Read on Twitter
1/ A thread on why Japan has 60 times FEWER deaths per million than the UK with no mass testing, no travel bans and no lock down. 11 deaths per million in Japan with zero excess mortality Vs 641 deaths per million, with excess mortality of 60k in the UK.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/japan/
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/japan/
2/ No mass testing. Japan has not wasted resources testing healthy ppl. Japan has conducted 1.7m tests Vs 19.3m in the UK, per capita 22 times lower. This has avoided an obsession with meaningless R for a low incidence virus.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1100135/japan-number-of-conducted-coronavirus-examinations-by-type-of-patients/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/testing
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1100135/japan-number-of-conducted-coronavirus-examinations-by-type-of-patients/
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/testing
3/ Obesity. The rate of obesity in the UK is 28.7%. The obesity rate in Japan is 3.6%. This multivariate study shows the only significant drivers of deaths per million are obesity and GDP. Lock down, travel bans or social distancing had no impact. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30208-X/fulltext
4/ Healthcare model. Japan has social insurance universal healthcare system. The UKs NHS is funded by tax. The lack of political interference means from infant mortality, to number of MRI scanners to life expectancy Japan has a superior outcomes.
http://dajf.org.uk/seminars/uncertain-futures-the-individual-society-and-the-state-in-the-uk-and-japan/healthcare-provision-and-management-in-the-uk-and-japan#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20universal%20healthcare%20system,provision%20at%20all%20said%20Morita.
http://dajf.org.uk/seminars/uncertain-futures-the-individual-society-and-the-state-in-the-uk-and-japan/healthcare-provision-and-management-in-the-uk-and-japan#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20universal%20healthcare%20system,provision%20at%20all%20said%20Morita.
5/ Politics. Japan's legal system does not permit travel bans or mass house house arrest on it's citizens. This meant an authoritarian Chinese inspired lockdown was never an option for the political class there. This avoided excess deaths through shuttering healthcare.
6/ Japanese public has a hostile attitude towards China as surveys regularly show. Ordinary ppl would view copying Chinese marxist mass house imprisonment as primitive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Chinese_sentiment_in_Japan
7/ Media. There is no equivalent to the sensationalist @piersmorgan, @BBCNews and @SkyNews in Japan. News is reported soberly and avoids sensationalism and speculation. They would not irresponsibly report meaningless number like cases and R creating irrational fear.
8/ In summary Japan is a case study on how an island nation can sensibly respond to a seasonal virus without:
1) mass house arrest
2) travel bans
3) excess mortality
4) government profligacy
1) mass house arrest
2) travel bans
3) excess mortality
4) government profligacy
9/ Whilst ppl talk about Sweden who are in many ways doing thing better than the UK. There is no excess mortality at all in Japan, therefore it's an even better example than Sweden of how to not fall foul of irrational fear over an unexceptional virus.
