Thread by @cha_myoung

1/ Japan has fared better throughout COVID than most western countries (146 deaths/million vs. 2,590 deaths/million in the US) despite:
- Very low public trust in gov’t
- Less trust in science
- No mandates

How has this been done and what can we learn? 🧵
nytimes.com/2022/01/24/opi…

2/ This trope around Confucius societies “winning the COVID-19 war” with “authoritarian mentalities” doesn’t neatly apply to Japan where only 4% of people surveyed in 2020 say they trust the government “a lot”, compared to 9% in the US and 12% in the UK.

wellcome.org/reports/wellco…

3/ Japan has led the way with vaccines among the G-7 without a government mandate and way higher vaccine hesitancy pre-COVID than the U.S.

4/ Many who oppose vaccine mandates and strong government response to the pandemic point to the Japanese approach as a way forward in the US, UK, and other countries, but this misses a key cultural and historical context.

eppc.org/publication/ja…

5/ While the 3C's slogan was important, the concept of “jishuku” (self-restraint) was a big reason the message worked in Japan without mandates or coercion, a theme revisited at various times in Japanese history — including the 3/11 Fukushima disaster.

tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…

6/ This collectivist concept of “jishuku” doesn’t really exist in the U.S., which ranks #1 in the world in individuality versus other countries ("we're #1!").

7/ This “extreme” individualism serves countries like the US well in many ways — entrepreneurism, competitiveness — but the pandemic required us to play a team sport to beat the virus in a society where everyone wants to play tennis or golf.

freakonomics.com/podcast/the-pr…

8/ Can you believe that the US is still somehow ranked #1 in pandemic preparedness? I am guessing the rankings don’t take into account how hardwired our individualism is in society.

ghsindex.org/country/united…

9/ Collectivism also predicts mask use in a country. Not surprisingly, mask use in Japan is amongst the highest in the world.

pnas.org/content/118/23…

10/ Even with the N95 giveaway in the US, will people use them?

cnn.com/2022/01/19/pol…

11/ In retrospect, the altruistic messages about working together and helping each other might have been feel-good but the wrong approach. Maybe a more “selfish” message around vaccinations and masks would work better.

usatoday.com/story/opinion/…

12/ Perhaps something more graphic and hard-hitting needs to be the uncomfortable message that needs to be broadcast to “save yourself", which hopefully persuades people to make their own decisions versus the kicking and screaming against vax mandates.

tobaccofreeflorida.com/blog/powerfula…

13/ The other crazy idea is to appeal to people’s competitive drive. Maybe more things like this?

alabamapublichealth.gov/covid19vaccine…