that only compound it for someone not naturally cultured in it. I am a Northern BC kid. And you don't have access to their philosophers and so forth so you need to go ironically back out to get back in. Camus was one of the writers I relied on. He definitely helped, so did Kafka and Dostoevsky. Decades ago people used to come here and say it reminded them of Blade Runner. Well, that is correct because Ripley Scott had Japanese cities in mind. I do not know what new people feel now because Japan is a very different place than when I first came here. Most of the young people who I knew when I first came here got really messed up from living here, I was no exception. Many I knew left because they were having nervous breakdowns. I think authors above and others as well helped me. I have lived in Euro as well. I find that of the three - Asia, Euro and North America - the places I know. North Americans are the odd person out in terms of how we see are place in society. Again this is just my impression. Lots of young people do not study serious literature anymore and I think it is a serious mistake. You won't find the answers on Twitter.
  13. I am in an area close to Tokyo so while our numbers are low for us we are one of the areas targeted by the emergency declaration because of the obvious ties to Tokyo. Anyway my kids have public school today - orientation. Go figure. They are supposed to start full time tomorrow but that is now delayed. They go back on the 14th to collect homework and then wait until the 20th. My daughter acted like it was Christmas this morning. The Tokyo governor has targeted young people as not following the rules. That is BS. If you take a camera to a trendy area you will find young people. Youth congregate in specific spots. However if you go to a local shopping area it is all elderly. The elderly here are very committed voters. And of course you don't chastise older people in this country. Youth here have been getting a bad rap. Places like Harajuku have seen massive drops in visitors since early March. It creeped back a few weeks ago but now it is dead. A lot of the elderly here lived through the war and the post war period where most Japanese were starving to death at some point. I think many elderly just don't understand what the gov't and health officials are saying. I also think they don't care either cause they want to live their lives. Japanese are very good at ignoring rules. They are not a protesting country unless some lines are crossed, but if they don't like a rule they ignore it. I hike on a trail that was messed up by a massive typhoon last year. There are signs and tape everywhere telling people not to use it - I still do. And so do a lot of elderly. It is one of the tricks I have learned in this country, if you don't like it ignore it, if you get caught pretend you didn't know and say sorry. second time you get caught pretend you forgot and say sorry. third time apologize and give an 'emotional reason' (hiking makes you happy and needed for your health) and then that's when you need to stop. After that they will for sure punish you. Ignore, show ignorance, forget, use emotional reason to justify, and then finally stop. Not sure that works in Canada, here it is standards operating procedure.
  14. I was slow to identify your profile photo - ironic. As for the CNN piece, the average person in Tokyo I think has been doing everything they can since late Feb. There was some creep but this idea that the gov't has had to plea for people to stay home only came about when the Olympics were cancelled. Late Feb. schools were closed and all events as well. People were being responsible for the most part, as the weather got better and the gov't slept more and more people started going out again - end of March is the end of the year here, all kinds of parties and events. But until March 23 or whatever day the postponement took place they (the PM and governor) were not saying boo. As for the doctor. Saying Tokyo could be like NY is completely off the mark. I cannot recall any Japanese health expert, official or doctor making such a comment to a Japanese audience. It borders on absurdity. When I first moved here many years ago Camus was one of the writers that helped me adjust to life here.
  15. Nobody knows what it will entail. Schools have already been closed since late Feb. All major events and leagues even earlier. All kinds of flight bans are already in place including from Canada. Most companies well over a month ago started homework and so forth. Major stores closed on the weekends. Flights and bullet train numbers between cities and regions are at record lows already. The numbers reflect testing of sick people. There is no wide random sampling taking place. To date nationally they have 104 deaths, 64 severe cases (no info on recovery or not) and overall 3865 cases to date. The Osaka and Tokyo governors who have being pressuring the National gov't started exactly the day after the Olympics were postponed. Apparently, it is just a coincidence that numbers went up the next day. That has seriously irked people. There will more than likely be a run on the food stores again. The second time wasn't bad but there is always a %. It gives local gov't powers but doesn't mean they will be applied. The National gov't also can override and extreme measures taken. So basically the Tokyo governor has to run her plan past the National gov't. Nobody, believes what has occurred in the US for example will be applied here. I live next to Tokyo and the cases are small here and not growing. It remains to be seen if we follow what Tokyo does. Some areas have only a few cases so hard to see them using the powers. I wouldn't say looking bleak it has already been bad for months for certain groups of the population. Typical muddling from the gov't. My own view is that most people have been very good with social distancing. Tokyo is already a ghost town. I think it shows the limits of what social distancing can do once you lose ability to contain. Test and track works well if you get on it early. But since it is an airborne virus you cannot really track who you breathed on. I
  16. Being a parent you get used to children repeating the same things over and over - it is how they learn and develop skills, and it brings them lots of enjoyment. My daughter bakes me an imaginary cake almost everyday from her little toy kitchen. So yes, I understand you.
  17. I think most of what you write including above is oversimplification and over-generalization. For example in relation to your first paragraph, I have not come across any doctor/expert who has advocated a non reaction. Even in the last video he suggested reactions as you call them - isolating elderly. I have no idea what you mean by a counter-narrative nor for that matter a majority view. You have created a false dilemma in order to argue from a position of strength. That is my big take away.
  18. Him over you any day - his credentials are stated. didn't say I agree, some yes, but his points are interesting. Once more a glance of your response shows you have twisted a number of things he as said.
  19. No, not all (see). I also hadn't seen that you responded to the video earlier. I don't think for example your comment regarding the correction rate shows you appreciate his main point. Same with the 10,000 deaths comment. With the latter, it is at the 35:00 mark. He is given a hypothetical situation/question and explains how in that situation the virus could pass as an undetected blimp. In other words he offers up a hypothetical scenario for the hypothetical question and at the end of that exchange reminds the listener that is what he has done. It is not a statement of fact as you treat it in your previous post. Same with the factor point. You say you side with the 'majority' of experts and the WHO. Well, we have talked about this before. What exactly is the majority position, and how do you know that this doctor isn't in line with it? As this doctor points out approaches to this virus vary considerably from country to country. I am not sure a majority position as you call it exists. You have said our (riffraff) positions are unclear but you have parked yourself simply behind some so-called majority view without explaining what it is, and equally important without evidence that it exists. You take it as a given and I am not sure you can do that. The other video by the way is worth the watch.
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