The German Public Broadcaster DW has a short video[1] covering this, including some of Kentaro Iwata's video statement.
The mention that the Japanese government is allowing it's citizens to leave and use public transit seems like a very risky and foolhardy move.
While I'm certainly no expert, and I'd definitely hate to be stuck on that ship - I think Japan could surely have set up some kind of field isolation area in the last few weeks and get passengers off and isolated using proper quarantine protocols.
The statement by Kentaro Iwata makes it clear that nobody with a background in infectious diseases was involved in setting up proper quarantine procedures onboard the ship.
If the tests are as unreliable as has been reported (and a lot of rubbish gets reported) then those released passengers travelling around Japan seem like a bit of a risk.
Effective crisis management of this nature requires rehearsal and drilling, even if just an administrative / tabletop exercise. The chaos described is a classic symptom of not doing so.
"Japan lacks an agency like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, charged with applying research to public health ... NIID is focused on basic research."
I'm under the impression the Japanese government received some withering criticism for their bureaucratic mismanaged response to the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami; I expected they would have revisited their emergency response procedures after that, but I guess not?
A Japanese infectious disease specialist who visited the quarantined Diamond Princess decried "chaotic" and "scary" conditions on the cruise liner that gave the coronavirus more opportunity to spread.
Can someone fix this headline? ‘... cruise ship Japan” reads like it is a cruise ship called “Japan” rather then the full headline “... cruise ship Japan quarantined”
An isolated outbreak on a cruise ship? That should be the bare minimum a country should handle. Note that Japan doesn't have any organization like the CDC- they aren't prepared for anything.
And it speaks volumes of politics and power hierarchies in action and under-performing as expected. This could take different but similar bad turns in any of the first world countries too having a less population factor unlike in china but with deadlier virus or catastrophe. I hope we all learn something from this besides pointed fingers. The world we live in is still very fragile and I think we it would be great if we concentrated our collective energies on something constructive in this direction.
Much of the information floating around regarding 2019-ncov has hallmarks of "conspiracy theory" because it is all happening in real time and legitimate media is unwilling to publish anything without confirmation from "official" sources...who in turn are not willing to confirm anything because anecdotal reports and pending peer review journal articles do not meet (understandable) verifiability standards. This unfortunately relegates any news to unnofficial "conspiracy" channels and gives people a dangerous justification for dismissing potentially legitimate reports.
If you've been paying attention for the last month or two, there are hundreds of anecdotal reports and videos all pointing toward the same grave conclusions - not to mention dozens of published (awaiting review) papers at this point and, increasingly, many if not most of the rumors from 1-2 months ago are gradually being confirmed. Look no further than China's unprecedented response to this outbreak - 700 million people are under lockdown and their GDP is effectively shut down.
Frankly, the modern media establishment's standards for proof are too high to adequately cover such a rapidly unfolding catastrophy when the majority of information has to come from unofficial leaks because ground zero is an authoritarian regime which controls what it's citizens can say amongst themselves and to the rest of the world. This epidemic is far worse than westerners currently seem to understand, and if it is not contained, the chaos that will grip the rest of the world will be truly awesome to behold. This is a virus which is at least as deadly as the infamous 1918 flu, likely more virulent (R0 estimates anywhere from 3 to 6+), and there is still no cure, though a paper was published on the 4th with chloroquine as a potential candidate. Plus, based on autoimmune reactions induced by all previously developed viable vaccine candidates for SARS and MERS, there is unlikely to be a vaccine for this coronavirus as well.
As I've been saying for a month now, we should not be panicking, but there's no excuse at this point not to be prepared. WSJ announced 5400 people in California are under quarantine today. 700 people in WA under supervision from authorities. Personally I'm moving to minimize my reliance on the government in the case that this pandemic spreads to the U.S. at large, based on the rank incompetence that we see in government activities on a frequent basis.
Honestly watching so many average people dismiss 2019-ncov has been a fascinating exposé on the potential for centralized information control in free speech societies - if you're a 3 letter agency and you want something to disappear from public consciousness, just preemptively leak the story to "questionable" sources and suddenly the media won't report on it and people will balk at you for posting junk sources. What a world we live in!
[+] [-] paranoidrobot|6 years ago|reply
The mention that the Japanese government is allowing it's citizens to leave and use public transit seems like a very risky and foolhardy move.
While I'm certainly no expert, and I'd definitely hate to be stuck on that ship - I think Japan could surely have set up some kind of field isolation area in the last few weeks and get passengers off and isolated using proper quarantine protocols. The statement by Kentaro Iwata makes it clear that nobody with a background in infectious diseases was involved in setting up proper quarantine procedures onboard the ship.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPpAsRJJ14E
[+] [-] bencollier49|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] galacticaactual|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fennecfoxen|6 years ago|reply
"Japan lacks an agency like the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, charged with applying research to public health ... NIID is focused on basic research."
[+] [-] catalogia|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DataWorker|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chrisco255|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] justlexi93|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] qtplatypus|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ackbar03|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] sdinsn|6 years ago|reply
An isolated outbreak on a cruise ship? That should be the bare minimum a country should handle. Note that Japan doesn't have any organization like the CDC- they aren't prepared for anything.
[+] [-] tartoran|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jlu|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] morpheuskafka|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yegle|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fennecfoxen|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] allovernow|6 years ago|reply
If you've been paying attention for the last month or two, there are hundreds of anecdotal reports and videos all pointing toward the same grave conclusions - not to mention dozens of published (awaiting review) papers at this point and, increasingly, many if not most of the rumors from 1-2 months ago are gradually being confirmed. Look no further than China's unprecedented response to this outbreak - 700 million people are under lockdown and their GDP is effectively shut down.
Frankly, the modern media establishment's standards for proof are too high to adequately cover such a rapidly unfolding catastrophy when the majority of information has to come from unofficial leaks because ground zero is an authoritarian regime which controls what it's citizens can say amongst themselves and to the rest of the world. This epidemic is far worse than westerners currently seem to understand, and if it is not contained, the chaos that will grip the rest of the world will be truly awesome to behold. This is a virus which is at least as deadly as the infamous 1918 flu, likely more virulent (R0 estimates anywhere from 3 to 6+), and there is still no cure, though a paper was published on the 4th with chloroquine as a potential candidate. Plus, based on autoimmune reactions induced by all previously developed viable vaccine candidates for SARS and MERS, there is unlikely to be a vaccine for this coronavirus as well.
As I've been saying for a month now, we should not be panicking, but there's no excuse at this point not to be prepared. WSJ announced 5400 people in California are under quarantine today. 700 people in WA under supervision from authorities. Personally I'm moving to minimize my reliance on the government in the case that this pandemic spreads to the U.S. at large, based on the rank incompetence that we see in government activities on a frequent basis.
Honestly watching so many average people dismiss 2019-ncov has been a fascinating exposé on the potential for centralized information control in free speech societies - if you're a 3 letter agency and you want something to disappear from public consciousness, just preemptively leak the story to "questionable" sources and suddenly the media won't report on it and people will balk at you for posting junk sources. What a world we live in!