Coronavirus: Japan scientist stands by ‘chaotic’ criticism of cruise ship quarantine
- Infectious disease specialist Kentaro Iwata had described the Diamond Princess as ‘completely inadequate in terms of infection control’
- He made the comments in two now-deleted videos, which he posted to YouTube following a brief visit to the ship on Tuesday
Kentaro Iwata, a specialist in infectious diseases at Kobe University Hospital, posted the videos on YouTube after a brief visit to the ship on Tuesday. In them, he slammed the “completely chaotic” procedures on board and described the ship as “completely inadequate in terms of infection control”.
The now-deleted videos were viewed more than a million times in Japanese and hundreds of thousands of times in English.
It was a rare example of criticism from a Japanese official and the country’s health ministry lashed out in defence, saying it had conducted “consultations on appropriate infection control in the ship” with experts and taken a range of measures.
It also released a video showing passengers how to wash and disinfect their hands properly and had “proper hygiene management” for medical workers entering and coming off the ship.