One of the lowest death rates from Covid was in one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Japan. Why? Because they were already accustomed to wearing masks during "flu season".

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Looking back on that whole "COVID thing," one thing that struck me a few months after the pandemic began was this...

The last trip I took before the lockdown was to Las Vegas in January 2020 to attend CES, the annual ginormous consumer electronics trade show, on behalf of my employer. I attended with one of my software architects and another employee and we only had interest in the first day and a half of the show. On our last day, Wednesday, we had agreed to convene in the lobby outside the casino area of our hotel around 11:00am to then shuttle back to the airport. I finished checking out of my room early and was sitting at an empty slot machine on the border with the lobby waiting for everyone else to show up. As I sat there watching waves of people come and go, I saw a large group of Asians (probably 20-25) being escorted down the hall from the registration desks towards the casino by what was probably their travel coordinator, showing them the way to their rooms.

I noticed... EVERY ONE OF THEM was wearing a mask.

Even at that time, January 8, 2020, that didn't actually strike me as odd. I had already seen enough stock news footage of scenes from Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan with people routinely wearing masks that I just thought to myself, "They must be worried about picking up American cold / flu viruses they aren't normally exposed / immune to..."

It was only around March or April of 2020 when lockdowns began, that I started thinking back to that and asking myself, "Had they already seen or heard something at home that increase their fear factor and precaution level?"


WTH