Covid in Asia

Several articles include information on covid in Asia.

 
StrategyPage includes this information:

September 10, 2022: Currently China has 33 cities and about 65 million people under covid19 lockdowns. Those cities account for a disproportionate amount of the national GDP because factories in these cities supply vital components for manufacturing operations all over China, and the world.

The heavy use of lockdowns to achieve zero covid19 cases Initially (2020) this was a success and allowed China to claim far fewer covid19 deaths than it actually suffered. Other industrialized East Asian nations (South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Singapore) adopted similar policies with similar success but also accurately reported covid19 deaths. This annoyed China, but worse was yet to come. Covid19 evolved into strains that spread more easily but were much less likely to kill. The other East Asian nations adjusted to this and did not use large scale shutdowns because of the economic damage. These nations trusted their citizens to test themselves and self-quarantine if infected. China was not as trusting of its citizens and continued with large scale lockdowns that did more damage to the Chinese economy without reducing covid19 deaths much.

Another difference with China was their refusal to buy the more effective Western mRNA vaccines or license the technology. There were hacking efforts against the mRNA vaccine developers early on but those hacks failed to get the mRNA tech. China used less- effective vaccines developed locally. These vaccines were less successful in preventing infections and this resulted in strict lockdowns to overcome this problem. China now has an mRNA vaccine design that is being tested.

 There is a minor scandal in the USA about how covid and/or the vaccines for covid are causing myocardopathy and sudden death in young people.

the scandal was not because of the problem, but because the anti vax types noticed this first, but it took months for the government to admit they had a problem. 

Here in Asia, there is a genetic factor that causes sudden death (we lost a cousin and our cook lost her son from this). But now there is a report that Japan is planning to put automatic defibrillators in schools. making one wonder if there has also been an increase in sudden cardiac deaths in recent years.

Almost all schools in Japan now have an AED, and cases of sudden cardiac death have been gradually decreasing. However, 12 children died in 2017 of cardiac arrest in schools, accounting for about 20 percent of all deaths in schools that year.

Here in the Philippines, the death rate has stablized:

Updates

• 2,619 new cases and 32 new deaths in the Philippines [source]

 

but there is a lot around: “NCR’s positivity rate increased from 13.2% last week to 16.4% at present

here everything is open and things are busy: And in the farms folks are busy at the rice fields. (Hope that the typhoons stay away).

But we are seeing dengue cases but no one has sprayed the open drainage ditches yet.

I had two AZ shots, but didn't get the booster even when the mRNA shot became available because it gave limited immunity against omicron and newer covid versions.

However, there is now a bivalent vaccine that is supposed to hit them, and Moderna is going to make it in Japan.