Interview with Guy Gin
I recently had the pleasure to meet up with fellow Substacker DW Shumway, who has posted the audio of his 50-minute interview with me on his Substack. We cover various aspects of the Covid Pandemonium that were similar and different in Japan and the west. If you have an hour to spare, please follow the link below to give us a listen.
The compliant masses are the same no matter where you travel in the world, they do not question the rules of authority and independent thought flies out of the window. I live in Scotland and most of the population bought into the covid narrative and some were even complaining that the rules were not harsh enough. During that period I lived feeling like a stranger in a land I had considered my home.
GUY GIN! Great interview! I left a comment on DW Shumway’s substack and will repeat it here.
Great interview. As there are some differences between Guy Gin’s recalling of events early on, I would like to explain why and then add some other personal observations that I hope add to his.
Guy Gin and I have different dates for the start for masking in Japan. He is correct that in March 2020 there were many here that were yet unmasked. I observed at the time that few elderly were wearing masks despite it being known that they were at greater danger from covid. However, I place the start time for masking with late 2019. While far from universal, Japan has long, like for a century or longer, been masking as protection from colds and flu and more recently against hay fever inducing pollen. Cold and flu season starting with the weather turning cold and with many allergic to plants that give off their allergens in the Fall and others in the Spring, annually we see many wearing masks from as early as November some years to as late as the first week of May most years. Not universal, but far more wearing masks at the time the sars cov2 virus is thought to have first landed in the country than seen in the US or any Western country. Didn’t stop the virus from taking hold, did it.
Masking against covid started at least as early as February 2020 as my esteemed colleagues and our med students were wearing them for a workshop we had that month. The employees of a client company were wearing them already at this time too. Official recommendations do so would come later, I believe, with many not wearing them yet as late as March. The teachers at my eldest kid’s kindergarten were wearing them by March and the few allowed to attend the few last year events (the graduating kids had been going there since 6 months to a year old) that they held in March 2020 (many events were called off cuz, covid) were required to wear masks at the time. I do not recall the kids having to wear them yet though.
Just as with the official announcement that masks were no longer recommended yet many still to this day wear them, many individuals, schools and businesses had already started with the mad masking before the official recommendation to do so was announced.
Not only was there the morning TV shows broadcasting the covid infection and death counts each morning, they had a running total of covid cases and deaths on the big telethon screen in Akihabara. I should have taken a photo of that.
Not only did most hospitals not deal with any covid patients, those that did not suffered horribly financially as they had no patients. Same as in the US which at one point had half a million, if memory serves, medical professionals out of work due to their ward or entire hospital shut down while everyone was screaming about hospitals overflowing with covid patients. I do not think that any Japanese doctors and nurses were doing the tictoking dance routines that the heroic, overworked MDs and RNs in the US miraculously found time to do, though. But I may be mistaken.
The “not enough beds” excuse has been used for decades as an excuse for turning patients away. Around 20 years ago when I first came to understand the situation, Japan had double the number of hospitals beds that the US had at the time while having only half the population of the US; yet, “not enough beds” was and still is used as the excuse for denying health care that has already been paid for, and as we see with covid, scare the population into allowing horrible policies.
No requirements for the covid shot except for medical professionals and students, or so they are told, and thus it is. One other facet of the social suicide it is to go against the group in Japan, if a cluster of Covid cases occurred in any work environment, the unmasked were blamed for each case. Imagine being personally liable for all missed work and loses incurred by your employer. Who can resist such? Few. I think this new deeper fear of responsibility is the driving force of many changes in Japan’s cultural events which I know something about and I’d bet are happening elsewhere too.
I can no longer provide links to my posts on Substack, so here is the title of a post that adds some more detail on Guy Gin’s statements on the discrepancies between what many in the West know about Japan and what Japanese in Japan know about Japan. The title is “Does Dr. Fukushima’s statement change anything?” Published on DEC 10, 2022. Dr. Fukushima’s remarks being taken as proof in the West that Japan was using ivermectin against covid and that that was why they were beating covid was one of the reasons I decided first to start my own substack. I had seen the same misunderstanding before with other subjects which I discuss in the post referred to above, for those who are interested.
Again, great job to the both of you and thanks.