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Comment by traceroute66 | Hacker News Reader

> Japan, actively promoted the airborne nature of COVID-19 early on

Yes, but Japan is a leader in airborne disease prevention.

I mean, if you visit Japan during a "normal" winter season you will observe two things:

    1) Widespread mask-wearing in public spaces
    2) Japanese not turning up to work to cough and splutter all over their colleagues

Both the above never happened in the West. It was hard enough to get your average dumb Westerner to comply during COVID.

The Japanese mentality of taking into account the impact of your actions on others has served them well.

That is why Japan has seen less than 1/10th of the COVID cases that, for example, the UK had. Despite Japan being 2x UK population and living/working in SIGNIFICANTLY higher density.

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Completely agree that Japan has done better. Putting some numbers on it:

  UK     21,461,556 cases, 313,247 cases/1M,  2,468 deaths/1M, 68,513,217 Pop
  Japan 6,832,377 cases,  54,313 cases/1M, 226 deaths/1M,  125,795,510 Pop

So its the deaths per million that is 1/10th (2,000+ vs 200+), while the cases per million are more like 1/6.

(data from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/)

This statistic is more striking considering the population over age 65 is 18% in UK, 28% in Japan.

The reality is we still don't know why Japan had a relatively low death rate. The factors you mentioned aren't sufficient to account for the difference relative to similar countries. Lower obesity was surely a factor but there's something else going on.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/22/japan-covid-...

Could also be artifacts if testing and labeling. Perhaps they weren’t testing everything with a pulse. Perhaps they weren’t (mis)labeling hospital patients who tested positive but were in the hospital for Covid as a “Covid hospitalization”

It will take decades and much cooler heads to determine the winners and losers. Trying to claim the winners and losers right now is a fools errand.

In almost every country the excess mortality is well above the official "Covid" death toll. They're undercounting, not overcounting.

Just because they ended up in the hospital for "other" reasons doesn't mean it wasn't Covid--someone we know recently lost her mother that way. Health issues that were under control--then they weren't. Coincidence that she tests positive after being admitted?? I don't think so!

There's also the reality that some people are clotting out in various fashions when they aren't nearly sick enough to warrant the hospital and thus likely aren't even tested. If the clot hits someplace quickly lethal (heart, brain, lungs) they end up in the morgue without ever being diagnosed.

I wouldn't widely blame workers for coming to work sick. Often they're either instructed to do so or have no paid sick leave and desperately need the money.

I'd say this is only a part of the story. I remember when I was growing up I'd go to school if I'm having "just a cough/sneeze/running nose". I.e. if it's not impacting my functioning (like a fever or pain from a sore throat would), I'd be ready to dismiss it as "not serious enough". Now, this was in Russia, so my argument isn't about the culture in Europe, but rather about the presence of cultural differences.

Nowadays, working a remote job, I can work if it's just a cough, and it won't affect my co-workers. Never thought about this benefit of remote work!

Maybe, but working around tech people in the US it seems to be cultural. Pre COVID it was so common to see "Oh I'm not contagious", etc while hacking at their desk.

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