外出自粛下で活躍するYouTuberたち

　もともとあまり出歩かないほうだが、テレワークと外出自粛でほぼ引きこもりの生活を送って１カ月になる。一人暮らしなので仕事の電話以外はほとんど話さない。

　こういう時はYouTubeはとてもありがたい。New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Lancetといった有名医学誌に掲載されたコロナウイルス関連の研究論文を、日本語でわかりやすく解説するYouTuber医師がいる。

　Dr Ishiguroはその一人。大学病院の外科医時代にほとんど家にも帰れないほど多忙な生活で体を壊し、その体験から睡眠と食生活の大切さを説いている。最近では食料備蓄にビタミン剤も加えることを推奨している。

　末期がんの緩和ケアを専門とするかんわいんちょーは、中国やイタリアでのコロナ患者の傾向、治療薬の効果などを解説している。

　そして高須クリニックの後継者、高須幹弥医師は毎日のようにコロナ関連の情報を多岐にわたり詳細にコメントしている、PCR検査数、渡航制限、マスクの効用、さらには風俗店での感染の危険度といったタブーな話題にも切り込んでいる。どんなテーマであろうと、膨大なデータをもとに一般人にもすぐにわかるよう、かみ砕いて語っている。

　本来はヨーロッパのおしゃれで快適な生活をテーマとした主婦のチャンネルで、最近では現地の様子を伝えて再生回数を伸ばしているものもある。イタリアの食卓というチャンネルでは、ローマ在住の日本人主婦が現地の軟禁状態について報告している。

　アルプス自然生活というチャンネルでは、やや阿川佐和子氏に似た日本人女性が、普段はイタリアの田舎のスローライフを伝えているが、３月28日のビデオではコロナについて語っている。「コロナとの戦争だと言うが、本当の戦争よりはるかにましだろう。とにかく家にいれば、とりあえず安全なのだから」と。

　３月末現在で全世界の新型コロナウイルスによる死者数は約３万8000人。政府統計に出てこない数字もあるだろう。だがそれと比べて、75年前には東京大空襲で一晩で10万人以上が命を落とし、100万人以上が家や財産を失った。

　一方で実際にコロナに感染、闘病生活を送っている人や死亡者、中国や欧米の医療現場からはまさに戦争のような状態が伝えられている。

　こうした事態を少しでも食い止めるためにも、引きこもり生活は続く。雨風をしのぐ家があり、食事に困らないだけでもかなり恵まれている。YouTubeやSNSで様々な情報が入るのも、すごくありがたい。

A fatal Old Maid game

I was supposed to be on flight from JFK to Haneda today.

Now I'm sitting in my new office, a.k.a., study since I was a fifth-grader. Cherry blossoms started to bloom on a beautiful Sunday, as if the tree does not know anything.

Everything changed since only two weeks ago.

At that time, I was concerned if my colleagues might feel uncomfortable with a visitor from Asia. I wanted to contact to see my friends over dinner or something, but decided to wait in order to avoid last minute cancellations.

Who could imagine that now the U.S. has the third-largest number of cases of the coronavirus?

It's like a fatal Old Maid game. Nobody wants to pull the joker, but you never know. Everybody on this planet is in this game, and it looks like the number of joker has been proliferating.

新型ウイルス・低リスクの条件

　環境保護の観点で言えば、新型ウイルスは地球を救う最後の手段のように見える。

　温室効果ガスは増える一方、野生生物を食用やペットにするなど、これ以上人間を好き放題にさせておいたら、地球は破滅してしまう。ここらへんで人間支配を終わらせないとヤバい。私はなにかの宗教を信じているわけではないが、そう思った神様なり創造主が、伝家の宝刀として新型ウイルスを劇薬として登場させたのではないか。

　これだけ交通手段、工場、イベントなどの経済活動が一気にストップすれば、今年の温室効果ガスの排出量はかつてないほど激減するだろう。

　濃厚接触が危険となれば繁殖行動の抑制につながり、人口が減る。人間社会では結婚して子供を持つことが是とされるが、家族で暮らすことがウイルス感染のリスクになる。これとは逆に単身者はいったん帰宅してしまえば、それ以上感染する危険はほとんどない。テレワークの単身者は最強と言える。

COVID-19: Godzilla uncovers the world

It is like seeing an SF or horror movie entitled "Godzilla uncovers the world."

My hairdresser, who is into astrology, told me while I was having a haircut last month: "This year's star positions indicate that all kinds of hidden obnoxious things shall be finally uncovered and as a result a total upheaval would occur."

She may be right. The heaven has employed the secret weapon called COVID-19 and discovered below:

Rich Chinese boast of eating exotic wildlife animals such as bat, rat, peacock and koala in Southern part of China such as Wuhan.

COVID-19 has heavily hit the area and rest of China. Outside the country, most afflicted areas are associated with strong connection with China.

Iran has close relationship with the country. Having faced economic sanction from the U.S., China is one of the few countries that openly do business with Iran. Consequently, there are many Chinese business people in Iran.

South Korea and Japan rely on China for tourism and supply chain so heavily that they did not take effective measures to restrict the entry of Chinese travelers.

Then why Italy? There are many Chinese who have taken over textile companies in Italy. The free flow of people in the EU has spread the virus from there.

In the U.S., the states of Washington, California and New York have been heavily hit so far. They have a large Chinese population. But the country conducted only less than two thousand tests of COVID-19, and yet has nearly four hundred cases. Many people don't go to a hospital because they're afraid of expensive medical bills.

Interestingly, Germany has no deaths while it has eight hundred cases.

Meanwhile, air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions have been dramatically decreasing because many people have been forced to stop traveling and doing other economic activities.

This is a drastic and fatal remedy to save the planet.

A weekend curfew

The governor of Japan's northernmost island Hokkaido, Naomichi Suzuki, issued a de facto curfew requesting citizens there to refrain from going out this weekend to help control the spreading of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe subsequently held a press conference and requested schools across the country to close immediately through the spring break. In response, facilities that admit a large number of people such as theme parks and gyms are closed. Even the swimming pool I usually go to is closed.

I've been closely monitoring the latest developments on the virus, but I'm getting tired of that. Then somehow I remembered the American TV show Beverly Hills, 90210. It's amazing the first season was aired in 1990, three decades ago. Now it's a classic, and 230 episodes are available on a video streaming service called Hulu.

The show reminds me of my own high school days. Similar to the main characters' parents, my parents were quite square. In particular, my father was super strict on his children's behavior. My sister was good at evading his control, whereas I was too serious. In retrospect, because of that I feel I missed some important things that I was able to do only when I was young.

Actor Luke Perry, who played the role of Dylan, passed last year. Recently actress Shannen Doherty, best known as Brenda, revealed that she was fighting a stage-four cancer.

Life is too short to be a bit too serious.