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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNew Surge Threatens to Collapse Japan's Hospitals
New Surge Threatens to Collapse Japans Hospitals
April 17, 2020 at 11:19 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard 110 Comments
https://politicalwire.com/2020/04/17/new-wave-threatens-to-collapse-japans-hospitals/
"SNIP....
Hospitals in Japan are increasingly turning away sick people as the country struggles with surging coronavirus infections and its emergency medical system collapses, the AP reports.
Japan initially seemed to have controlled the outbreak by going after clusters of infections in specific places, usually enclosed spaces such as clubs, gyms and meeting venues. But the spread of virus outpaced this approach and most new cases are untraceable.
....SNIP"
RockRaven
(14,784 posts)Derp.
applegrove
(118,022 posts)weeks ago.
Celerity
(42,668 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)They'd say "which vein???".
Celerity
(42,668 posts)Initech
(99,915 posts)tanyev
(42,360 posts)So we're totally screwed.
ProfessorGAC
(64,425 posts)They've got 180 million people in an area about the size of California. The population density is staggering.
Also, because land is so precious, most of their middle class is apartment or condo living.
Then, they're VERY dependent on mass transit.
So as a general population it's extremely difficult to keep people out of crowds. Even for truly essential workers the use of mass transit is problematic.
I think targeting hotspots will turn out to be a mistake in flattening. They likely needed to do a very short, nearly total shutdown, with phased restart.
But, everything is hindsight.
We have a much more spread out society, excepting places like NY where the living density is so high.
Chicagoland is something over 9 million people, but it extends from the Wisconsin line to 75 miles south, from Northwest Indiana to 60 miles west. Metro area, but way more spread out than NY.
As bad as it's been in IL, our numbers are still lower per million than NY, by a significant amount. We're a bit over 1,000 for 12.5 million. NY is 8,600 for 20 or so million.
For many of us, the mere fact that we don't live in packed in conditions helps.
Still requires smart caution.
But, Japan's situation doesn't portend US outcomes.
Unless of course, we do something stupid.
Like the country did in November 2016.
tanyev
(42,360 posts)It's just so agonizing to think about how much better the country could be doing with competent federal leadership that got to work on the problem right away--stocking up on all needed supplies, developing tests and testing strategies, and giving medical personnel and scientists all the support they needed.
ProfessorGAC
(64,425 posts)You know, simply not using coronavirus & hoax in the same sentence might have helped.
MerryBlooms
(11,728 posts)Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been criticised for not introducing restrictions to deal with the outbreak sooner for fear they could harm the economy.
His government has argued with the governor of Tokyo, who wanted tougher measures introduced more quickly.
Only on Thursday did Mr Abe extend a state of emergency to the whole country.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-52336388
Doesn't sound good.