JAPAN Another thread on the logic behind the Japanese disaster response. Bc if you don't understand network flow you'll likely not get it and offer harmful advice.

1. Japan was prepared like no other country. Five top level meetings before they had 25 cases. https://twitter.com/dicklp/status/1245882655805038592

2. Read the Wikipedia article, follow the links, and check the data they collected. Japan is a quality obsessed country, so they actually knew what they were doing.

3. They understood full well early on that hospital resources would become the critical bottleneck.

4. There are any number of reasons why you would want to avoid patients going to the hospital: resource overload, slipping protection standards, tragic choices, in-hospital contagion.

5. From the disease profile we know, the percentage of patients needing hospitalization is low.

6. Even countries with high visibility symptomatic testing get mostly negative test results. Why? Self-diagnosis of flu as C19, overcautiousness, hypochrondia.

7. If Japan does mass testing under current laws they get hospital overload with people who shd be in home quarantine.

8. So yes, it might be time to accept that Japan knows what they are doing and they are sending people where they belong: only small minority that should be in the hospital are in the hospital.

9. In summary, mass testing can be harmful if you don't know what you are doing.

JAPAN Since nobody is reading Wikipedia articles, here's a summary of Japan's early #Covid19 response. If you think other countries did better, please post. Taiwan might be the obvious contender. Korea, not so much. Germany also missed the boat. US and UK: unambiguous failure.

24 JAN convenes cabinet meeting [3 known cases]
28 JAN designates C19 infectious disease under law [7]
30 JAN establishes C19 HQ [14]
31 JAN announces repatriation [17]
01 FEB announces entry restrictions [20]
05 FEB invokes Quarantine Act [25]
06 FEB invokes Immigration Act [26]

01 FEB establishes consultation centers [20]
04 FEB Diamond Princess [23+4]
05 FEB designates test sites, tests [25]
12 FEB expands testing protocol [28]
14 FEB introduces consultation system [41]
16 FEB convenes expert meeting [59]
17 FEB releases consultation guidelines [65]

So yes, it's a long article, but read the damn article on JAPAN bc it will be turned into a manual for disaster preparedness, while everything coming from the US will be turned into the handbook of how to fuck things up on a global scale.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_Japan#Government_response