THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
April 26, 2020 at 18:39 JST
Nobel Prize-winning stem cell biologist Shinya Yamanaka urged his fellow joggers to don a face mask, warning they can't outrun the threat of spreading the new coronavirus.
Yamanaka, 57, director of Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, released a video on YouTube underscoring the importance of wearing a mask while jogging.
“It is possible that people end up spreading the virus when taking deep breaths while running,” the Nobel laureate said in the video.
It is known that many patients with the coronavirus are unaware of their infection because they experience no symptoms.
Yamanaka, co-winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012, is also a well-known long-distance runner. He has run in the Tokyo Marathon and other races as well.
Yamanaka said in the video that the pandemic would ease if people together continue to take precautions against the virus.
The scientist’s video came after news reports that parks in Tokyo were packed with joggers even after the capital was placed under a state of emergency over the coronavirus on April 7.
While health authorities warned against flocking to confined spaces with poor air circulation, they did not list jogging as a health threat.
Many joggers also flooded parks in central Tokyo on April 25.
At Komazawa Olympic Park, which straddles Setagaya and Meguro wards, runners without masks passed a sign on the 2-kilometer course calling for wearing a mask, keeping a safe distance from each other and finishing a stroll or jog within an hour.
More than 10 people were running within a distance of only 10 meters at one point.
(This article was written by Yoshitaka Ito and Ryosuke Nonaka.)
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