■
Novel Corona/New Crown Virus:
Not a Pandemic, but a Hemidemic?
（The original text has been edited subesequently and so may differ in expression, but not in substance, from the mechanically translated Japanese version）
Introduction
Today is the 13th, the ides of January CE2021 -roughly ten months since “covid-19” and all pandemonium broke loose. For us living in the Northern Hemisphere, we are spending our first Winter months with the corona/crown virus.
In this “first” dead of Winter, I write this memo, not to bury away the epidemic in a cacophony of jargon, but to appraise it sensibly.
If you observe some of the data, as shown in the chart below, it should be clear that this strain or scythe does not strike or reap equally.
Chart 2: Deaths -cumulative; per million
Indeed, degrees in damage differ dramatically: at the lower end of this spectrum are regions where the death toll is no worse or smaller than the seasonal flu or even pneumonia from a good old cold; at the higher end, it’s a serious and severe healthcare problem.
This epidemic is -so far- not “pan”(universal) but bipolar or half-sized. Thus the new (and hopefully appropriate) coinage: “hemi(half)-demic.”
The point that stands out is that the difference is observable by geographical breakdown alone.
After ten months, it’s fairly inconceivable that any lags that may have or could have existed, have still failed to materialize. East Asia always was a notable counter-evidence to this “lag” hypothesis，anyway.
The breakdown above suggests, then, that it’s safer and saner to assume that, other geographical and climatic element(s) must be playing an important role -a role too great to be ignored.
True, emergency control of traffic flow, restaurant operating hours, encouragement to work remote and assimilation of hygienic practices may still be necessary to varying degrees.
Without, however, an attempt to consider these two glaring elements, I believe any explanation or hypothesis will be fraught with flaws.
