Thought of the Day - January 5 2022 - The Japanese Miracle

As you know, I was surprised, like many, when Japan decided to proceed with the Olympic Games this summer. I was thinking, like Australia with their tennis debacle months before, that they would get themselves in trouble. However, while the event did trigger the largest outbreak to date, overall Japan did a remarkable job.

Indeed compared to most countries they have done a remarkable job from the outset. Japan had no increase in excess deaths in the country during the first year of the pandemic! Just think for a minute, here in Canada, despite all the money and effort we have spent, we are five more times as likely to have died from COVID by now than those in Japan, and of course, if you add in the deaths driven by Canada's anti-COVID measures the factor is probably double that.

Unfortunately, like many of the stories from Asian countries, the reasons why are rarely discussed in the Canadian press. While I have limited inside knowledge, and indeed talking to the people I know in Japan they are somewhat surprised and still a little critical of their government's approaches. After doing some digging I can find three main reasons why (of course, being an island doesn't hurt).

First and foremost, as anyone that has visited Japan will know hygiene and social distancing are engrained in the culture. I have a friend who illustrated it well by saying roadside truckstop bathrooms are immaculate, in part as cleaning products are made readily available and it is expected that patrons do their part to keep it clean. Heck, over here they would probably just be stolen!

Second, was the process they used to introduce vaccines:

None of this heavy-handed vaccine mandate crap we have resorted to over the last six months here in Canada. This just hardens anti-vax and ex-vax stances ( Thought of the Day - December 6 2021 - Ex-Vaxxers ). Japan's approach has led to vaccination rates somewhat higher than Canada's, without having to introduce an adversarial class system.

Finally, Japan has not spent its time banning public access to therapeutics. For example, on August 13, the Chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association announced that Ivermectin would be allowed as a treatment.

It seems in Japan significant responsibility was passed to the people. Unlike Canada people in Japan were not given conflicting information concerning prevention and told to hunker down, while the pharma companies fixed the pandemic. So now Japan finds itself with a remarkable track record and a recently vaccinated population. They are now awaiting results from the rest of the world concerning Omicron before deciding the next step.

In short, Japan did not do anything miraculous other than not shoot itself in the foot. Just saying . . .

Cheers

Cliff