How Are You Guys Holding Up?

[Russell]

Speak for yourself. Here in Tokyo, which is also part of Japan, I think that it's madness. The supermarkets are choc a bloc with people, with the oba and ojisans picking up every package of meat for inspection. The parks are full of kids playing and social distancing is a total joke. There will be a price to pay for this madness, unless you think that the Japanese have some unique genetic make-up, which immunizes them against Covid 19. I've been reading that the first wave of Covid 19 in Japan, in February, was similar to the original Wuhan strain, which was less virulent in its contagion rate and less dangerous to mortality. This recent strain of COVID 19 in Japan, since early March, is more like the strain being found in Europe, brought back to Japan by Japanese tourists who visited Europe. The USA strain of Covid 19, apart from California, is a pure European strain and the consequences are there to see.

I think that, in 4 weeks, we will see the consequences of this 'Mockdown'. You can say, on June 4th, 'I told you so', if I am wrong. I will not, out of respect to the large number of deaths that I think will inevitably come from this 'head in the sand' approach of Japanese society, do likewise, if I am right.

So I'll say it now, 'I told you so' , and hope that I will be proven wrong.

Still feeling confident? There hasn't been a new case around here (6.5 million people) for 4 weeks. Of the 45 cases in total, one person has died. Of course the big cities are far worse but compared to London, Madrid or New York not bad at all. Something has worked and it would be really useful to know exactly what.

There could be some coincidences at work, but I hypothesize the following factors are important reasons why Japan is doing quite well:

• Relatively low vitamin D deficiency levels. A commentary in the Lancet, one of the leading medical journals, states that though insufficient clinical research has yet to prove that there is a definite link between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of being infected by or the risk to die from Covid-19, it is quite likely that there is such a link. Fatty fish, which contains loads of vitamin D, is eaten a lot in Japan. Also, skies in Japan tend to be quite bright (even in winter), compared to countries in the northern part of Europe, and a daily dose of some 15 minutes sunlight on the skin has been proven to boast vitamin D levels. One has to wonder what authorities in some countries were thinking when they ordered everyone to stay inside.
• Low incidence of obesity in Japan.
• Custom to wear masks.

Of course, under-reporting due to a lack of testing may make the statistics in Japan look rosy, but fact is that the death rate in 2020 up to now is not significantly higher than in previous years. So, though figures are incomplete, I think it is safe to say that Japan is doing relatively well.

[Mike Oxlong]

AFAIK, the locals also did a good job of protecting the elderly, having relatively fewer care homes badly affected than in the US and Europe.

[Grumpy Gramps]

Maybe as well as much less of a huggy huggy kissy kissy culture than Europe. Less body contact altogether (including no sex marriages?).

[Scipio]

Wage Slave.
‘Still feeling confident? There hasn't been a new case around here (6.5 million people) for 4 weeks. Of the 45 cases in total, one person has died. Of course the big cities are far worse but compared to London, Madrid or New York not bad at all. Something has worked and it would be really useful to know exactly what.’

It looks like you were right and I was wrong, but there’s still 20 days to go, until my deadline. I really would be very happy to be wrong. Just from a personal selfish point of view, I haven’t cast a fly on a Hokkaido river for 12 months and in a few weeks is the first Mayfly bloom on Lake Akan. However I am mistrustful of all governments and especially the Japanese government, which is staffed and controlled by the grandchildren of the same individuals who lied to themselves and the Japanese people for 3 years, after the war was totally lost with Japan’s defeat at Midway (June 1942), allowing millions of Japanese to unnecessarily die, at a kill ratio of 8:1; something not witnessed in war since the US campaigns against the plains Indians, a stone-age culture!

As for the Gruniad’s article, personally I think there is a lot of validity in the speech variable mentioned. Japanese doesn’t have the equivalent consonant plosives of ‘p’ ‘t’ ‘ch’ and ‘k’. The Japanese equivalents are more like the voiced/non-plosive equivalents of the English plosives ‘b’ ‘d’ ‘j’ and ‘g’; except Japanese pronounce them without the voice. When teaching pronunciation to Japanese, one way to show the distinction between the English consonants ‘p’ and ‘b’, is have the students place a loose piece of paper before their mouth and pronounce the 2 sounds. When ‘p’ is pronounced, in its pure phoneme form, the paper before their mouth, should move with the ‘plosion’ of the breath. While, when ‘b’ is pronounced, the paper should not move, but if they place their fingers to their larynx (adam’s apple), they should feel vibrations. This example can be applied to all the plosive/non-plosive sound contrasts of English – ‘t’ v ‘d’ / ‘ch’ v ‘j’ / ‘k’ v ‘g’.

A final note, the Latinate European languages (Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and French) have many more plosive consonants than English. While many languages spoken in the Asian continent have a comparative absence of plosive consonants (Vietnamese, Thai, Korean and Japanese). The more research done on Covid, by ‘experts’, seem to point towards direct person to person contact as the main instrument for contagion. Compare the death / infection rates between Europe (Jester Boris' UK aside) and Asia. ummmm!

[Russell]

Scipio, if this language link is so significant, then I would expect more cases in Germany (known for speaking loud) and the Dutch (using a hard G from their throat, o horror), especially the Dutch from the western part of the Netherlands. However, the most cases in the Netherlands are in the south/south-east, who have a soft G. Actually, yhe reason why the majority of the cases in the Netherlands are in the south/south-east is that the winter/spring holidays in that part of the country was a few weeks later than in other parts of the Netherlands, so people went on holiday to those parts of Italy that were much affected at that time (but not yet a few weeks earlier). Add the carnival, that they celebrate in the south/south-east, and you have an epidemic. So, it is mostly coincidences, like this, and the capacity of the health-care system (which is pretty high in Germany) that is a deciding factor.

I suspect the link between languages and infection rates is extremely weak, if there is a link at all.

[Scipio]

Russell, maybe my definition of 'plosive' was not articulated well. I used the layman's term 'plosive' because this is a general site, not a phonetician's site. The correct term for 'plosive/non-plosive is 'aspirated /unaspirated' stops, which basically entails stopping/delaying the natural passage of the breath from the lungs. This can be done in English as a bi-labial stop which is aspirated ('p') or unaspirated ('b'). It can be done as a labio-dental stop which is aspirated ('t') or unaspirated ('d'). It can be done as an alveolar / soft ridge stop which is aspirated ('ch' as in 'cheap') and unaspirated ('J' as in 'Jeep') and it can be done as a hard ridge stop which is aspirated ('k') or unaspirated ('g' as in 'Gary').

The pronunciation of the Dutch language, as a whole, ignoring the slight differences in regional pronunciation, is famous among European languages for only having unaspirated consonant stops. Don't take my word for it, look it up. To give you a real world example, when I worked at a university in Turkey, I used to work with a few Profs whose first language was Dutch (They had retired from the UN working on the Kurdish refugee problem and were gobbled up by Bilkent for their international administrative expertise) but spoke English like a native. Often the only way that I could tell that they were not native speakers were in their mistakes with the pronunciation of English aspirated stops ('p' 't' 'ch' and 'k').

A majority of Asian Languages are also noted for not having aspirated stops, although they do have voiced / unvoiced stops. To give you another real world example. My friend's Thai wife went to the local supermarket, in the UK, with her mother in law. She told her mother in law that she had to desperately get to the seafood department to buy some 'crap' for tonight's meal. She was promptly told by her mother in law that UK supermarkets don't sell such things.- obviously not tasted Heinz Spaghetti bolognaise from a tin.

Anyway, as others have said, the report was not scientific and I'm sure that other variables are much stronger for the supposedly different rates of infection and mortality (obesity and non-tactile cultures), but I think that differences in pron and speech are valid variables.

[Russell]

Russell, maybe my definition of 'plosive' was not articulated well. I used the layman's term 'plosive' because this is a general site, not a phonetician's site. The correct term for 'plosive/non-plosive is 'aspirated /unaspirated' stops, which basically entails stopping/delaying the natural passage of the breath from the lungs. This can be done in English as a bi-labial stop which is aspirated ('p') or unaspirated ('b'). It can be done as a labio-dental stop which is aspirated ('t') or unaspirated ('d'). It can be done as an alveolar / soft ridge stop which is aspirated ('ch' as in 'cheap') and unaspirated ('J' as in 'Jeep') and it can be done as a hard ridge stop which is aspirated ('k') or unaspirated ('g' as in 'Gary').

The pronunciation of the Dutch language, as a whole, ignoring the slight differences in regional pronunciation, is famous among European languages for only having unaspirated consonant stops. Don't take my word for it, look it up. To give you a real world example, when I worked at a university in Turkey, I used to work with a few Profs whose first language was Dutch (They had retired from the UN working on the Kurdish refugee problem and were gobbled up by Bilkent for their international administrative expertise) but spoke English like a native. Often the only way that I could tell that they were not native speakers were in their mistakes with the pronunciation of English aspirated stops ('p' 't' 'ch' and 'k').

A majority of Asian Languages are also noted for not having aspirated stops, although they do have voiced / unvoiced stops. To give you another real world example. My friend's Thai wife went to the local supermarket, in the UK, with her mother in law. She told her mother in law that she had to desperately get to the seafood department to buy some 'crap' for tonight's meal. She was promptly told by her mother in law that UK supermarkets don't sell such things.- obviously not tasted Heinz Spaghetti bolognaise from a tin.

Anyway, as others have said, the report was not scientific and I'm sure that other variables are much stronger for the supposedly different rates of infection and mortality (obesity and non-tactile cultures), but I think that differences in pron and speech are valid variables.

Scipio, the fact that Dutch has only unaspirated consonant stops is a very interesting observation, and I now realize is part of the (in)famous Dutch accent when Dutch speak English. That said, some parts of the Netherlands were hard-hit by Covid-19, others not that much, so there is probably not a very strong link. It still is an interesting topic to do research on. It should be possible to measure the number of droplets generated by speakers of different languages in a trial involving hundreds of speakers of each language.

[As an aside, I take issue with your claim that there are "slight differences in regional pronunciations" in the Netherlands. The pronunciation in Limburg, for example, is quite difficult to understand for Dutch speakers, not to speak of the Antwerp pronunciation (though that may be called a distinct dialect). Many European countries have huge differences in regional pronunciations, for example the UK and Germany. The Netherlands is no different, even though it is a small country.]

[Grumpy Gramps]

I don't buy into this language spitting theory. If you look at Switzerland, the language aspect becomes weird. Swiss German is extremely guttural, We spit our "k" and "p" and "t", roll our "r" like you wouldn't believe, whereas French is a whole lot softer. The French part of Switzerland was riddled with Corona cases, while the Swiss German speaking part felt much less pain. The Italian speaking part was hit most, though. Switzerland was for a while the country with the second highest fatality rate.

[Russell]

I don't buy into this language spitting theory. If you look at Switzerland, the language aspect becomes weird. Swiss German is extremely guttural, We spit our "k" and "p" and "t", roll our "r" like you wouldn't believe, whereas French is a whole lot softer. The French part of Switzerland was riddled with Corona cases, while the Swiss German speaking part felt much less pain. The Italian speaking part was hit most, though. Switzerland was for a while the country with the second highest fatality rate.

The language-spitting theory is attractive though.

Imagine that, that to avoid becoming Covid-19 hotbeds the whole world will need to switch their native language to Dutch or Japanese. What a heaven...

[Grumpy Gramps]

Dutch, dutch, dutch, I'd vote for dutch any day!

[Wage Slave]

Dutch, dutch, dutch, I'd vote for dutch any day!

Me too!

[matsuki]

[*] Relatively low vitamin D deficiency levels. A commentary in the Lancet, one of the leading medical journals, states that though insufficient clinical research has yet to prove that there is a definite link between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of being infected by or the risk to die from Covid-19, it is quite likely that there is such a link. Fatty fish, which contains loads of vitamin D, is eaten a lot in Japan. Also, skies in Japan tend to be quite bright (even in winter), compared to countries in the northern part of Europe, and a daily dose of some 15 minutes sunlight on the skin has been proven to boast vitamin D levels. One has to wonder what authorities in some countries were thinking when they ordered everyone to stay inside.

I read/heard a tsunami of info about this and I think it's likely the biggest factor at play. Need more studies to show legit correlational but I was convinced enough to call family and tell them to buy vitamin D supplements.

[Scipio]

Tokyo's excess deaths far higher than COVID-19 count, data shows.

TOKYO -- The Japanese capital may have suffered more than 200 excess fatalities from pneumonia and other causes early in the outbreak, possibly dwarfing the period's official coronavirus death count of 16.
Even more deaths could have been undercounted in April, whose numbers will not come out until next month.
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases tracks fatalities from flu-like illnesses by collecting data from public health departments around the country. The tallies include those who died from pneumonia.
Excess fatalities are calculated by comparing these figures against baselines derived from past data.
The newest numbers show 50 to 60 excess deaths a week for the five weeks starting Feb. 17, adding up to hundreds more fatalities than usual.
Global media outlets have said actual COVID-19 fatalities may exceed reported numbers by 50% to 60%, based on excess fatalities.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coron ... data-shows

Japanese statistics and truth - 'The Midway Approach To Truth'...hide bad news - looking more suspicious with each passing week.

[yanpa]

Tokyo's excess deaths far higher than COVID-19 count, data shows.

TOKYO -- The Japanese capital may have suffered more than 200 excess fatalities from pneumonia and other causes early in the outbreak, possibly dwarfing the period's official coronavirus death count of 16.
Even more deaths could have been undercounted in April, whose numbers will not come out until next month.
The National Institute of Infectious Diseases tracks fatalities from flu-like illnesses by collecting data from public health departments around the country. The tallies include those who died from pneumonia.
Excess fatalities are calculated by comparing these figures against baselines derived from past data.
The newest numbers show 50 to 60 excess deaths a week for the five weeks starting Feb. 17, adding up to hundreds more fatalities than usual.
Global media outlets have said actual COVID-19 fatalities may exceed reported numbers by 50% to 60%, based on excess fatalities.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coron ... data-shows

Japanese statistics and truth - 'The Midway Approach To Truth'...hide bad news - looking more suspicious with each passing week.

Pffft, mere amateurs compared to The People's Deathcult Republic of Brexitystan.

[wangta]

[*] Relatively low vitamin D deficiency levels. A commentary in the Lancet, one of the leading medical journals, states that though insufficient clinical research has yet to prove that there is a definite link between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of being infected by or the risk to die from Covid-19, it is quite likely that there is such a link. Fatty fish, which contains loads of vitamin D, is eaten a lot in Japan. Also, skies in Japan tend to be quite bright (even in winter), compared to countries in the northern part of Europe, and a daily dose of some 15 minutes sunlight on the skin has been proven to boast vitamin D levels. One has to wonder what authorities in some countries were thinking when they ordered everyone to stay inside.

I read/heard a tsunami of info about this and I think it's likely the biggest factor at play. Need more studies to show legit correlational but I was convinced enough to call family and tell them to buy vitamin D supplements.

Japan hasn't done relatively well because of eating toxic fish. Most people here have no idea of what real vitamin supps are because the stuff sold here is garbage, and of course as is usual in J land expensive garbage. If they had Blackmore's from NZ for example or other credible, quality controlled, laboratory proven established vitamin sup sources freely available, I might believe it.

Sunlight does create Vitamin D. However, the big factors are in plain sight, there's no fucking mystery why around half a million Chinese living and working in the northern regions of Italy with two passports in many cases, continuously going back and forth to China and bringing whatever viruses back to Italy helped establish it there. Facts.

Mobile populations with different citizenships, long-term residency visas, etc, travelling around everywhere then going back to their residences in Europe and the UK as well as the USA etc, is a key difference between Japan and those countries. Especially the geographical conditions in Europe just inviting viruses to enter and spread around. Japan's big tourist numbers did not have the same effect - tourists are not permanent residents or people with multiple citizenships - and there always were more tourists in Europe anyway.

The USA - another no brainer. 330 million people from everywhere in the world, same mobility factor, throw in Dimocrat cunts in New Year and California who deserve to be hanged from the heels from the highest buildings in their cities for allowing infected people to be placed inside nursing homes thus causing that carnage among the old. Add to all this the penchant for illegal drugs that you inhale, more cases of diabetes and more clinically obese people of all ages and it's easy to see why Japan hasn't been hit so hard. Plus the relative luck of getting the milder although still dangerous strain of the Wuhan Virus.

[matsuki]

Japan hasn't done relatively well because of eating toxic fish. Most people here have no idea of what real vitamin supps are because the stuff sold here is garbage, and of course as is usual in J land expensive garbage. If they had Blackmore's from NZ for example or other credible, quality controlled, laboratory proven established vitamin sup sources freely available, I might believe it.

Sunlight does create Vitamin D. However, the big factors are in plain sight, there's no fucking mystery why around half a million Chinese living and working in the northern regions of Italy with two passports in many cases, continuously going back and forth to China and bringing whatever viruses back to Italy helped establish it there. Facts.

Did you watch the video?

・The assertion is Vitamin D deficiency apparently makes you more vulnerable to this virus. How you get your D (joke intended) isn't the issue.

・The Wuhan/Northern Italy connection was pretty obvious from the beginning. What does that have to do with Vitamin D and Japan?

[Russell]

[*] Relatively low vitamin D deficiency levels. A commentary in the Lancet, one of the leading medical journals, states that though insufficient clinical research has yet to prove that there is a definite link between vitamin D deficiency and the risk of being infected by or the risk to die from Covid-19, it is quite likely that there is such a link. Fatty fish, which contains loads of vitamin D, is eaten a lot in Japan. Also, skies in Japan tend to be quite bright (even in winter), compared to countries in the northern part of Europe, and a daily dose of some 15 minutes sunlight on the skin has been proven to boast vitamin D levels. One has to wonder what authorities in some countries were thinking when they ordered everyone to stay inside.

I read/heard a tsunami of info about this and I think it's likely the biggest factor at play. Need more studies to show legit correlational but I was convinced enough to call family and tell them to buy vitamin D supplements.

Most people here have no idea of what real vitamin supps are because the stuff sold here is garbage, and of course as is usual in J land expensive garbage.

There is a brand of supplements called "Nature Made" widely available in Japan that is from a US company. This brand is well-known and offers good quality.

[Taro Toporific]

There is a brand of supplements called "Nature Made" widely available in Japan that is from a US company. This brand is well-known and offers good quality.

Sadly "Nature Made --Japan" supplements are twice the price of the US since it is owned by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. (Otsuka Pharmaceutical bought Nature Made in 1989). When Otsuka acquired "Nature Made" in price went up in Japan and the quality has slowly dropped over time.

What did ConsumerLab.com Find?
...Twelve out of 27 (44.4%) of the multivitamin/multimineral supplements selected by ConsumerLab.com for testing failed to get our approval...
https://www.consumerlab.com/search/nature+made-review/

[Mike Oxlong]

You can get quite a variety of supplements from places like iHerb. Cheap and fast shipping from California. Customer ratings and reviews. Been a while since I've ordered anything. May not be available to us here in this time of covidiotry, but since they use Kuro Neko and Sagawa and not the USPS, maybe orders will be fine.

[Russell]

There is a brand of supplements called "Nature Made" widely available in Japan that is from a US company. This brand is well-known and offers good quality.

Sadly "Nature Made --Japan" supplements are twice the price of the US since it is owned by Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. (Otsuka Pharmaceutical bought Nature Made in 1989). When Otsuka acquired "Nature Made" in price went up in Japan and the quality has slowly dropped over time.

What did ConsumerLab.com Find?
...Twelve out of 27 (44.4%) of the multivitamin/multimineral supplements selected by ConsumerLab.com for testing failed to get our approval...
https://www.consumerlab.com/search/nature+made-review/

Taro, I can't access the results, so I do not know how Nature Made is doing.

Why do you conclude that the quality of Nature Made has gradually dropped over time?

[Grumpy Gramps]

You can get quite a variety of supplements from places like iHerb. Cheap and fast shipping from California.

iHerb has delivered to me usually within a week all through Covid time. Reliable!

[Russell]

You can get quite a variety of supplements from places like iHerb. Cheap and fast shipping from California.

iHerb has delivered to me usually within a week all through Covid time. Reliable!

OK, I have stocked up on Vitamin D and Zink, but in case I need more, what are the top brands in the US for those?

[Mike Oxlong]

You can get quite a variety of supplements from places like iHerb. Cheap and fast shipping from California.

iHerb has delivered to me usually within a week all through Covid time. Reliable!

OK, I have stocked up on Vitamin D and Zink, but in case I need more, what are the top brands in the US for those?

Not a member of Consumer Labs, so can't see their reports. But, this might be somewhat useful.

https://labdoor.com/rankings/vitamin-d?filter=quality
https://labdoor.com/rankings/zinc?filter=quality

I have had consistent five day door-to-door service from iHerb in deepest darkest Okinawa inaka.

When I eat real herbs, it's the mugwort for me. Real nice in the Okinawa soba. Goes by fuchiba in the local hogen.

[Russell]

So, what else is unique in the Japanese diet? One thing coming to mind is Natto. If this is a factor then I would expect that infection rates in Kansai would be higher than in Kanto, because Natto is less popular in Kansai. Just one hypothesis, but I am sure there may be other reasons why Japan is doing relatively well.

Vitamin K found in some cheeses could help fight Covid-19, study suggests

Patients who have died or been admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 have been found to be deficient in a vitamin found in spinach, eggs, and hard and blue cheeses, raising hopes that dietary change might be one part of the answer to combating the disease.

Researchers studying patients who were admitted to the Canisius Wilhelmina hospital in the Dutch city of Nijmegen have extolled the benefits of vitamin K after discovering a link between deficiency and the worst coronavirus outcomes.

Covid-19 causes blood clotting and leads to the degradation of elastic fibres in the lungs. Vitamin K, which is ingested through food and absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract, is key to the production of proteins that regulate clotting and can protect against lung disease.

The Dutch researchers are now seeking funding for a clinical trial, but Dr Rob Janssen, a scientist working on the project, said that in light of the initial findings he would encourage a healthy intake of vitamin K, except to those on blood-thinning medications such as warfarin.

He said: “We are in a terrible, horrible situation in the world. We do have an intervention which does not have any side effects, even less than a placebo. There is one major exception: people on anti-clotting medication. It is completely safe in other people.

“My advice would be to take those vitamin K supplements. Even if it does not help against severe Covid-19, it is good for your blood vessels, bones and probably also for the lungs.”

Janssen added: “We have [vitamin] K1 and K2. K1 is in spinach, broccoli, green vegetables, blueberries, all types of fruit and vegetables. K2 is better absorbed by the body. It is in Dutch cheese, I have to say, and French cheese as well.”

A Japanese delicacy of fermented soya beans called natto is particularly high in the second type of vitamin K and there may be cause for further studies into its health benefits, Janssen said.

“I have worked with a Japanese scientist in London and she said it was remarkable that in the regions in Japan where they eat a lot of natto, there is not a single person to die of Covid-19; so that is something to dive into, I would say.”

More

[wangta]

I call bullshit on the Japanese scientist reference there and the 'Not a single person died from COVID-19 where natto is eaten a lot' reference.

The scientist is not named, there are no stats given, just a breathless 'remarkable' quote and taking of a Japanese person at face value, fact is there are plenty of people that eat natto in urbanized Tokyo and the numbers of deaths are the highest in Japan and of course big population has something to do with it, the bumfuck regions where natto is a way of life are also where there are less people, less mobility of population except for young people moving away and little influx of new people as well as less tourist numbers when they were still coming.

[matsuki]

efficient in a vitamin found in spinach, eggs, and hard and blue cheeses

.....

We have [vitamin] K1 and K2. K1 is in spinach, broccoli, green vegetables, blueberries, all types of fruit and vegetables.

I'm pretty sure I'm not Vitamin K deficient. I'm downing the vitamin D supplements on the reg but I've been eating all of the above on the reg for years....and natto

I call bullshit on the Japanese scientist reference

I totally believe a Japanese "scientist" would say that....but yeah, the claim is about as credible as China's millions of test not finding a single case.

[Russell]

I call bullshit on the Japanese scientist reference there and the 'Not a single person died from COVID-19 where natto is eaten a lot' reference.

The scientist is not named, there are no stats given, just a breathless 'remarkable' quote and taking of a Japanese person at face value, fact is there are plenty of people that eat natto in urbanized Tokyo and the numbers of deaths are the highest in Japan and of course big population has something to do with it, the bumfuck regions where natto is a way of life are also where there are less people, less mobility of population except for young people moving away and little influx of new people as well as less tourist numbers when they were still coming.

It is not only a Japanese scientist saying it, but also a Dutch scientist (identified by name) who says it.

If you think that the number of Covid-19 cases is high in Tokyo, I have a bridge to sell to you. Given the population density, the number of cases is actually remarkably low. So, yes, after all it could be the natto.

[Mike Oxlong]

I call bullshit on the Japanese scientist reference there and the 'Not a single person died from COVID-19 where natto is eaten a lot' reference.

The scientist is not named, there are no stats given, just a breathless 'remarkable' quote and taking of a Japanese person at face value, fact is there are plenty of people that eat natto in urbanized Tokyo and the numbers of deaths are the highest in Japan and of course big population has something to do with it, the bumfuck regions where natto is a way of life are also where there are less people, less mobility of population except for young people moving away and little influx of new people as well as less tourist numbers when they were still coming.

It is not only a Japanese scientist saying it, but also a Dutch scientist (identified by name) who says it.

If you think that the number of Covid-19 cases is high in Tokyo, I have a bridge to sell to you. Given the population density, the number of cases is actually remarkably low. So, yes, after all it could be the natto.

And, it could be the way of counting.

https://twitter.com/MRSS11224611/status ... 1227300865

Let's all think on that.

[Coligny]

220D9331-8AE5-4FF1-877C-C934B16109BC.jpeg

Half the population but 30 times more death....

[matsuki]

220D9331-8AE5-4FF1-877C-C934B16109BC.jpeg

Half the population but 30 times more death....

So...cheese is not the answer?