20200701 (Wednesday) Coronavirus Digest from Japanese Morning TV News Part 2 (of probably 2): Other bits and pieces
See photo captions for stories.
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Medical startup Anges Inc. said it has started Japan’s first clinical trial on humans of a potential vaccine for the new coronavirus.
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30 healthy adults will be given two injections over the course of two weeks.
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And they will check the safety of the vaccine and whether it has caused the subjects to develop antibodies.
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The attractive thing about this method is its potential for speedy implementation.
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It is a “DNA vaccine” where you are injected with one part of the virus’ genes that have been artificially manufatured.
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Since it is new technology, questions remain.
Prof guy: “Can it stimulate the immune system enough really be able to prevent infection?”
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“And can it be scaled up enough to be able to be given to tens of millions of people?”
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[So today, all shops must charge for plastic shopping bags (unless they contain 25% biomass plastic; those can still be given for free). So there was a look at why this happened and what difference it will make.]
Apparently, the government has set a target to reduce the use of single-use plastics by 25% by 2030. But actually shopping bags only account for 2-3% of total plastic waste.
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[However because of the coronavirus, there has actually been a spike in plastic waste.
This processing facility in Japan has so much more waste than usual that the processing can’t keep up with the incoming amount. So they are storing it outside the facility temporarily.]
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…
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A lot of it is food packaging plastic and take out food plastics from the Stay Home period.
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Going forward, covid19 measures are actually creating more plastic items such as face shields, gloves, and acrylic curtains.
EM: Now if you get a bento at work, not only do you have the plastic box, but it is wrapped in a plastic bag with your name on it.
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Finally, it seems that influenza deaths are considerably down compared to last year.
[This is according to the figures for 21 cities that have submitted reports to the National Infection Research Center where the cause of death was determined to be influenza or pneumonia for the period of the winter through to the end of April.]
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In Tokyo for example, there were 65 influenza deaths to the end of April, compared to 246 for the previous year, so just a quarter.
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Doctor guy: “The spread of influenza was very small this year.”
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“I think that a big part of this was that people took precautions to avoid contact with each other and took measures to prevent airborne droplets.”