Japan Shocks Parents by Moving to Close All Schools Over Coronavirus

Motoko Rich, Ben Dooley and Makiko Inoue’s article titled, Japan Shocks Parents by Moving to Close All Schools Over Coronavirus, reveals that Japan’s Prime Minister has decided to close all schools (elementary, middle and high schools) for a month because of the coronavirus. Japan has also canceled “large sports and cultural events” throughout the country as well. The country has had 210 cases of the coronavirus and four deaths. The government believes it must take “aggressive” measures to minimize infection and slow down the spreading of the coronavirus. However, doctors believe the closures are not “medically warranted” because children are not easily infected from the virus. They also point out that public transportation is still open where many people encounter each other. With this belief some think that the school closings were a political move because Japan is hosting the Olympics in Tokyo this July. The school closings will make the life of parents very difficult because they might be forced to stay home to take care of their children or send them to live with other members of the family so they can work. Some parents are relieved that the schools will be closed so their children will be at a lower risk to get infected.

This article relates directly to our “Virus in the News” class because it focuses on the response to the never-ending coronavirus. More specifically, the governments response to the coronavirus outbreak. The decision to shut down school makes sense to me because I learned in our class that viruses attack the weakest immune systems, which are the elderly and children. However, this belief was conflicted by Japanese doctors who were interviewed for this article. The doctors stated that children are not easily infected by the coronavirus. I look forward to bringing this topic up in our class on Tuesday night.

~~ John Sikora

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/world/asia/japan-schools coronavirus.htmlaction=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage