Why didn't the “Corona” virus kill many Japanese people? A question many scientists tried to answer, and they fought several theories, some of which believed that the Japanese enjoyed immunity. During the Corona pandemic, Japan did not have the lowest mortality rate in the region alone, and South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Vietnam could all boast of a lower death rate, but in the first part of 2020, Japan experienced fewer deaths than the average in the region. This is despite the fact that Tokyo experienced around 1,000 additional deaths in April, possibly due to SK, however, overall deaths are expected to decrease from 2019.
This is especially surprising, because Japan has many conditions that make it more vulnerable to corona than others, but it has never adopted a fierce approach to dealing with the virus like some of its neighbors have done.
At the height of the disease outbreak in Wuhan, China in February, when city hospitals were overwhelmed with the infected, and the world closed its borders to Chinese travelers, Japan kept its borders open, and with the spread of the virus it became clear that corona is a disease that kills the elderly in the first place, and spreads widely in the crowds. , Or close contact for long periods, and for Japan there are more elderly people, more than any other country, and Japan's cities are densely populated, and Greater Tokyo alone inhabits 37 million people, and for most of them the only way to travel is the crowded trains in the city.
Then there is Japan’s refusal to heed the advice of the World Health Organization, which is the test, with a total of 348 thousand tests, which means 0.27% of Japan’s population is examined.
Nor did Japan have a ban like in Europe. In early April the government declared a state of emergency, required residents to stay at home voluntarily, and the government asked non-core companies to close, but there was no legal sanction for refusal.
No strict procedures
Countries like New Zealand and Vietnam have adopted stringent measures including border closures, tight closures, widespread testing and strict quarantine, but Japan has not, yet five months after reporting the first cases of corona in Japan Japan had less than 20 One thousand confirmed cases and less than 1000 deaths, the state of emergency was lifted and life returned to normal quickly. There is also growing scientific evidence that Japan has indeed contained the spread of the epidemic so far.
The telecommunications giant Softbank conducted antibody testing to 40,000 employees, only to discover that 0.24% were exposed to the virus, and a randomized test of 8,000 people in Tokyo showed lower levels of exposure, and the Tokyo test result was only 0.1% positive.
Is there anything special about Japan?
Some scholars believe that there is something different about Japan, which is called the "factor X" that protects the population from "Covid-19", and some believe that the reason is in some aspects of Japanese norms; Few hugs and kisses, but that's not the answer.
Does Japan have special immunity?
Tokyo University professor Tatsuhiko Kodama, who studies how Japanese patients interact with the virus, believes that Japan may have had a covid before, not "Covid-19", but a similar virus can leave behind "historical immunity", when the virus enters the human body The immune system produces antibodies that attack invasive disease.
It is believed that a SARS-like virus might have spread to the region before, which may explain the low death rate, not only in Japan, but in most regions of China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia.
Is it because the Japanese are free of diseases like heart disease, obesity, and diabetes?
There is another factor that helped Japan, as a recent report issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the United States showed that people who suffer from underlying medical conditions such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes increase their chances of being hospitalized six times if they develop COFED-19 and become Prone to death up to 12 times more than people free from these diseases, while Japan has the lowest rates of cardiovascular disease and obesity in the developed world.
Audience compliance
Japan succeeded in keeping infection and deaths low without closing or requiring people to stay at home, due to Japanese obedience to the instructions, and there is no “X factor” as some claim, in Japan the government can rely on public compliance, although people are not ordered to stay at home They did.
It is believed that a SARS-like virus might have spread in the region before, which may explain the low death rate, not only in Japan, but in most regions of China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia.
Japan has many conditions that make it more vulnerable to corona than others, but it has never adopted a fierce approach to dealing with the virus as some of its neighbors have done.