Kim Eo-jun Claims "Japan's Sharp Drop in COVID-19 Cases Due to Not Using Korean Diagnostic Kits, Leading to Undetected Cases"

Kim Eo-jun "Japan hardly imports Korean diagnostic kits... High probability of failing to detect Delta variant"

Broadcaster Kim Eo-jun claimed that the sharp decrease in COVID-19 cases in Japan is because "they do not use Korean diagnostic kits."
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Seohyun] Broadcaster Kim Eo-jun claimed that the sharp decline in COVID-19 cases in Japan is due to Japan not importing Korean diagnostic kits, resulting in their failure to detect infections caused by the Delta variant.

On the 26th, Kim Eo-jun said on his TBS radio show "Kim Eo-jun's News Factory," "Japan is almost the only country that does not import our country's diagnostic kits. There is a hypothesis that Japanese diagnostic kits cannot detect the Delta variant."

Kim Eo-jun revealed that he heard this from an expert and argued that although various causes have been suggested, the 'diagnostic kit deficiency theory,' which has never been mentioned in the media, is persuasive.

He explained, "In our country, the Delta variant is close to 100%. Japan's Delta variant likely became the dominant strain even faster than ours. The Delta variant is said to have severe mutations in the spike protein. The U.S. FDA once issued a warning message that PCR diagnostic kits selecting this spike protein as the detection target have a very high probability of failing to detect the Delta variant."

He continued, "You need to detect at least three or more sites to confirm COVID-19 infection, and most diagnostic kits that detect three or more sites are from our country. Because Japan does not import Korean diagnostic kits, the positive rate compared to tests, which used to be 20-25%, has recently plummeted to the 0% range," emphasizing that Japan's refusal to use Korean diagnostic kits could have caused the decrease in the positive rate relative to the number of tests.

Meanwhile, Japan's daily confirmed cases, which exceeded 20,000 until August, sharply declined from September, dropping below 1,000 in October and below 100 in November. Although no clear reason has been identified yet, there have been claims that the approximately 20,000 yen (about 200,000 KRW) testing fee for asymptomatic and mild patients in Japan has led to a reduction in the total number of tests conducted.