The Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has released final birth and death estimates for 2020, which show that Covid-19 did not cause any excess mortality in Japan:
Focusing on just this century's data, it is evident that there were between 8K and 30K fewer deaths than expected in 2020, depending upon the trend period chosen (there were an approximately equal number of missing births):
Japan never had a national lockdown; public mask compliance is lower than in Europe or the blue states in the USA, gyms and restaurants remained open, people continued to commute on crowded trains, and most children continue to go to school.
In short, Covid had no discernable impact upon mortality in Japan during 2020 despite very moderate mitigation measures.
Similarly, Taiwan, which has one of the lowest "government stringency index" measures in the world according to Oxford, has also had fewer than expected deaths in 2020.
The same pattern holds for South Korea - no excess mortality in 2020:
All of east Asia made it through 2020 without any discernable impact from Covid: it wasn't track and trace, or travel restrictions, or masks, or lockdowns. Everyone was spared no matter how much or how little they did. Maybe someone should look into this....
For those who want to credit social distancing and masks, please watch this recent video from a food market in Cambodia.
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As most are aware, there has been no flu season this year, with many people mistakenly attributing this to Covid control measures (which work for flu but not covid, apparently).
I hiked up Angel's Landing in Zion NP a few days ago. For the first mile of the hike, ~60% wore masks. By the end of the second mile, it was down to 20% masks. At the summit, there were exactly zero masks worn.
I also visited a mini-mart near St. George, UT and watched as person after person walked in with their mask on, looked around at the maskless faces, and immediately took the mask off.
Southern UT, despite the statewide mask mandate, appears to be as open as FL or SD.
I also spent time hiking and climbing in Nevada - and the variance to UT could not have been more stark.
In NV, you are never unaware of Covid. Retail/restaurants are open but operate under capacity limits. Many people wear masks outdoors. Public health posters are everywhere.
In 4 weeks, cases worldwide have fallen by 40%; this is worldwide phenomenon - with one notable exception. One nation remains with stubbornly high cases counts - in fact, the very highest cases per capital in the world....
Israel currently has higher cases per capita than any other nation with more than 7 million people and their case count appears to have plateaued while every other nation sees cases rapidly declining or already very low:
Israel's high case count comes despite a hard lockdown and the world's best, by far, rate of vaccination:
I like how NPR "explains" that cases have fallen in India because of masks, while also stating that mask mandates were in place before cases rose and that serioprevelance indicates almost 60% of urban populations have already had Covid.