Covid-2019 - 2022-07-22

We've definitely been in a new wave of Covid cases worldwide, based on the new BA.5 Omicron sub-variant (we now track the BA.5 share for US states in the larger charts). But nowhere in the world is the case-wave surging to new historic highs -- except Japan. So far, as a share of population, Japan's caseload has been among the world's lightest. Now, it seems, it is Japan's turn to experience what everyone else already has. And yet the authorities are saying they will do nothing new to limit business activity. Two years after costly and worthless global lockdowns, Japan -- unlike China -- is showing it can learn from experience.