[Wuhan Pneumonia in Japan] Highlights of the press conference of the 8.24 COVID-19 sub-committee

Yesterday (8/24), the Japan Novel Coronavirus Infectious Disease Countermeasures Specialist Sub-Committee (hereinafter referred to as the "Sub-Committee") held the 7th meeting, and after the meeting, the Minister in charge of Economic Regeneration and Minister of COVID-19 Countermeasures Yasunori Nishimura + Sub-committee members, joint press conference.

I finished listening to the live broadcast of the press conference yesterday, but because the time of the press conference was when I went out to buy vegetables, a notification suddenly popped up, so even though I listened to the full content of the press conference, there was no way to record the key points at hand. At that time, I heard a few key words in my head. I wanted to write a manuscript when I got home, but the mainstream media only reported the numbers there. Otherwise, the supercomputer "Fuyue" in the morning used the supercomputer "Fuyue" to simulate the spread of droplets indoors with or without masks. Figure (That is called computer simulation! The Japanese media has been learning AI over there. Yasuo Nishimura uses words in the press conference to use AI and AI there. As a person from a science and engineering department, I really can’t accept that computer simulation and AI are confused. kind of thing)

Aside from the mainstream media, the online media "BuzzFeed" and "Abema Times" have content that mentions what I want to mention. So it is roughly organized as follows (postscript: when I roughly finished writing this article, I found the full video and verbatim transcript of the press conference on "THE PAGE", so I revised this content before publishing. THE PAGE is really my good friend)

Which category of the Infectious Diseases Act applies to COVID-19?

This point was actually pointed out in the article " [Miscellaneous] Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (COVID-19) in Japan " on this site in February this year (in retrospect, this site is really ahead of schedule)

Japan's "Infectious Diseases Law" divides infectious diseases into 1 to 5 types of infectious diseases, in addition to "designated infectious diseases", "new infectious diseases" and "new influenza and other infectious diseases". This time, COVID-19 is classified as a "designated infectious disease".

It was a mistake to classify COVID-19 as a designated infectious disease!

The reason why I say this is because "designated infectious diseases" is more of a supplementary clause. Regarding the powers and responsibilities of the government for various infectious diseases, as well as how to prevent them, it all depends on which type of infection the infectious disease belongs to 1 to 5. Disease (Japanese "infectious disease" is Chinese "infectious disease", unless it is a proper noun like "designated infectious disease", or the following is called "infectious disease" that conforms to Chinese reading habits).

The key point of "designated infectious diseases" is that it has a one-year validity period and gives the government emergency response powers. However, how to prevent this kind of infectious disease depends on which type of infectious disease it belongs to from 1 to 5, and refer to the corresponding provisions.

So what kind of category is COVID-19 right now? At present, the Japanese government has not classified COVID-19, but in practice (it is said to be) it is handled in accordance with the most stringent "Type 1 Infectious Diseases".

The key point of this press conference is that I heard that some people are arguing that COVID-19 should be excluded from the "type 2 infectious diseases" (mysterious voice: ah, didn't the government not classify COVID-19! Why are there people arguing) Saying that COVID-19 is removed from category 2, ah, it's not on it, there's a hole in the brain). Why is it category 2 - because both SARS and the 2009 H5N1 bird flu are category 2, and then the group of people who are clamoring to downgrade COVID-19 thinks that COVID-19 is not that serious (the problem is that COVID-19 is now In Japan, it is not graded, what is going to be lowered).

In a word, the head of the branch committee, Shigeru Omi, said at the press conference that now is not the time to discuss whether COVID-19 should be delisted from category 2, or not to be delisted (ah, isn’t there no position! Why are you dancing with the chicken)? , It should be judged according to what kind of situation encountered in the medical scene.

The first statement is now the second wave

According to the analysis of the branch committee, the reason why the number of severely ill people in the second wave of the epidemic in Japan is relatively small is actually because during the first wave of the epidemic (before June 5), those who needed intubation treatment or died after admission were all admitted to the hospital. It was already severe.

The current situation is early detection and early treatment, which has greatly shortened the time it takes for patients to be admitted to hospital, so the current severe cases are not as severe as the first wave.

In addition, during the first wave of the epidemic, many clusters of infections broke out in hospitals or institutions for the elderly, but now (the second wave) there are fewer clusters in institutions. Second wave) is one of the reasons why there are fewer severe cases than the first wave.

Extended reading: [Wuhan Pneumonia in Japan] "Medical Collapse", which is often used as the opening line of Japanese dramas, is about to be staged in reality

There are two messages here:

1. This is tantamount to indirectly acknowledging that during the first wave of the epidemic in Japan, there was a problem with the medical system and there was no way to treat patients immediately (this may also include the kind of patients who wanted to seek medical treatment, but were always stopped by the health center and refused to be tested. It's definitely a man-made disaster)
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2. This is the first time that Japanese officials have used the terms "first wave" and "second wave". Regarding this point, after the press conference, a reporter from Niconico asked whether this means that the Japanese government has designated the current situation as the "second wave".
   In response, Nishimura Yasushi replied: If you look at the genetic sequence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it can be divided into the type that originated from Wuhan, China, and the type that later caused a pandemic in Europe and the United States. But his understanding here is that for the convenience of understanding, the sub-committee (experts) will look at it separately before the emergency and after the declaration of the emergency is lifted. If you look at the daily number of confirmed cases, it is indeed higher than at the time (urgent). The number of confirmed cases in a single day is very high. You can say that it is the "second wave", but Japanese officials will not define when it is the first wave, because there is no way to define it. (This part is not included in the reference materials, it is the part that I listened to with my ears open when I listened to the press conference yesterday)

However, regarding the analysis of the current epidemic situation, the focus of this press conference is actually: the current (second wave) epidemic curve has gradually declined after reaching its peak from 7/27-29. In some areas, the number of confirmed cases in a single day is decreasing, and in some areas there is not much change (for example, Osaka has been steadily increasing...), considering that the proportion of newly diagnosed patients whose source of infection cannot be found is still relatively high, the Obon Festival continues. During the holiday period, the crowd is moving, and the epidemic may expand at any time.

Consider easing restrictions on mass events

Yasunori Nishimura said that the status quo will be maintained until the end of September: the scale of the event is less than 5,000 people, and the venue can only accommodate at most 50% of the normal situation.

I heard that the theater has been noisy and can only accept 50% of the maximum capacity, which is too strict, so ~ Nishimura Yasushi said that they will refer to the results calculated by the supercomputer "Fuyue" "Just wear a mask, don't If you speak out loud," will consider relaxing the restrictions.

Let me complain here. He kept talking about AI and AI at the press conference, which really made me feel like treating people as idiots. AI pretends to be very powerful and trendy. And he kept talking about "concerts" at the press conference, because he thought he had never participated in a concert. How to "not speak loudly" at a concert~ When an idol came out, he screamed (not me), no If it wasn't for his constant talk of AI and AI at the press conference, I might not have listened very seriously to what the hell he was talking about. In short, I heard that they will release a report on AI experimental simulation in September, so let's wait for the report to come out and see what kind of AI will write what kind of report.

That is to say, I went to the press conference materials for this part. He listed a number of countries on how to relax the ban on leisure activities, and it wrote about Taiwan. I am really not very happy, because it only writes when countries relax and what the current standards are, but it does not write about the infection status when countries relax their standards! How does Japan compare to Taiwan now? ! Think about how many days it took for Taiwan to relax the ban. None of these factors have been taken into account, and it is said over there that the ban has been relaxed abroad, and we should follow up, right?

There will be a "Bias, Discrimination and Privacy Working Group"

In the future, the "Prejudice, Discrimination and Privacy Working Group (Prejudice, Discrimination and プライバシーに開するワーキンググループ)" will be established under the sub-committee. The working group is composed of 8 sub-committee members. The sub-committee member Nakayama Yuto is the chairperson of the working group (the highest person in charge), and Kaori Muto serves as the deputy chairperson. In addition, Oshitani Renhe, who is active in the cluster infection countermeasure class of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (クラスター対対対対國), proposed the establishment of a "prejudice and discrimination working group". "The Governor of Mie Prefecture Suzuki Hideki is also a member of the working group.

Extended reading: [Wuhan Pneumonia in Japan] Witch hunts are frequent in counties and cities, and car rental companies push advertisements for "Japanese license plates"

Erasing two stigmas: Shinjuku Kabukicho and the expert meeting of politicians to blame

In fact, at this press conference, I saw two points that were different from those in the past (but maybe that was the case with the previous press conferences, but I didn’t click on it), that’s why I wanted to write this article.

1. Yasunori Nishimura mentioned the cooperation between the mayor of Tokyo and Shinjuku and Kabukicho. The mayor of Shinjuku and Kabukicho have established a relationship of trust, so that the epidemic situation in Shinjuku will be subsided, and the central government will realize that in addition to local health centers, epidemic prevention requires a place. The government will go down to the districts, towns and villages and cooperate with the people in order to succeed.
   
   It took you half a year to find out about this
   Now I found that it should be too late, come on, okay?
   
   Although this sentence is not very clear, I think it has also washed away the stigma of nightlife to a certain extent: at the beginning, a bunch of people were looking for a needle there, saying that it was the nightlife in Shinjuku and Kabukicho that caused the spread of the epidemic. Please~ The mayor of Shinjuku asked the Kabukicho operators to take the initiative to check, and the operators are willing to cooperate, so as to catch so many asymptomatic infected people and avoid the further expansion of the epidemic!
   
   Shigeru Omi, the chairman of the branch committee, also mentioned Shinjuku City when he spoke, and mentioned that the epidemic prevention needs private help. Seeing the mutual assistance and cooperation between Shinjuku City and Kabukicho businessmen, he should think about simplifying administrative procedures and making the system more flexible.
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2. I don't know if Yasunomi Nishimura was present at the previous press conferences of the sub-committee, but at least this time I think he did a good job. After the "expert meeting" was changed to a "sub-committee" under the knowledgeable person's meeting, the division of responsibilities was clearer. The press conference was also led by Yasunami Nishimura, and the chairman of the sub-committee of the "expert representative" supplemented the insufficient part after Nishimura's speech. . This interaction model will be similar to the interaction model between our Central Epidemic Command Center and the expert group led by Zhang Shangchun. I think this is a good change, and it has washed away the negative image that Nishimura Yasushi fired the "expert meeting" at the press conference last time.
   
   But I also feel that Shigeru Osami really has a big heart and a fat body. He was fired by Yasunori Nishimura at the beginning, but he can still attend the press conference with him now, or because he is the deputy chairperson of the expert meeting, and the chairman of the composition department XD

Extended reading: [Wuhan Pneumonia in Japan] The press conference is a double bag, and all the grievances of the expert meeting are recorded

References

• The public watch is the possibility of infringement.コロナ Infected people's prejudice and difference problem solving
• Severe cases は な ぜ less な い? Type 2 Infectious Diseases
• After the Kolona branch meeting, the chairman of the tail body and the minister in charge of Nishimura met (full text 1) before the previous meeting.
• After the Korona sub-department meeting, the chairman of the tail body and the minister in charge of Nishimura met (full text 2) The severely ill patients are forced to be in a hospital bed.
• After the Korona sub-committee, the chairman of the tail body and the minister in charge of Nishimura met (full text 3)

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