Japan's PM to ask all schools to temporarily close

I think what Japan really needs to do is to run a campaign to change the culture. One of the problems is that they put too much confidence in face masks. What they need to do is run a message that if you show any symptoms then stay home and avoid contact altogether.<p>Most of these masks are just toys and not air tight at all. One experiment you can do with the mask is go outside in cold weather, so that you can see the steam when you breathe. You will notice that when you breathe, most of air is actually escaping through the edges of the mask and around the nose.<p>Also, there is a culture of not staying home when you&#x27;re sick. It&#x27;s normal to continue going to work with a cold &#x2F; other infection, or school or shop. Sick leave is frowned upon. Just put on a mask and you&#x27;re all sweet, right? That has to change.

For those of you curious about the state of COVID-19 in Japan, I created an open source tracker that has gained a lot of momentum.<p>Source Code: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;reustle&#x2F;covid19japan&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;reustle&#x2F;covid19japan&#x2F;</a><p>Tracker Itself: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;covid19japan.com" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;covid19japan.com</a><p>Twitter Thread: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;reustle&#x2F;status&#x2F;1229313493808992257" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;twitter.com&#x2F;reustle&#x2F;status&#x2F;1229313493808992257</a><p>(copied from another thread)

Sorry to change the topic but I&#x27;m really struggling with a decision to fly from Tokyo (where I live) to the USA tomorrow for a wedding.<p>One of my closest friends is getting married. She says to come! Wedding is Saturday. Day after I&#x27;d fly to another state to see mom. A few days after that I&#x27;d fly to another state to see brother and dad. After that was supposed to be GDC. May still go to SF or just stay with dad but current flight back is after GDC.<p>I don&#x27;t really want to miss my friends wedding and was really looking forward to seeing family as I only get to seem them once every other year or so and parents are healthy but ~80 so no so many chances left.<p>So, what do I do? Go and cross my fingers I don&#x27;t catch it? Pray that I&#x27;m not a carrier? No symptoms ATM. I currently work from home so haven&#x27;t been commuting in typical Tokyo rush hour trains but have been out at non-rush hour 2 out of 3 days a week.<p>Is it selfish to want to go? Is it selfish to not want to go? Is it irresponsible to go? Is it stupid to be worried?

n.b. This is being described domestically as 要請, which is “ask” in the sense of “The IRS asks that you not lie on your tax return.”

Our county school system has a remote learning platform in place that is used for bad weather days. It keeps the schools from needing to do make up days. I wonder how long it could be effective. It seems like an ok way to handle lessons and coursework for a few days but I wonder if there would be a wide gap in student achievement if it needed to go beyond that limited scope.

I don&#x27;t see comments on this yet but I&#x27;ll says some of that is because of the Olympics based in Tokyo this summer. I heard the other day about how there&#x27;s kind of a cutoff point in May determining if it needs to be postponed, pushed, or moved. The Olympics is still huge and if your country is hosting, I can see them wanting to close schools to try anything to stop the possible spread for people to trust and want to still go and compete.

This is surprising given this epidemic seems to mostly affect people over 30. Not saying it&#x27;s wrong, I&#x27;m not a public health expert. Just surprised.<p>Is it because they might be likely to carry and spread it without ever showing any symptoms?

Vietnam, who has only had 19 cases (and very few new ones lately), closed their schools a few weeks back.<p>Last I heard that may be extended to the end of March.

Good luck with that in the US, where school is often used as an alternative to childcare.

I think next will be universities (we already cancelled a conference in mine). Japan has taken the issue too lightly since the beginning, it&#x27;s good they finally start acting on it.

In Japan who would typically take care of children in a situation like this? In the US, because of the difficulty for parents to get off of work, I would expect most of the children to be in large group settings anyway (day care, staying with friends, large extended families, etc). It might limit spread a little bit compared to school, but not a lot.

Seriously though. That guy who comes into work sick to show us all he is 100% committed is completely bonkers. WORK REMOTELY if you need to flex how big your dedication is. Maybe throw a Calvin and Hobbes sticker on your car windshield while you&#x27;re being so insecure and putting peoples health at risk.

Announced just about an hour ago, taking the country here (Japan) by surprise. Most JHS and HS are in the middle of final exams, and public High School entrance exams are next week. (Most university entrance exams are just finishing, though).<p>A hopefully good move, but might have been nicer to have given teachers and students more time to prepare (i.e., announce it a week earlier, perhaps?).<p><i>shrug</i> Just my $0.02

Japanese Source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www3.nhk.or.jp&#x2F;news&#x2F;html&#x2F;20200227&#x2F;k10012304751000.html" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www3.nhk.or.jp&#x2F;news&#x2F;html&#x2F;20200227&#x2F;k10012304751000.ht...</a>

They plan to close them until spring holidays late next month. We can expect much of the US to do the same if the virus comes in during the winter season.<p>This is a big reason why the stock market is dropping.

More than 900 cases of infection have been confirmed. Damn, that&#x27;s alarming.

too late to do that now? it&#x27;s already in the community

Somewhere, a demonic Japanese child&#x27;s spell has finally succeeded.