Hundreds of flu-fearing residents line up to buy masks
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry reports that newly confirmed cases of H1N1 flu peaked last week, and the infection rate is now in decline. The government has eased anti-flu measures and flights from abroad will no longer face quarantine checks. Schools that were closed because of flu fears are reopening.
None of that seems to have had much of an effect on residents of Takarazuka, about 800 of whom lined up yesterday at city hall to buy protective masks:
The masks went on sale at 10:00AM and sold out quickly. Some people had arrived as early as 7:00AM to wait, and because the city had only 500 boxes of masks available, hundreds of people went home disappointed.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Sea of Japan, flu fears have whipped up xenophobic bullshit. Foreigners in South Korea, even some who have not traveled abroad in the last several months, are being treated as likely sources of disease. Parents of students are calling schools to inquire about the safety of having their children in the same room as a foreigner, and foreign teachers are being told to stay in their houses and avoid contact with other foreigners. Have any of this site’s readers experience something similar in Japan?
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I am an American living in the Northern Kanto area. Last week I got on the train and an old lady across from me looked startled when she saw me, reached into her bag, and put on a mask. Her eyes never left my face. After several minutes of intense staring she got up and moved to a new seat at the other end of the train. I am enjoying the extra space, but come on, a bit rediculous don`t you think. Just by doing the math you can see that the odds of catching the flu from a foreigner are millions to 1 and someone on a train in Tochigi is probably NOT a tourist.
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The asshole in me would have wanted to get up stand right in front of her and breath really heavily. Ha.
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So basic science isn’t taught in Japan?
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I still don’t understand the whole surgical mask thing. I thought that was just for preventing bodily fluids from hitting surgeons’ faces? I don’t think it an actually stop an airborne virus.
I’m an American living in Singapore, but I haven’t had any adverse reactions, yet. In fact, at the beginning of the month, well after this started, I even moved and rented out a room in a Chinese family’s house. No problem there. Then again, the first case of H1N1 just hit the shores of Japan on the 26th. Let’s see how attitudes change over the next few weeks, if it starts to spread to others. I’ve been here in Singapore for just shy of a year, but having just moved, most people in my new neighborhood don’t recognize me yet.
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The masks may have some psychological benefit, but obviously, if they’re porous enough to breathe through they are porous enough for any virus to penetrate.
In Taiwan, a lot of scootor riders wear them to keep dust and soot out of their mouth and lungs, which is perfectly logical.
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Viruses would travel within droplets of moisture (i.e., in a sneeze or saliva in a cough), not through your breath.
A droplet of saliva is considerably bigger than air molecules from your breath.
A mask will considerably “capture” that moisture and keep it from flying all over the people all around you, just as a tissue would.
Presumably, it would also help if someone sneezed in your face, but I doubt it’s super effective that way. They are designed for people who are already sick to help them keep from spreading it. Same goes for normal colds.
Another reason the masks are used when people have colds is that it keeps the air in front of their mouth moist, and so helps with sore throats.
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These masks are okay to minimize (not stop) fluid spread when you have a cold or something like that, but they need to be changed every few hours to remain effective at this, since they eventually become too porous from humidity.
As a defense against the spread of influenza-type viruses their usefulness is very dubious. I doubt most people change them often enough anyway, they just keep wearing an useless porous mask all day.
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Japanese mentality of ” Do as other Japanese do ” is awesome.
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To be honest I’m surprised that what the bloggers are writing from Korea hasn’t happened in Japan on a massive scale.
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I’m not. All the cases in Japan so far have been Japanese, and everyone knows it. Now, 20 years ago there may well have been “run from foreigners”-type idiocy. But that was then, this is now…
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lol, Korea
People who complain about xenophobia in Japan should not go to South Korea. Ever. Just saying.
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From the WHO website:
What about using a mask? What does WHO recommend?
If you are not sick you do not have to wear a mask.
If you are caring for a sick person, you can wear a mask when you are in close contact with the ill person and dispose of it immediately after contact, and cleanse your hands thoroughly afterwards.
If you are sick and must travel or be around others, cover your mouth and nose.
Using a mask correctly in all situations is essential. Incorrect use actually increases the chance of spreading infection.
Ah well. Now’s a good time to be in the mask business, boy.
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Nope. I haven’t had one exaggerated reaction from anyone just by being a foreigner here, and as coincidence would have it, I’ve even had to do a lot of traveling by train during the outbreak, not only all over Osaka City, but into Kobe, to a large hospital, and even out to the Immigration Office in CosmoSquare. Nobody’s been any more weirded out by me than they ever are.
People seem to always be pretty mellow and rational out here from my experience so far, and are usually busy minding their own business, rather than worrying about the random foreigner lurking about, even in times of swine flu.
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In 1980, I went to a major university hospital in Tokyo that had a water cooler for patient use. There was one plastic cup that was, while I was sitting there, used by a dozen people. I thought this was pretty weird, but I saw the same thing in three or four other hospitals. You would not see that in Japan nowadays. Japan has gotten a lot more careful about germs in the past 20 years, but given the crowds and potential for mass infection, I don’t see that as a bad thing — as long as it doesn’t get out of hand. And I’m glad they have paper cups in hospitals now.
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I’ve been travelin around kansai and kanto and nobody seems to really care about swine flu at all. Only about 10%-20% are wearing masks (no more than any other year i’ve traveled here).
Only swine flu concerns I saw were during the airport which were relaxed when I arrived
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