【Miscellaneous】Coronavirus (COVID-19) in Japan

Usually, the content of the news is compiled here, and the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) has been dealt with in the form of news compilation or [fast report], but today I want to share the Japanese government from my personal point of view. Another story on epidemic prevention.

I think the biggest problem of the Japanese government this time is that the government has not tightened the clockwork from beginning to end, avoiding the important and not taking the new coronavirus pneumonia as the top priority. Part of this is related to Japan's administrative system, legal norms and other institutional aspects, but it is not possible to put all the responsibility on the system or "have no experience in fighting SARS", or shirk responsibility with "unpredictable (outside expectations)".

Japan's epidemic prevention is not coordinated by the central government

Epidemic prevention should not be handled by local governments, but requires a strong central government to collect information from all parties and make decisions. However, the Japanese government is still not from the central government (the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, or the cabinet at the next higher level). Office) to coordinate epidemic prevention measures.

You may ask me back, didn't Abe set up the "New Colo Narusu Infectious Disease Countermeasure Headquarters" at the central level on January 30, and have held nine meetings so far? I can bluntly say that the "New Colo Narusu Infectious Disease Countermeasures Headquarters" in the Prime Minister's residence in Japan is not at the same level as the "Central Epidemic Command Center" in Taiwan.

From the perspective of the government structure, it would be felt that Japan's "New-type コロナウイルス Infectious Disease Control Headquarters" and Taiwan's Central Epidemic Command Center are ad hoc organizations directly under the central government, and their members are all heads of ministries, but the problem is that Japan's "New-type Epidemic Command Center" What the KORONAナウイルス Infectious Disease Countermeasures Headquarters is doing is much less than the Central Epidemic Epidemic Command Center in Taiwan.

I don't know if this is a question of whether Japan's "New コロナウイルス Infectious Disease Countermeasures Headquarters" can do it, or whether it wants to do it or not, but just look at the simplest point: why the outbreak of community cluster infection in Japan is still level 1 The local heads of the administrative divisions (prefectures) stood up and held a press conference to clarify? Isn't Taiwan's Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shizhong personally on the line from the end to the end? When have we seen the heads of various localities come out to hold a press conference to clarify? What the mayor of Liudu said before the press conference was not a farce (disinfectant can't be smelled!), he was holding back (TMD broke the news and did not file a record there, it was shirk responsibility), that is to say, the local government will Fully cooperate with the center.

The New Pneumonia Countermeasures Headquarters at the Prime Minister's Residence will only be a show?

Furthermore, even if Japan established the "New Colo Narusu Infectious Disease Countermeasures Headquarters (hereinafter referred to as "Countermeasures Headquarters")" as early as January 30, this countermeasures headquarter is still just a pretense for show until February 23. .

The Countermeasures Headquarters is directly under the Prime Minister’s official residence. The Prime Minister (that is, Shinzo Abe) serves as the head minister, the Chief Cabinet Secretary and the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare jointly serve as the copy ministers, and other cabinet members are the Headquarters of the Countermeasures Headquarters. The Countermeasures Headquarters has held a total of 12 meetings since its establishment to the deadline for this article (2020.2.24), and each meeting lasts only about 10-15 minutes. The importance attached by the cabinet to the new pneumonia can be seen from Koizumi Shinjiro's palindrome reflection incident.

In theory, Shinjiro Koizumi, who should be on "flexible" parental leave, said it so nicely in advance that during the period of "about 2 weeks in total in 3 months", part of the official business was handed over to the Deputy Environment Minister or the Political Minister. If you need to hold a meeting, you will use email or video conference to handle official business (for Koizumi Shinjiro's "flexible" parental leave, please refer to the old article " Only Dads Can Take Two Parental Leaves? About Japanese Parental Leave" variety "). Then this person actually missed the meeting of the Countermeasures Headquarters on the 16th, went to the local tie-up meeting (to be more precise, the New Year's meeting of the support club), and agreed to take parental leave! Not only the Minister of the Environment (= Shinjiro Koizumi) was absent from the meeting of the Countermeasures Headquarters that day, but also Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Koichi Hagiuda and Minister of Justice Masako Mori were also absent for "reasons other than official business" such as the honoring ceremony and the award ceremony of the Calligraphy Exhibition.

On February 23, Shinzo Abe finally issued an order at the 12th meeting of the Countermeasures Headquarters that "in order to reduce the number of severely ill patients with new pneumonia, comprehensive basic policies such as the improvement of the medical system must be proposed." According to Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato, this comprehensive basic policy will not be announced until the morning of the 25th after an expert meeting is held on the 24th at the earliest.

So what has the Countermeasures Headquarters at the Prime Minister's Residence been doing this month? !

Later, on the evening of the 24th, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare held a press conference to explain the results of today's expert meeting. Basically, the usual measures are maintained, emphasizing that if you have a fever and other symptoms, you should recuperate at home, do not go out and do not go to the clinic to see a doctor, unless you have a fever for 4 days and then call the new pneumonia hotline of each prefecture. He also emphasized that there is no way for everyone to test Japan's quarantine ability. The implication is that everyone should be blocked, and people should stop arguing that the standards are too strict (or too broad, depending on the angle of view). Not tested.

Regarding the Japanese government's epidemic prevention, the famous people on TV said that everyone is an epidemic prevention expert, so I won't make more comments. However, recently, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare revealed that quarantine officers or civil servants who had boarded the Diamond Princess had contracted the new type of pneumonia after disembarking, only to find that the officials of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare who had boarded the Diamond Princess did not need to be tested if they did not show symptoms. Because quarantine personnel "have professional knowledge to prevent infection," they do not need to be tested or quarantined if they have no symptoms. Japan News Network (JNN) broke the news that a relevant person pointed out that at that time, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare had discussed whether to allow all employees of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare who had been on the Diamond Princess to undergo a round of inspections, but the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was worried. It was found that too many people tested positive, which would affect administrative business, so it was stipulated that only those who had symptoms after boarding the ship could be tested for the new type of coronavirus pneumonia. The deputy minister and the administrative officer who have passed the ship have not tested it, which is really good! (ironically)

Japan is still handing over local responsibility for epidemic prevention

The first (and currently the only) article I wrote about the new pneumonia in Japan was "The local government does not know where the Chinese Wuhan tourist group has been, and the 2019n-CoV new pneumonia may break out in Japan ". I rarely share my selection criteria with you. At that time, I wrote that article because I thought Japan was doomed this time (if you pay attention, in fact, you can guess me by looking at the way I bid. what is the position).

When I saw this news, I thought Japan was doomed, why?

The central government has no information on the itinerary of the Wuhan tourist group during this period

Even if it is not known beforehand, when the Nara bus driver of the sixth case in Japan and the first local case in Japan broke out, he should follow the itinerary of the Chinese tourist group (especially from Wuhan) during the Lunar New Year holiday (including the winter vacation before the annual holiday). . The itinerary of group tourists is definitely easier to grasp than independent travel. This kind of information can be known by just asking travel agencies and bus companies. But the Japanese central government "should" have not done so. If the central government has done so, why did the central government not inform the local government of the travel paths of these Wuhan tour groups? I'm not talking about the itineraries of all Wuhan tourist groups. The central government did not tell the local government where the Nara bus driver who broke the case went.

The reason I dare to make this assertion is that the Osaka Restoration Society jumped out to hold a press conference immediately and said that as soon as the Osaka local government knows where the Nara bus has taken the group, it will be announced immediately, because this will give everyone peace of mind (details See last article). The Osaka Restoration Society is actually a local populist party. They usually like to talk nonsense there. Even so, at least they are really people who can do things. I believe they (the politicians of the Osaka Restoration Society, that is, the At present, the head of Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City) really did not receive the notice from the central government, otherwise they said this time, if it is false, they will only lose their only base (that is, Osaka). Basically, the Osaka Restoration Society is a local party that only sees Osaka and does everything (and sometimes too much) for Osaka.

But the above can only be said to be my guess. The real evidence is actually after I made the draft: the Kanagawa prefectural government held a press conference and said that they received a notice from the Nara prefectural government that the Nara bus driver had once carried a group. The guests came to Kanagawa Prefecture. At present, the Kanagawa prefectural government has grasped where they stayed, and everything is under observation.

The contact history of local cases is not controlled by the central government

Do you see the mystery behind this sentence? The Kanagawa prefectural government actually said that the "Nara prefectural government" notified them, not the central government to inform them of the whereabouts of the group! The information from the Nara prefectural government must have come from the Nara bus driver or operator orally, and then the Nara prefectural government "notified" the Kanagawa prefectural government. It is not the central government that is responsible for compiling the information.

I noticed this at the time, and another reason was Osaka (no way, I'm sensitive to Osaka). If you have carefully read the article "The local government does not know where the Wuhan tourist group in China has been, the 2019n-CoV novel pneumonia may break out in Japan ", the devil is hidden in the details: the press conference for the show after the Osaka Restoration Conference ( It was just a press conference at the Osaka Restoration Conference to choke the normal energy release of the central government, they often play with this), it was reported that the 1st confirmed case in Osaka and the 8th confirmed case in Japan was once with the Nara Bus. The tour guide with the driver in the same car. Have you noticed that the Nara prefectural government came out and said that the tour guide Osaka was in their known history of contact with Nara bus drivers. I wrote in the text: "They (referring to the Nara prefectural government) know that the sixth male driver had close contact with 17 people in Nara Prefecture and 5 people outside Nara Prefecture during this period, and the female tour guide of the eighth case was One of the five people from outside Nara Prefecture.” The Nara Prefectural Government’s powers and responsibilities can only be controlled within Nara Prefecture, but not outside Nara Prefecture, so the Nara Prefecture Government will specifically classify the people who are in contact with Nara bus drivers as “Nara Prefecture”. "Within the prefecture" and "outside the Nara Prefecture", the implication is that the outside of Nara Prefecture is none of my business, I just take care of my Nara Prefecture.

Epidemic prevention is definitely not a matter of local level!

You may want to say that the case of Nara Bus happened on January 28, and Shinzo Abe only established the central-level countermeasures headquarters on January 30, so it is different now, right? I can say "no" categorically. Putting aside the Diamond Princess or the evacuation flight, the prevention of infections in Japan is still left to the local governments, not the central level. The evidence is the 29th confirmed Wakayama surgeon in Japan.

The Osaka prefectural government issued a press release on the 15th. The press release stated that the surgeon from the Wakayama prefecture's Jessa Yoda Hospital who was diagnosed on the 13th would work part-time at the Shinsennan Hospital under the jurisdiction of the Izumisano Health Center in Osaka Prefecture one day a week. "Osaka The government received a request from Wakayama Prefecture to help trace the surgeon’s contact history.”

Did you see that the Osaka prefecture's press release said "received a request from Wakayama Prefecture", not the center! ! ! !

As of the deadline for this article (2020.2.24), the press conference held by the Gifu Prefectural Government on the 23rd also said that they learned from the Chiba Prefectural Government that the Chiba Prefecture male in his 40s who was diagnosed on the 22nd came to Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture on the 12th. On a business trip, they will confirm the man's movement path with the Chiba Prefectural Government.

All of the above examples have confirmed that in Japan, the local government is responsible for tracing the contact history of the case. For a confirmed case in a first-level administrative division (prefecture), the local government in that place is responsible for tracing the contact history of the case. If the case has recently been to a "foreign county or city", the local government will be contacted and asked for their help in tracing or paying more attention to the case's contact history.

Refuse to formulate national unified information disclosure standards

The Japanese government will hand over epidemic prevention to local governments (the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is responsible for the cases of the evacuation flight and the Diamond Princess, but local governments are responsible for other cases scattered across Japan), and various local governments (all Provinces and prefectures) are not synchronized with the epidemic prevention measures. The biggest controversy is to what extent should the information of each confirmed case be disclosed (is it very visual)?

For example, Osaka Prefecture was the first local government that said it would announce the names of the cities, towns and villages where the confirmed cases were located, as well as the route of movement (I have always wondered why Osaka can hold on, and so far there is only one case of the tour guide who was in the same car as the Nara bus driver. But this is a good thing, please keep it up), if the confirmed cases have been in department stores, large shopping malls and other occasions where they may have close contact with an unspecified majority of people, the Osaka local government does not rule out publishing the name of the store (fortunately, Osaka still has only that For example, if the Osaka Restoration Society really talks about it, it will become very troublesome). As for Hokkaido, only the gender and age range of confirmed cases were initially announced, and the standard was relaxed on February 14, and the nationality, occupation, place of residence and medical clinic of confirmed cases were announced together.

According to Article 16 of the Law on Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Patients with Infectious Diseases, Medical Treatment, and Customs . The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare stated that in order to ensure the personal privacy of the confirmed cases and prevent the "victimization of risk assessment", the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will only publish the gender, residence (prefecture) and age group of the confirmed cases, and the rest of the information will be handed over to the responsible party. Local governments (prefectures) make their own assessments.

The National Council of Governors of Japan (the heads of local governments) hopes that the central government can formulate a set of unified "information disclosure standards" across the country, which clearly regulates the extent to which local governments must disclose individual case information. However, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare believes that the situation in each region and the situation of each confirmed case is different, and it is impossible to confirm a set of unified national standards, and once again leaves the problem of epidemic prevention to local governments to solve by themselves.

The new pneumonia is listed as a "designated infectious disease" is actually very wasteful

If you look closely at Japan's " Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Patients with Infectious Diseases に対するMedical Care にする Law ", in fact, it clearly records the distribution of powers and responsibilities between the central (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare) and local governments in Articles 9 and 10. In short, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is responsible for formulating basic policies for the prevention of infectious diseases (Article 9), while first-level local governments (prefectures) plan and implement epidemic prevention plans based on the basic policies formulated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Article 9). 10).

The problem is that the Japanese government lists the new coronavirus pneumonia as a "designated infectious disease". If you look closely at the provisions of the "Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Patients with Infectious Diseases, Medical Care に Guan す る Law", you will find that there are "designated infectious diseases". Not only are there few narrations, but they are also ambiguous, and it is not clear at all what is applicable and what is not. The " Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Patients with Infectious Diseases に対するMedical Care にする Law " divides infectious diseases into:

1. Class I infectious disease (eg: Ebola, etc.)
2. Type II infectious diseases (eg: tuberculosis, SARS, MERS, etc.)
3. Three types of infectious diseases (eg: cholera, typhoid, etc.)
4. Four types of infectious diseases (eg: hepatitis E, hepatitis A, rabies, bird flu, malaria, etc.)
5. Five types of infectious diseases (e.g. influenza, viral hepatitis, AIDS, etc.)
6. Infectious diseases such as new influenza
7. designated infectious diseases
8. new infection

Japan lists the new coronavirus pneumonia as a "designated infectious disease". Go to the article on "designated infectious disease". It will tell you that "designated infectious disease" has a 1-year decree validity period. If it is a known infectious disease, According to the category of infectious diseases it belongs to, refer to the corresponding provisions. Regarding the previously undiscovered infectious diseases like the new coronavirus pneumonia, sorry, " Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Patients of Infectious Diseases に対するMedical Care にする Law " does not specify what to do, it is in Article 7 "Designated Infectious Diseases" The special chapter only tells you: "According to the content of the decree, the provisions of Chapters 3-7, 10, 12 and 13 shall apply in whole or in part." So who is to say which parts apply and which do not apply? Forget it? ! The contents of the following articles are all classified according to the first, second, third, fourth and fifth types of infectious diseases, and "new infectious diseases" are defined in Article 44-6 to "Prevention of Infectious Diseases and Patients with Infectious Diseases ". Article 50 has a complete set of anti-epidemic measures. You list the new coronavirus pneumonia as "if it is a known infectious disease, according to which category of infectious disease it belongs, refer to the corresponding provisions" "designated infectious disease" is in Hello?

Hello, you listed the new pneumonia as a "designated infectious disease"

Japan's largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party , criticized on its YouTube channel on February 22 that the opposition party called on the Diet the day after the Diamond Princess docked at Yokohama Port (February 4) that the new coronavirus pneumonia should be Upgrade from "designated infectious disease" to "new infectious disease" for which mandatory quarantine measures can be taken. Finally, the Japanese government issued a decree to list the new coronavirus pneumonia as the applicable object of Article 34 of the " Quarantine Law ", so that the passengers of the Diamond Princess were forcibly quarantined and prohibited from entering Japan during the quarantine period.

Japan's largest opposition party, the Constitutional Democratic Party , criticized on its YouTube channel on February 22 that the opposition party called on the Diet the day after the Diamond Princess docked at Yokohama Port (February 4) that the new coronavirus pneumonia should be Upgrade from "designated infectious disease" to "new infectious disease" for which mandatory quarantine measures can be taken. Finally, the Japanese government issued a decree to list the new coronavirus pneumonia as the applicable object of Article 34 of the " Quarantine Law ", so that the passengers of the Diamond Princess were forcibly quarantined and prohibited from entering Japan during the quarantine period.

Killed the government that did not recognize the "pneumonia epidemic in the country"

In the end, I decided to share the dry talk collection of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (after my article is written, I will continue to follow up on the follow-up development, but sometimes the progress of the event may not be updated). In the old article "The local government does not know where the Wuhan tourist group in China has been, the 2019n-CoV novel pneumonia may break out in Japan ", I mentioned that before the first local infection broke out in Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare said: "Although China believes that the new type of pneumonia can be transmitted from person to person, our country does not recognize that the new type of pneumonia can be transmitted continuously from person to person" (gang, whether the new pneumonia will spread from person to person does not need your Japanese government to admit it! Facts are facts, what to admit. But I still want to help the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to rehabilitate. I guess its sentence is to express that "there is currently no possibility of community or cluster infection in Japan", so it will not "continuously" "pass from one patient to the next" "Patient", but this sentence is really too ambiguous, and it's not the roundworm in your stomach who understands what you want to express, why can't you use community infection or cluster infection as clearly and clearly as Taiwan These words, while explaining the meaning of these professional terms to the public, can also clarify by the way, "Therefore, there is no community infection or cluster infection in Japan. Don't worry about it." No" "No", I didn't explain the current situation to the public clearly, how to soothe people's hearts? This is not a professional or unprofessional issue, it is a matter of speaking skills)

Then, after the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare broke the first local confirmed case in Japan, it changed its rhetoric: "Our country does not recognize the epidemic of new pneumonia at present." I have been watching when the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare will change this sentence. I didn't expect that the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's mouth was really hard. No matter how the media asked, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato kept saying: "Japan is not epidemic (new pneumonia)", "It is not popular yet", which makes me even more curious When are you going to change your mind. Just blindly denying, without further explanation, will only make people feel "so what is it now", this is just talking dry, as a government official I think this is really not qualified (seriously think we should teach Japan The popular Taiwanese catchphrase "It's hello").

Without further ado, in the face of a reporter’s question from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, “Whether the new type of pneumonia has become prevalent in Japan,” the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare finally stopped denying that “the new type of pneumonia is not epidemic in Japan” on February 13. day and night. On the day of February 13, Japan experienced a surge of nosocomial infections in medical institutions in Wakayama Prefecture, the first death case in Japan (the diagnosis was only confirmed after a person died), and the case of a taxi driver who later turned into a collective infection at the Yakayama New Year's Eve.

Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare Katsunobu Kato said at a press conference on the evening of the 13th that "there is currently no epidemiological information collected", so it is impossible to judge whether the new type of pneumonia is prevalent in Japan. e04, you are not collecting "the epidemiological information on whether the new type of pneumonia is circulating in Japan", so don't swear and say "Japan is not epidemic of new pneumonia" from the beginning, because you are not collecting and judging it. The required information, oh no, does not even have a standard for judging "whether it is popular".

This article is simultaneously published on [ Key Comment Network ] and [ Wind Media ]

The original link is Japanese current affairs まとめ translation by Kaori Ishikawa