Corona and sumo

[Seiyashi 4,108]

On 11/05/2021 at 11:39, Morning said:

If it's bowled over, we'll send you the pieces.

If it's bowled over, we'll get both the guilty parties (one for bowling into it and one for being bowled into it) to handstamp it and then we'll send you the pieces?

[Morning 85]

That works as well.☺️

They could also ad some standees made from their wrestlers in kimono postcard collection. Then of course the wrestler in question would need to stamp their likeness.

[Amamaniac 2,079]

This thread is already rather long, so forgive me if I am rehashing something that has already been brought up.

Yobidashi doing their on-dohyo announcements hold an open folding fan, the purpose of which is to prevent spittle from falling on the sacred/blessed ring.  I shudder to think what the paper surface of the fans would look like under a CSI-type examination. 

Do the Covid guidelines state anything about gyojis' folding fans?  Are yobidashi required to replace their fans every tournament?  They seem to be very cautious about sanitising just about every other little thing.

Just saying.

[Yamanashi 3,903]

1 hour ago, Amamaniac said:

This thread is already rather long, so forgive me if I am rehashing something that has already been brought up.

Yobidashi doing their on-dohyo announcements hold an open folding fan, the purpose of which is to prevent spittle from falling on the sacred/blessed ring.  I shudder to think what the paper surface of the fans would look like under a CSI-type examination. 

Do the Covid guidelines state anything about gyojis' folding fans?  Are yobidashi required to replace their fans every tournament?  They seem to be very cautious about sanitising just about every other little thing.

Just saying.

Interesting.  The winner of each bout grabs the kensho from off the gunbai with his sweaty hands -- but of course all these gentlemen have been tested a few days before action, so they're the equivalent of glatt kosher after 14 days.

[Amamaniac 2,079]

Now that the Summer Tournament has ended, the Kokugikan has been converted into a Covid vaccine centre.  Talk about incentivising sumo fans to get their jabs: sitting in the boxed seats of the sumo Mecca for free plus getting to meet famous retired sekitori.

https://www.hokkoku.co.jp/articles/tym/420152

Edited May 24, 2021 by Amamaniac

[Seiyashi 4,108]

24 minutes ago, Amamaniac said:

Now that the Summer Tournament has ended, the Kokugikan has been converted into a Covid vaccine centre.  Talk about incentivising sumo fans to get their jabs: sitting in the boxed seats of the sumo Mecca for free plus getting to meet famous retired sekitori.

https://www.hokkoku.co.jp/articles/tym/420152

That said older fans would remember kindly too. That's a real brainwave of a move, to be honest.

[Kintamayama 45,516]

10 Oyakatas and former Oyakatas got vaccinated today, including current Nishikijima (ex-Asashio) who showed up in a wheelchair. A lottery was held between 760 people who volunteered for the shot and 230 "regular" people  were chosen as well.  The needle was especially long, says the reporter.

[Kaninoyama 1,818]

[Yamanashi 3,903]

40 minutes ago, Kaninoyama said:

It's a little hard to see ... is that the Woman in White getting an inoculation just behind that screen there?

[Kaninoyama 1,818]

21 minutes ago, Yamanashi said:

It's a little hard to see ... is that the Woman in White getting an inoculation just behind that screen there?

Only if she's 65 or older. 

Maybe instead of 15 days of sumo with 5,000 fans in attendance at the Kokugikan, Japan should have been vaccinating 5,000 people a day there instead?

[Tsuchinoninjin 1,276]

1 hour ago, Kaninoyama said:

That's all?

[Kaninoyama 1,818]

25 minutes ago, Tsuchinoninjin said:

That's all?

What's the rush?

[specialweek 2 136]

On 08/05/2021 at 02:57, ryafuji said:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20210507/k10013017991000.html

Ryuden suspended for unspecified breaches of covid rules. At maegashira 14 he's certain to be in juryo in July.

Surprised his story not revealed.

[Kintamayama 45,516]

1 hour ago, specialweek 2 said:

Surprised his story not revealed.

Probably will be dealt with on the 27th at the rijikai.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

https://www.nikkansports.com/m/battle/sumo/news/amp/202105270000744.html

A PCR test for the entire NSK will be held on 23 and 24th June. The heya will move to Nagoya in sequence as the tests are completed.

No mention of the vaccination that was supposed to take place before the move to Nagoya, although the holding of a PCR test seems to imply that a vaccination will not take place before Nagoya after all.

The same article mentions by the way that the shindeshi kensa for Nagoya will take place in the Ryogoku Kokugikan clinic on the 18th of June.

Edited May 27, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Morning 85]

The question would be whether they can get enough vaccine in time to make vaccination for Nagoya viable and the timing itself. Unless you use a single dose vaccine like J&J you're looking at five weeks minium from first dose to immunity. Factor in that you don't want to give it to everyone at the same time so you don't potentially have everyone out with likely side effects at the same time.

I suspect the best they could do, would be to stagger it so that the more likely to cause side effects second dose comes shortly after a Basho.

[Yamanashi 3,903]

1 hour ago, Morning said:

The question would be whether they can get enough vaccine in time to make vaccination for Nagoya viable and the timing itself. Unless you use a single dose vaccine like J&J you're looking at five weeks minium from first dose to immunity. Factor in that you don't want to give it to everyone at the same time so you don't potentially have everyone out with likely side effects at the same time.

I suspect the best they could do, would be to stagger it so that the more likely to cause side effects second dose comes shortly after a Basho.

It's hard to know how the different vaccines will affect individuals, but the side effects themselves are not dissuading individuals from getting the shots where I work and live.  For me (Moderna), it was two 24-hour bouts with a lumpy, stiff arm that only hurt when I actually touched it.  My wife, who is in poor health, had chills for about a day on both occasions.  I heard of no serious side effects at my place of business (~300 individuals).  The result (in my state) is masks not needed except for businesses who require them, or those who choose to wear them. 

I have heard a variety of opinions about the timing of the two shots.  As I understand it (and I'm sure the experts here will set me right), the original plan for Pfizer and Moderna were to space them two weeks apart; however, the early scarcity of the doses made a four-week wait better, because having twice as many people get the first jab was clearly better than nothing.

[Shinobi Steve 146]

21 hours ago, Seiyashi said:No mention of the vaccination that was supposed to take place before the move to Nagoya, although the holding of a PCR test seems to imply that a vaccination will not take place before Nagoya after all.

Testing doesn’t necessarily imply that vaccination will not take place. Using MLB in the U.S. as an example, athletes and team personnel are still being regularly tested despite having been fully vaccinated.

[kawika 123]

On 27/05/2021 at 23:56, Morning said:

The question would be whether they can get enough vaccine in time to make vaccination for Nagoya viable and the timing itself. Unless you use a single dose vaccine like J&J you're looking at five weeks minium from first dose to immunity. Factor in that you don't want to give it to everyone at the same time so you don't potentially have everyone out with likely side effects at the same time.

I suspect the best they could do, would be to stagger it so that the more likely to cause side effects second dose comes shortly after a Basho.

I don't see why they don't get the entire sumo association vaccinated, it is not a huge hurdle.  They have like 6 weeks or something, right?  Don't they all line up once a year for a flu shot?  They pull that off in a day or so.  Just need the inventory of vaccines and a little organization.  But with the overall situation of how it has been managed in Japan, I suppose I shouldn't hope.

[Seiyashi 4,108]

1 hour ago, kawika said:

I don't see why they don't get the entire sumo association vaccinated, it is not a huge hurdle.  They have like 6 weeks or something, right?  Don't they all line up once a year for a flu shot?  They pull that off in a day or so.  Just need the inventory of vaccines and a little organization.  But with the overall situation of how it has been managed in Japan, I suppose I shouldn't hope.

Yeah, they need the inventory of vaccines in the first place. It's not the logistics of getting rikishi jabbed, it's whether they have the shots to begin with. Judging by the state of vaccine supply in Japan i wouldn't be surprised if there just simply weren't any to spare. 

The success of their COVID guidelines may also be working against them, because the heya are in the unique position of being able to be isolated from each other. The NSK has survived several heya, including flagship ones like Miyagino and Kokonoe, being infected with no real contagion throughout the NSK, and only one death. Whoever's in charge of doling out the shots may well look askance at the NSK asking for 1000ish shots (all NSK members not just rikishi) and say that since they're managing so well, they can wait and give other groups priority like seniors and healthcare workers. 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Seiyashi

[Kaminariyuki 500]

2 hours ago, Seiyashi said:

Yeah, they need the inventory of vaccines in the first place. It's not the logistics of getting rikishi jabbed, it's whether they have the shots to begin with. Judging by the state of vaccine supply in Japan i wouldn't be surprised if there just simply weren't any to spare. 

The success of their COVID guidelines may also be working against them, because the heya are in the unique position of being able to be isolated from each other. The NSK has survived several heya, including flagship ones like Miyagino and Kokonoe, being infected with no real contagion throughout the NSK, and only one death. Whoever's in charge of doling out the shots may well look askance at the NSK asking for 1000ish shots (all NSK members not just rikishi) and say that since they're managing so well, they can wait and give other groups priority like seniors and healthcare workers. 

A lot of the rikishi are in a high-risk category due to weight and complicating factors. Maybe they'll get shots sometime soon. Japan does seem to be ramping up, mostly older citizens at the moment. I think they've mostly covered the health care workers to this point and are now targeting the more venerable population. I'm a bit surprised the Japanese government hasn't done a bit better on COVID vaccination. They strike me as so efficient, in general, and they have a national healthcare system. 

[Seiyashi 4,108]

20 minutes ago, Kaminariyuki said:

A lot of the rikishi are in a high-risk category due to weight and complicating factors. Maybe they'll get shots sometime soon. Japan does seem to be ramping up, mostly older citizens at the moment. I think they've mostly covered the health care workers to this point and are now targeting the more venerable population. I'm a bit surprised the Japanese government hasn't done a bit better on COVID vaccination. They strike me as so efficient, in general, and they have a national healthcare system. 

Long-term medically? Yes. In the short term, their subpopulation death rates are pretty good. And it's not just about the medical consequences, it's about the possibility of controlling contagion as well. While rikishi may be medically high risk, the NSK's measures lower that risk as opposed to, say, your average grandma walking around on the street.

There's both the probability of the risk and the consequences of the risk. I agree rikishi have got direr consequences compared to the average person of their age due to their lifestyle, diet, and general bodily condition, but the NSK's COVID guidelines lower the probability of that risk happening and spreading amongst rikishi, so from that perspective the rikishi would go down a bit in the pecking order for a vaccine.

It's a matter of time before they get a shot; it's just unfortunate that they can't get one for presumably supply reasons before they decamp to Nagoya, but hopefully the NSK will have more guidelines beyond just a PCR test and go. For starters it might make some sense to go to Nagoya not by train but by a private chartered bus; the travel time will be longer but the isolation from the public will be well worth it.

[Gurowake 4,100]

1 hour ago, Kaminariyuki said:

I'm a bit surprised the Japanese government hasn't done a bit better on COVID vaccination. They strike me as so efficient, in general, and they have a national healthcare system. 

I'm assuming it's a matter of being able to secure a supply.  Without having developed their own vaccines, and requiring outside manufacturers to run approval trials for Japanese distribution separately from wherever they were manufactured, they were left without a supply early on after vaccine development compared to other developed countries.  Whether they should have allowed emergency authorization of the vaccine based on trials in other countries is up for debate, but from reading things over, I think that's the main reason that they're behind.  Other countries either developed them or trusted the approval process where they were developed enough to at least warrant emergency authorization.

[Kaminariyuki 500]

16 hours ago, Gurowake said:

I'm assuming it's a matter of being able to secure a supply.  Without having developed their own vaccines, and requiring outside manufacturers to run approval trials for Japanese distribution separately from wherever they were manufactured, they were left without a supply early on after vaccine development compared to other developed countries.  Whether they should have allowed emergency authorization of the vaccine based on trials in other countries is up for debate, but from reading things over, I think that's the main reason that they're behind.  Other countries either developed them or trusted the approval process where they were developed enough to at least warrant emergency authorization.

I watch NHK World News fairly regularly and I'd say that you're pretty much spot on. I'm still surprised the Japanese government hasn't done better on this but I probably have an unreasonable rose-colored glasses view of the Japanese government and society. 

[rhyen 1,846]

Well, Israel and several western countries do jump the queue to get the Pfizer vaccine directly rather than use the covax facility to distribute the vaccine equitably around the globe. Japan, Taiwan & South Korea were late to the purchase of vaccine?