AM: Very easy 6 miles. The second wave of the Corona Virus is really hitting hard here in Japan. The numbers of new cases have skyrocketed. So on the surface it really appears that the situation has greatly worsened, but in checking out the numbers, the number of tests given has increased at a higher rate than the number of new cases. The number of deaths has stayed the same and in most areas has decreased. So the death rate has really plunged. I think there were many undetected and unknown cases of the virus before the testing increased. As the numbers of new cases go up, the government says, "Oh no, the cases are going up. We need to test more." They test more, and of course the numbers go up again, so the government says "This is really getting bad, we need more and more testing" as if they think that testing is a cure. Testing is meaning less. People are most contagious in the first few days before symptoms appear. So by the time a person is tested, they have done the damage of spreading. Test results come back at such a slow rate, that by the time they get back and even try to do tracking, it is too late to be effective at all. Testing is only helpful in the initial stage of a virus to learn of the extend of the spread and speed of the spread. Once that it is known that it is intensive spread, there is not much more information testing can give. We have a good idea who is at most risk, people who are residents of long-term care facilities, the elderly, and people with prior health problems... The best thing to do is to protect those high risk people. When people are sick enough to seek out medical care, then testing should be performed to see if they have the virus and then treat them according to the test results. People need to take care to avoid places where the spread is more likely. They need to take personal responsibility for their own health and also for doing their upmost not to spread it to others. As we can see, lockdowns have been shown to only prolong things. As people come out of lockdowns the spread begins...this will keep repeating itself if lockdowns are repeatedly used, resulting in a third wave, fourth wave etc. and by the time the fourth wave comes around, people who initially had the virus will probably lose their temporary immunity and catch the virus again, and it starts all over. The Obama administration, handled the "Swine Flu" in a much better manner. Numbers were kept track of initially, but then after it was known that there was wide spread, posting of the daily numbers was terminated. They did a good job in keeping daily life, the economy, etc. fairly normal. 60 million people had the swine flu in the USA, and I hardly even remember it. It hit the young people harder than the elderly, so there were less major health problems, whereas COVID-19 hits the elderly harder than the young, but still it was handled much better. Maybe it was handled better because it was not an election year. I have the feeling politicians regardless of party are not making good decisions due to the political situation of an election year. I feel bad that both political parties appear to being putting political appearances before the peoples health. The world seems to be following the USA's bad example of handling this virus. There was no talk of lockdowns in Japan until the US started doing them. Borders were not closed until Trump closed the US borders. The Trump administration in my opinion has handled this situation very poorly from the start, which has resulted in not only hurting the USA's economy etc., but countries throughout the world like Japan that follow the USA's lead in handling this situation are also experiencing an economic crisis. Well, I could go on and on about this, but I had to get all of this off my chest. I feel much better now..... :) | 