Govt experts oppose downgrading Covid, citing excess cardio deaths
Up until now, the Japanese government’s experts have opposed downgrading Covid and treating it like the flu by fraudulently claiming Covid is much more fatal based on an inflated case fatality rate (CFR). But as Covid’s CFR has gone down, more people and local governments are calling for Covid to be downgraded. For example, the Ibaraki prefectural government this week strongly requested the national government to consider downgrading Covid, pointing to the government’s own data showing Covid having similar CFRs to the flu (イ, black) during the 6th, 7th, and current 8th waves.
So now that the experts can’t use their old excuse, they’ve had to come up with some new ones.
According to Covid Response Advisory Board Chairman Takiji Wakita, “Covid and influenza are completely different viruses, so you shouldn’t use fatality rates to compare them.”
Wakita himself has been comparing Covid and the flu in exactly that way since 2020, but nevermind. However, the excuses get even more tenuous. From the Asahi Shimbun.
[The Advisory Board experts] pointed out that there have been more excess deaths this year than before the pandemic. Cardiac complications and sequelae [i.e., long Covid] should also be considered.
If you’re thinking, “Hang on. Are they trying to link non-Covid excess deaths, especially cardiac deaths, to Covid?”, then give yourself pat on the back! In their 16-page document attempting to justify the status quo, the Advisory Board experts suggest there is a possibility that circulatory deaths caused by Covid have been overlooked as Covid deaths both in Japan and elsewhere. And yes, they explicitly point to excess deaths, particularly circulatory ones, as a reason for Japan to continue with Covid cosplay since it hasn’t been clarified whether or not these deaths are linked with Covid.
The document also suggests Covid may have played a role in the approximately 30,000 excess deaths from heart disease in England between March and August this year. Funny that they should mention my homeland this week.
Basically, the Advisory Board experts are implying the real number of Covid-related deaths in Japan this year may be multiple times higher, even though 40-50% of people counted as Covid deaths are judged to have died from other causes. Of course, they talk about undercounted Covid deaths as a “possibility”, without bothering to estimate the “probability” of it being true. Feel free to come up with your own estimates.
So to sum up, the government’s experts are using non-Covid excess deaths that look suspiciously like they might be vaccine-related as a justification for the government to maintain its current Covid policy, which incidentally includes making taxpayers keep covering the costs for the Covid shots. Sustainability in action!
If you want the right advice, you need to ask the right advisors.
No need to downgrade. I downgraded covid about a month after it started.
I would also like to add that I have a moral obligation to ignore stupidity, especially if it has a negative effect on my fellow human beings. I will do so. Ignore and outperform. My neighborhood is a mess. It is full of mask-wearing fools who litter the streets with their masks, cans, and cigarette butts. I will clean up after them maskless to show them what a real man does.