＜prologue＞
I started a blog called “The Baby Boomer Generation’s Miscellaneous Blog”（Dankai-sedai no garakutatyou:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳） in July 2018, about a year before I fully retired. More than six years have passed since then, and the number of articles has increased considerably.
So, in order to make them accessible to people who don’t understand Japanese, I decided to translate my past articles into English and publish them.
It may sound a bit exaggerated, but I would like to make this my life’s work.
It should be noted that haiku and waka （Japanese short fixed form poems） are quite difficult to translate into English, so some parts are written in Japanese.
If you are interested in haiku or waka and would like to know more, please read introductory or specialized books on haiku or waka written in English.
I also write many articles about the Japanese language. I would be happy if these inspire more people to want to learn Japanese.
my blog’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多（がらくた）帳 | 団塊世代が雑学や面白い話を発信しています
my X’s URL:団塊世代の我楽多帳（@historia49）さん / X
The global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) shows no signs of abating.
This raises concerns about the collapse of our medical system.
Recently, we have been hearing the word “triage” from medical professionals in relation to this collapse.
In this article, we would like to consider this term.
1. What is triage?
“Triage” refers to the process of prioritizing transport and treatment based on the urgency of patients in order to provide the best possible care to as many injured or sick people as possible while medical resources (such as medical staff and medicines) are limited. Simply put, it refers to “selecting lives.”
The original meaning of triage is “determining and selecting treatment priorities based on the severity of a patient’s condition.” The term originates from the French word “triage,” meaning “selection.” It is used at the scene of an emergency to determine the priority of patient treatment, the priority of emergency transport, and the destination facility, and is also known as “differential emergency care.”
2. National Triage Guidelines Are Urgently Needed
Concerns about a possible collapse of the medical system are being raised not only in the event of an explosive spread (overshoot) of the novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) and a sudden increase in the number of severely ill patients, but also in Japan, where the country is said to be “holding its own lid” even before that.
If the number of beds, ventilators, and medical staff reaches a critical mass or becomes insufficient, we will be forced to prioritize between “severely, moderately, and mildly ill” patients, and between “elderly, middle-aged, young people, children, and infants.”
In such an emergency, medical professionals are forced to make difficult decisions about who to prioritize for treatment.
Therefore, I believe it is urgent that the government create triage guidelines to reduce the burden on medical professionals on the front lines.
I would like this issue to be considered swiftly, just as the government is considering narrowing the recipients of cash payments, one of the economic measures in response to novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19).