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Tweet of the Week #92: Osaka Governor Recommends To Gargle Away The Coronavirus

Remember when toilet paper was sold out? Well, now it's gargle solution's turn.

By 3 min read

A lot of Japanese folks believe that gargling will prevent you from catching a cold or the flu, a tradition that goes as far back as the Heian Period. While rinsing your mouth with salted water or medicine certainly helps with bad breath and keeping good oral hygiene, there’s very little supporting evidence that it actually prevents you from catching a cold.

That didn’t stop the governor of Osaka from claiming, during a briefing earlier this week, that gargling medicine can keep the novel coronavirus at bay based on the results of a limited trial, far from meeting scientific standards. The claim took the mouthwash brands themselves by surprise and the Japanese Ministry of Health declared that it’s too early to tell if the trial results are accurate. Even WHO announced that there is no evidence supporting that mouthwash can prevent you from catching COVID-19.

Seeing (on TV) is believing…

Nonetheless, (way too) many people in Japan took the advice at face value and rushed into their nearest store. The fever for povidone-iodine gargle products cleared shelves overnight, not only in the Kansai region but across the entire country.

A drugstore in Shinjuku (Tokyo) on Tuesday, only a few hours after the Osaka briefing.

Japan is now facing yet another type of shortage, with soaring prices online as more and more worried buyers are desperately looking to catch the last bottles of precious antiseptic mouthwash.

イソジン争奪戦（そうだつせん）始（はじ）まってた！！！

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“The competition for isodine (gargle solution) has started!!!!”

2020年（にせんにじゅうねん）買（か）い占（し）め／品不足（しなぶそく）

トイレットペーパー

お米（こめ）

マスク

消毒（しょうどく）アルコール

棉生地（わたきじ）

うがい薬（ぐすり）　←【今ここ】

どんだけ情報（じょうほう）弱者（じゃくしゃ）がいると言（い）うか

TVの情報番組（ばんぐみ）信者（しんじゃ）がいるん

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“2020 Panic buying/product shortage:

Toilet Paper

Rice

Masks

Disinfecting alcohol

Cotton fabric

Gargle ← [now here]

People are so incredibly gullible to information, or perhaps should I say,

there are people who believe anything they see on TV.”

While folks are certainly free to purchase gargle products, it’s worth noting that only drugstores and licensed sellers are allowed to sell and resell OTC medication. Run away from shady online or street sellers!

イソジンでうがいをして唾液検査（だえきけんさ）すれば、そりゃ陰性（いんせい）になります。本当（ほんとう）は陽性（ようせい）で体内（たいない）からもウイルスは消（き）えていないが、口内（こうない）だけ殺菌（さっきん）された感染者（かんせんしゃ）の「偽陰性（ぎいんせい）」が増（ふ）えただけだと思（おも）います。予防効果（よぼうこうか）はあっても、重症化（じゅうしょうか）を抑（おさ）えたりすることはないかと。買い占めはやめましょう。第3類医薬品（だいさんるいいやくひん）の転売（てんばい）は犯罪（はんざい）です。

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“If you gargle with isodine and test your saliva [for the coronavirus], it will be negative. I think the truth is that the virus is not disappearing from the body, so the number of ‘false negatives’ in infected people who sterilized only in the mouth will only increase. Even if it has a protective effect, can it prevent the severity of the virus? Stop panic buying. Resale of third-class drugs is a crime.”

Peeps on Twitter are already predicting what the next big rush will be when all the gargle medicine is gone.

https://twitter.com/9RzWu1OoP25If1Z/status/1290582449085272064?s=20

見（み）えます。イソジンが買えなくなって、要（よう）するにうがいでしょってことで、政府（せいふ）から塩（しお）が一世帯（いっせたい）200gずつ配（くば）られる未来（みらい）が！ #アベノソルト
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“I can see the future! When we won’t be able to buy isodine in order to gargle, the government will distribute 200g of salt per household
#AbeNoSalt”
Who’s ready to bet?

Learn how to use the expression と言うか

The expression と言（い）うか  is often used to clarify or reformulate what has previously been said or written. Its colloquial forms are ていうか, てゆーか, and てか.

Japanese people consider that と言うか actually means “そうではない” (it isn’t this) and therefore the expression carries a negative connotation. と言うか is commonly used in three types of contexts:

  1. When rephrasing what you or another person has said (“more precisely, in other words”)
  2. When contesting what you or another person has said (“rather than saying…”)
  3. When summarizing what you or another person has said (“simply saying…”)

Keep in mind that changing or doubting someone else’s words is potentially rude, so you have to be careful.

と言うか can act as a connector between two sentences but also start an entirely new sentence. In both cases, you’re putting emphasis on whatever comes next:

どんだけ情報弱者がいると言うか、TVの情報番組信者がいるん = people are so incredibly weak to information, or perhaps I should say/or more precisely, there are people who believe anything they see on TV.

Recently, it has been noted that young Japanese people use と言うか a lot not to rephrase something, but simply to change the topic of a conversation, as in “by the way.”

Vocabulary

Japonais Romaji English
争奪戦（そうだつせん soudatsuen contest (for)
うがい薬（ぐすり） ugai gusuri gargle medicine
どんだけ dondake oh my god/what the/ incredible
弱者（じゃくしゃ）
）		 jyakushya gullible person
信者（しんじゃ） shinjya believer
唾液検査（だえきけんさ）する daeki kensa suru saliva test
陰性（いんせい insei negative
陽性（ようせい） yousei positive
偽陰性（ぎいんせい） giinsei false negative
予防効果（よぼうこうか youboukouka protective effect
第3類医薬品（だいさんるいいやくひん） dai san rui iyakuhin Category 3 pharmaceutical product
転売（てんばい） tenbai resale
要（よう）するに yousuruni lastly/in conclusion/in other words

 

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もう雨ヤダｧｱｱｱｱｱｱｱｱ!!!

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