After three booster campaigns in 2022, the Japanese are now in a league of their own among mRNA consuming countries, administering far more boosters than countries that had far more coercive vaccination campaigns.
Japanese over-65s have done their best to reduce Japan’s 612-million-dose stockpile of mRNA jabs, with third, fourth and fifth jab rates of 91%, 82.5%, and 56%, respectively. But unfortunately, Japan has started 2023 by reporting its highest ever daily Covid death tolls. During the booster era starting in early 2022, each wave has been noticeably higher than the last.
What could possibly explain this? Let’s ask Takaji Wakita, Chairman of Japan’s Covid Response Advisory Board: “The cause of the rise in Covid deaths is hard to explain.”
What about Dr. Satoshi Kamayachi, Director of the Japan Medical Association? “There’s a lot we don’t know, and we don’t have evidence.”
Nice to see an expert admit the limit of his knowledge. But there must be something Dr. Kamayachi can tell us, right?
Dr. Kamayachi, citing the rapid spread of Covid infections as one reason, explained that the majority of those who died were over 60 and many had underlying medical conditions. The direct cause of death is often heart failure or kidney disease, and he said that “thorough analysis is needed”.
Heart failure, you say? Well, it’s not like most Japanese over 60 have been injected multiple times with anything that causes cardiovascular problems, is it? And kidney disease is coincidentally a side-effect of Remdesivir, an approved Covid treatment in Japan.
Of course, Japan has been counting anyone who dies with a positive test result as a Covid death regardless of actual cause of death since 2020, but Dr. Kamayachi and the rest of Japan’s experts haven’t bothered bringing up the issue of attribution until now. In fact, they were more than happy to cite inflated mortality data to help promote the jabs. But now that people may question why daily reported Covid deaths are higher than ever after the majority of over-65s have taken the experts’ advice to get multiple boosters, underlying medical conditions can apparently be discussed.
But although he’s three years late, Dr. Kamayachi has a point. Although reported Covid deaths have been much higher in the booster era, far fewer Covid cases have been receiving mechanical ventilation (the grey line shows the number of ventilators (with ECMO) secured for Covid patients).
But even if hardly any of them have been struggling for breath on mechanical ventilation, Japan’s elderly have been dying in higher than expected numbers in the booster era. The national figures for December won’t be out until late February, but Yokohama (Japan’s second largest city) has already releases its all-cause death numbers for 2022. Somehow I doubt Dr. Kamayachi will call for a “thorough analysis” to find out the cause of the increase since August.
Although there’s no good news here for Japan’s vaxxed-to-the-max elderly, there is for Japan’s medical establishment: high numbers of Covid deaths mean the publicly funded Covid gravy train will keep going. From the Nikkei.
On January 11th, experts offered their on views reclassifying COVID-19 under the Infectious Diseases Act. In light of the current situation where the number of reported Covid deaths per day is the highest ever, the experts called for the Government to continue to provide a certain amount of financial support to cover treatment and hospitalisation costs and for securing hospital beds.
Basically, the Government’s selected experts, including Dr. Wakita above, recommend that Covid should be downgraded ‘gradually’, i.e., medical costs should continue to be covered by public funds rather than health insurance or out-of-pocket payments like every other medical condition. This might seem reasonable. But under the current scheme of Covid support payments, hospitals can be paid ¥436,000 ($3,370) per day to ‘secure’ a single ICU bed regardless of whether anyone is in it. And overpriced Covid treatments include glorified cold medications like Shinogi’s Xocova.
So let’s recap what the experts have told us. The cause of increased Covid deaths? “Dunno.” Should the Government keep showering medical institutions and pharma companies with money? “Absolutely!”
Well, what were you expecting them to say?
Guy Gin writes regularly on his Substack page, Making (Covid) Waves in Japan, where this article first appeared. Subscribe here.
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They’ll simply decide that they weren’t done properly and needed to be longer, harder and more restricitive
Although possible they have absolutely no evidence that that would work either. They already know, if it makes an iota of difference, that lockdowns are ruinous to society. The longer the lockdown, the more ruinous. Whatever ‘they’ find and ‘they’ decide, I ain’t doing it, no matter the consequences. And I think I speak for many.
Amen
So typical of them
I don’t care whether lockdowns and masks “work” or not. I’m not doing them for the flu/a bad cold. Normal life is much more important.
Amen. I second that. The motion carries.
I do wonder if these quangos would be missed at all if they were obliterated (yes, I mean that literally) because they appear able to do nothing other than contribute to government’s effluent overspill.
I’ve noticed a marked increase in public mask wearing hereabouts in the last couple of weeks, regardless of actual evidence or politicised ‘consensus’ change. For some, the mindf*ck damage is in too deep. Sad.
I observed this very morning a lady in her car driving along with a mask on, her husband (presumably..) sat in the passenger seat with face uncovered. Could be an interesting conversation over breakfast..
Indeed. I keep seeing couples in the supermarket where one is bemaskec and the other not. I wonder whether they cohabit and did they travel to the shop in separate vehicles
I’ve not noticed where I live, but in 2020/21 there were quite a lot of people not wearing masks and I never suffered verbal abuse for not wearing a mask and wasn’t aware of anyone else being subjected to this. Apart from constantly voting SNP it seems like Scots have a certain amount of common sense.
They should have read the bsi-guide-for-personal-safety-equipment-0520 v1.4 June 2020. Remember that in the UK, most of the junk sold to the public were NOT classified as “masks” – indeed, they would have tiny labels that say no (if you had a magnifying glass to hand), so as to avoid being done under trading standards. In the BSI guide they were classed as “face covering” and it said that: “The manufacturer/seller must not call it PPE or a medical device nor make any claim that the product will provide protection to any specific individual ”, and “General product safety regulations (product must be safe i.e. non- toxic, non-choking etc) ”. In short, they were of no physical value at all.
I’ve still got a copy of that one. And I never bought any of them.
So, ‘surgical masks’ were they?
It comes to something when NHS hospitals have face nappy mandates for more of the year than when they have not enforced this violation of human rights. But facts don’t matter in Clown World, seemingly. Anyone here in Leicester? Stay healthy and stay out of hospital. You also have the bonus of not being ‘Matt Midazolam’d’
”People in some parts of Leicester’s hospitals will be required to wear face masks again after a rise in coronavirus cases among patients.
Face coverings are now needed in clinical areas of the Leicester Royal Infirmary, the Leicester General and Glenfield Hospital, senior medics said.
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL) insisted the number of infections were “low”.
However, it said the step would protect, patients, staff and visitors.
UHL’s chief nurse Julie Hogg said: “We are constantly monitoring Covid-19 levels in our hospitals, and as a result we are reintroducing mask wearing in clinical areas.
“The number of patients testing positive for Covid remains low but has increased, and we are determined to ensure the safety of patients, colleagues and visitors to the hospital.
“Mask wearing is not mandatory in non-clinical spaces, such as offices, lifts, restaurants and corridors, but we will keep the situation under review.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-66988015.amp
The UHL Chief Nurse obviously knows the square roor of sweet FA about aerosol viral transmission. How the hell has she risen to this position of authority?!
I live in the Leicester area. I wonder what will happen if I need to go to hospital and refuse to wear their stupid muzzle. Will I be denied access? Denied treatment? What a world.
Yet more reason to look elsewhere for treatment and to take care of ourselves as a matter of urgency. How can these people be trusted with needles and scalpels if they think wearing a cloth over one’s mush will safeguard anyone.
The Conspiracy against “We, The People” was NOT a Theory. Shame on those who remained silent in 2020/2021. ALL Th evidence was already there.