Is he serious? Aichi governor asks the government to count Covid deaths & severe cases properly
In an early post, I profiled Hideaki Omura, governor of Aichi Prefecture and mRNA injection enthusiast.
Even by the standards of Covid-era Japanese politicians, Gov Omura stands out for his love of both Covid measures and Covid vaccines. So he inevitably held a press conference on 12th August just before the Obon Holidays to implore his constituents to mask with all their might and jab with all their hearts.
So far, so eye-rolling. But then he made an eye-catching request to the national government a few days later.
Like in most other places, a Covid death in Japan is someone who dies for any reason after (or even before) testing positive for Covid. Severe cases are also counted similarly (except in Tokyo and Osaka): anyone in any kind of intensive care bed for any reason with a positive test. So what does Gov Omura suggest the government do instead?
県によると「第七波」で、新型コロナが原因で死亡した人はいない。重症者は他の病気が原因で重篤な状態となっている人がほとんど。県は重症化の例が比較的少ないオミクロン株の特性を踏まえ、国に対し「他の疾患が主要な原因の場合を除外、または別区分とするなど定義・公表方法を変更すること」と求めた。
According to the Aichi Prefectural government, in the 7th wave, nobody has died with Covid-19 as the cause of death. Most severe Covid cases are mainly suffering from other diseases. Based on the comparatively few cases of severe disease caused by the Omicron variants, Aichi Prefecture [i.e., Gov Omura] requests that the national government “Omit cases where other diseases are the main cause [of sickness or death] and change the way numbers are counted and reported like by using separate categories.
None of Aichi’s 7.5 million residents has died from Covid in the BA.5 wave!? So how many have died with Covid then? From 1st July to 16th August, Aichi reported 235 Covid deaths. But all from other causes apparently.
And how many serious cases are there? There are 39 if we use the national government’s counting method: anyone in any kind of intensive-care bed with a positive test result.
But if we use Tokyo’s counting method of people receiving mechanical ventilation/ECMO for Covid, there are 6. So about 1 out of every 1,250,000 Aichi residents then.
Now many people have been pointing out the problems of fraudulently counting anyone with a positive test result as a Covid death/severe case for 2.5 years. But they all tended to be critics of authoritarian non-pharmaceutical interventions and experimental pharmaceutical ones, the complete opposite of Gov Omura. So will the national government start counting Covid deaths properly? I don’t know, but I’m dying to find out.
This topic has long been one I have attempted to get across. One can not compare numbers of Covid cases or Covid deaths without first defining what each are in each place you wish to compare. That simple concept apparently throws most folks for a loop, actually apoplectic seizures is closer to their reaction. In mid 2020 I received a set of criteria for attributing a death to covid in Japan that was quite close to how deaths from all other diseases are counted. The deceased must have had symptoms of Covid 19 and must have died of pneumonia and had all other causes ruled out. At the same time, over in the US, Dr. Birx had already stated in a televised broadcast that for the first time the US was counting not only those who died OF a disease, Covid, but also those died WITH Covid. This practice was followed by several, through not all, of the States. Similarly, other countries have their own methods of assigning credit (blame?) to Covid for deaths they experienced.
Later in the year, the same source sent me a copy of the national, Japan, guidelines for attributing cause of death to Covid. This was similar, if not exact to what Dr. Birx stated months before. One parameter not mentioned, however, in any set of criteria, is how many cycles of the PCR “test” is the proper threshold for a positive result. Many regions, either entire countries or even different areas within a single country, have not stated publicly the CT (Cycle Threshold) number they use.
There is a reason why every engineering class I have ever taken, whether in the navy or college, began each unit with a list of nomenclature to define the terms as used in the unit. Without everyone knowing exactly what everything means in the context of a discussion, any comparisons/contrasts between anything is meaningless. Everywhere we look, we find numbers of cases and deaths attributed to covid reported, yet nowhere is the single, universally accepted definition of a case of Covid nor a Covid death stated. That is because they do not exist.
That is not to say that the article I am responding to is meaningless, rather the government officials and agencies and media who I keep touting successes or failures based upon these undefined terms are talking nonsense and should not be trusted.
The Japs are same. same but different to most other countries.