Coronavirus, Discrimination, the Diamond Princess, Japan, Olympic 2020

Upload: 19 February 2020, Last update: 5 April 2020

1. The Diamond Princess cruise ship, Japan

2. On the epidemic and the world

1. The Diamond Princess cruise ship, Japan

Kentaro Iwata, who is a professor specializing infectious diseases at Kobe university[1], Japan, entered into the cruise ship Diamond Princess. After being forced to leave, he posted a video both in English[2] and Japanese[3] (it might be translated into other language). In the video, he reported the internal environment of the cruise, saying that “the cruise ship was completely inadequate in terms of the infection control”[4]. There wasn’t clear line that the zone free from the virus and not. Referring to his experiences of Ebola, Cholera, SARS, the internal control didn’t reach the baseline — he closed the access to the videos which was announced on the morning of 20 February[4.5].

It seems that the management inside the ship didn’t have even the minimum expertise according to his leak. It’s risky to put absolute reliance on just his inside report, but if these are entirely true, the spread of virus isn’t being prevented in the minimum level. How Japan take approach to Coronavirus is not a matter just related to Japan, I think as everyone knows, it put other countries at risk if Japan doesn’t take the best measure.

Among his explanations, shockingly he mentioned, in an interview with BBC[5], on the disembarkment and “the use of test” (because people who were permitted to go home were tested negative[6]) that the use of the test is misunderstood and “it is scientifically wrong and logically wrong”. The inside management should be examined more in detail with high transparency and disclosure of information.

2. On the epidemic and the world

As far as I looked at what’s been happening by the epidemic of coronavirus, it is chaotic and tragic.

11 March: WHO Director General announced that COVID-19 is the first case of coronavirus pandemic[6.4].

Then the center of rising confirmed cases moved to Europe[6.4.1].

29 March 2020: the total death in Italy reached 10,000[6.4.2].

30 March 2020: in worldwide level the number of total deaths went over 30,000[6.4.3].

Discrimination against Asians are often heard on media. And people are afraid of others, particularly those who cough in closed space, wondering whether they are infected by the virus.

According to CNN articles[6.5], a victim of discriminatory assault posted on Facebook that he was attacked “on 24 February” “in London” with photos of his injuries — the Singapore student heard “I don’t want your coronavirus in my country” which one of the men said in the attack.

#JeNeSuisPasUnVirus (I’m not a virus) is spread “on social media”[6.6].

As for the oncoming Olympics 2020, there’s concern on whether it could be held or not. One of the candidates for London mayor tweeted on 19 February that “London can host the #Olympics in 2020.”[7].

As coronavirus became pandemic and continuing to spread, Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics 2020 were decided to be postponed to the summer of 2021. Olympics will begin on 23 July, Paralympics 24 August according to the organizing committee on 30 March[8].

Many events graduation ceremonies and musicians’ concerts were canceled.

[1] Based on his twitter account. Available at https://twitter.com/georgebest1969 Accessed 19 February 2020.

[2] English version is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtHYZkLuKcI Accessed 19 February 2020.

[3] Japanese version is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3X3RSmf7ds Accessed 19 February 2020.

[4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtHYZkLuKcI around 4:06-4:13.

[4.5] Tweets of Kentaro Iwata that he closed the access to his videos. https://twitter.com/georgebest1969/status/1230243699092705280 Accessed 25 February 2020, https://twitter.com/georgebest1969/status/1230241394754670592 Accessed 25 February 2020.

[5] BBC News Japan. 感染症の専門家、客船内の感染対策を批判 BBCが独占取材. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NksCM2Kiwfw Published 19 February 2020. Accessed 19 February 2020.

[6] BBC. Coronavirus: Passengers leave Diamond Princess amid criticism of Japan. Available at https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51555420 Published 19 February 2020. Accessed 19 February 2020. BBC News Japan. 感染症の専門家、客船内の感染対策を批判 BBCが独占取材. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NksCM2Kiwfw Published 19 February 2020. Accessed 19 February 2020.

[6.4] WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 11 March 2020. https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020 Published 11 March 2020, Accessed 4 April 2020.

[6.4.1] WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 – 13 March 2020. https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-mission-briefing-on-covid-19—13-march-2020 Published 13 March 2020, Accessed 4 April 2020.

[6.4.2] WHO. Situation Report – 69. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200329-sitrep-69-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=8d6620fa_8 Published 29 March 2020, Accessed 5 April 2020.

[6.4.3] WHO. Situation Report – 70. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200330-sitrep-70-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=7e0fe3f8_4 Published 30 March 2020 Accessed 5 April 2020.

[6.5] CNN. London police seek four men after ‘racist’ coronavirus attack on East Asian student. Available at https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/05/uk/coronavirus-racist-attack-police-intl-scli-gbr/ Uploaded 5 March 2020. Accessed 9 March 2020. CNN. East Asian student assaulted in ‘racist’ coronavirus attack in London. Available at https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/03/uk/coronavirus-assault-student-london-scli-intl-gbr/index.html. Uploaded 4 March 2020. Accessed 9 March 2020.

[6.6] Reuters. “Je ne suis pas un virus”: la communauté asiatique de France face à la peur de l’épidémie. https://fr.reuters.com/article/topNews/idFRKBN1ZU2SN Uploaded 1 February 2020. Accessed 10 March 2020.

[7] https://twitter.com/ShaunBaileyUK/status/1230111123476746241 Accessed 25 February 2020.

[8] NHK. 東京オリンピック７月23日開幕 パラは８月24日開幕で決定. https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20200330/k10012358491000.html Published 30 March 2020, Accessed 3 April 2020.