Low death rate in Japan - what are they doing right?

[effingterrified]

Interesting discussion on Twitter here twitter.com/Birdyword/status/1241892318526894082

and in this article www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-03-19/a-coronavirus-explosion-was-expected-in-japan-where-is-it

Main suggestions - widespread wearing of masks, better hygiene, don't shake hands/hug in greetings, closed schools early, better healthcare.

Interesting that they have achieved low rates with small amounts of testing and without shutting everything down.

Any lessons we can learn from Japan's apparently easy success?

They have a lot of beds/ICUs per 100,000 population.

Cases are increasingly but not explosively.

Everything is fairly normal here except for the closure of schools, big leisure facilities like indoor play centers and theaters, and a drop in tourist numbers. The seclusion that I am seeing people advocating on here is making me smile---nobody is doing that here!

They are not testing much. However, there has been a really big drop in the number of seasonal flu cases compared to most years (same in Hong Kong, by the way) which suggests that a lot less is being passed around.

I agree that masks, not hugging/shaking hands much, and OK-ish hand hygiene (could be better, mind you!) all help. It also seems that Japan has contained the outbreaks to certain specific areas. Most of Japan seems to have no cases at all.

What I would really like would be for all countries to do a LOT of testing that would allow us to get a real sense of just how many cases there really are. Apart from anything else I am just plain curious.

I think the differing regimens of testing in various countries is massively throwing the statistics off - if some countries are only testing the most severe cases and only once they get to hospital, we have no actual idea about anything. Add to that the reality that I don’t think we can trust countries like China and Iran to be transparent, and it’s all a stab in the dark.

I think Japanese people, as a nation, show greater compliance with government guidance and went along with social distancing and self-isolation earlier. I think the baseline population health is very good as well, with low levels of smoking and fewer underlying health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and lung disease - similar to countries like Germany, Austria, Sweden and Norway which have also seen low infection and mortality rates so far.

I don't think there is much social distancing OR isolation here, from what I am seeing. Crowds of people absolutely everywhere. Japanese people are pretty healthy, but they have high rates of smoking among men.

It's all a bit of a mystery. I suspect that masks and not-hugging/shaking hands may be more powerful than originally thought?

I imagine a combination of more testing and a healthier population. It’s not unusual for Japanese / Japan born people to Start getting ‘normal’ age related conditions from 70-80 years old (when in other countries people start between 40-60).

Japan, like Italy, has an old population, so you would expect a higher mortality rate because more old people would get ill. I wonder how the ages of Covid-sufferers compares between the two countries.

I also wonder whether the Japanese attitude to cleaning has had an influence. Counters, bannisters, door handles, all the high-contact surfaces are routinely cleaned several times a day in many Japanese commercial and retail premises. Staff who come into contact with many members of the public often wear cotton gloves. Their gloves are expected to be sparkling white at all times, so they probably change them during the day and launder them all after one wear.

Blowing your nose in public is considered rude, so that's another contamination route avoided.

Cynics are wondering if the data reporting is not accurate due to understandable desperation to keep the Olympics on track... May be no truth in that but I guess it is hugely important economically.