Japan in No Hurry to Get Vaccinated. Just 1% Injected So Far

Instead of going berserk with vaccinations, Tokyo has instead ordered additional trials (albeit these will tell little)

Two months before the scheduled start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, COVID-19 cases are rising steeply in Japan while immunization is moving at a glacial pace. Only 1% of the population is fully vaccinated, a much lower fraction than in the United States, Europe, India, and China. That has led some to ask whether the Olympics should proceed, and others to urge an overhaul of the cumbersome immunization campaign and a rethink of Japan’s regulatory approach—which so far has authorized only one vaccine, produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.

Japan has weathered the pandemic well compared with many other countries, with 640,000 cases and 10,900 deaths since early 2020. But some say that has made the government overly confident. A succession of lenient lockdowns has been imposed on different regions at different times, but most were lifted prematurely, scientists say, as soon as new infections trended downward. In July 2020, the government launched a campaign to boost domestic tourism that, according to two studies, resulted in a spike in cases among leisure travelers and hospitality workers. On 7 May, the government announced that a state of emergency affecting Tokyo, Osaka, and several other prefectures, set to lift on 11 May, will be extended to the end of the month.

Japan’s approach to vaccination has been muddled as well. The country requires so-called bridging studies for drugs or vaccines that have shown their efficacy elsewhere, intended to confirm their safety in the Japanese population. Other countries have similar requirements, and they can be useful to address dosing questions, for example, says Masahiro Kami, a physician and executive director of the Tokyo-based Medical Governance Research Institute. The average U.S. man weighs roughly twice as much as the average Japanese woman, Kami notes.

But the studies done in Japan were so limited—just 160 subjects in the Pfizer trial and 200 in an ongoing study of the Moderna vaccine, run by Japanese pharmaceutical company Takeda—that “professionals are aware that doing them makes no sense at all,” Kami says.[Sounds like ass-covering that’s neither here nor there.] And they caused significant delays: The Pfizer vaccine was authorized in mid-February, 2 months later than in the United States. The Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines may receive the green light on 20 May, according to NHK, Japan’s public broadcaster.

Many European countries accepted the results of international COVID-19 vaccine trials without requiring bridging studies, and in April, India waived its requirement. In a 28 April open letter, Shinya Yamanaka, a 2012 Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, and Yoshitake Yokokura, former president of the Japan Medical Association, joined some 50 business and civic leaders in calling on the government to do the same. The rules allow Japan to forgo bridging studies in emergencies, Kami says. But the ministry of health, mindful of past troubles with vaccine side effects, decided “to follow the rules as usual, even though it was an emergency,” Kami says.

The delay was compounded by logistical problems. Only Japanese doctors and nurses can give inoculations, and not enough are available for a large-scale vaccination campaign. The national government is footing the bill to vaccinate the entire population but it has made villages, towns, and city wards responsible for contacting residents, arranging appointments, and delivering the shots. As a result, the country has only used 4.4 million of the roughly 17 million vaccine doses it has imported. The open letter from scientists and business leaders suggests dentists, pharmacists, paramedics, and medical students be allowed to give the vaccines and that the government set up large-scale vaccination sites. The government now plans to open one mass vaccination venue in Tokyo by 24 May and another in Osaka at later date. Allowing more people to give inoculations will require revising a national law, though the health ministry is studying whether dentists can currently be deemed qualified.

As for the Olympics, the government says the games will go ahead as planned, but with safety precautions. In March, officials decided to exclude overseas spectators from attending events; a decision on whether to allow domestic spectators has been delayed until June. Athletes and national delegations will face restrictions on their movements in and around Tokyo. But most are likely to have been vaccinated by the time they arrive in Japan, partly because of donations of COVID-19 vaccine doses by Pfizer and BioNTech. As yet, there are no plans to vaccinate the 75,000 or so local volunteers who will help the games run smoothly.

The uncertainties have led many to question whether the Olympics should be held at all. “It is time to have serious debate [on whether to stage the games] while taking account of the levels of infection and the burden borne by the health care system,” Shigeru Omi, chair of a governmental COVID-19 advisory panel, said before a parliamentary session on 28 April.

Polls indicate that a solid majority of the Japanese want the Olympics canceled. Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest circulation daily newspaper, reported on 11 May that 59% of respondents to its latest survey favored scrapping the games; 23% said the event should go ahead but without spectators. An online petition titled “Cancel the Tokyo Olympics to protect our lives,” launched on 5 May, garnered more than 300,000 signatures in just 4 days. Nine prefectures have canceled or scaled back Olympic torch relay runs to avoid attracting crowds. In Osaka, torch bearers ran laps in an empty park instead of on public roads, as originally planned. That lonely race may be a preview of what’s in store for the Tokyo Olympics.

Source: Science Mag

18 Comments
  1. Dale says

    And this author too appears to be a true vax-believer. Why would Japan need them ?

  2. Voz 0db says

    The FUN part is that even with a low number of jabbed morons the result is always the same…

    https://i.postimg.cc/MZ5D49YK/JAPAN-jabs-cull.png

    and

    https://i.postimg.cc/N0Pymr8t/Japan-jabs.jpg

  3. Mr Reynard says

    Not surprised at all..
    Japanese are supposed to have a high IQ ?
    & this is the result ?

  4. Mark says

    IT’S NOT AN EMERGENCY!!

    160,000 people die every day, on average, in the world of all causes. COVID is portrayed by alarmists as a sweeping scourge, gobbling up the population as it screams for mercy, when public-health officials admit the very great majority will experience only mild symptoms and many will not even know they have it.

    1. geo says

      293,540 die every day…. to maintain and replace actual population in 70 years.
      7,500,000,000 divided by 70 years and again divided to 365 days =

  5. Gavin says

    I lived in Japan 8 years. They do not do vaccines, western medicine or diet and live to be in their 90s regularly. More power to them.

    1. Eddy says

      Agree 100% with your comment.

  6. Eddy says

    Very, very smart clever people. Good on them. Clearly they can see and understand very clearly, the THREAT these so called Vaccinations pose to all humanity. Well done Japan, hat’s off to you.

    1. Mary J Nelson says

      Wish the US would use treatments rather than vaccines for respiratory illnesses like Covid or just the flu renamed?

      1. Sherril G BeMent says

        There IS treatment! The US powers don’t want it – Ivermectin, azithromycin, Vit D, C Quercetin. Go to Frontline Covid Critical Care Alliance or look up Dr. Peter McCullough – early treatment is the key and both these named have early treatment protocols – FLCCC has a preventive protocol…our govt spokesman has NEVER treated one covid patient…and all these guys have…real heroes of medicine!

  7. Eddy says

    Don’t believe in Coincidences. Consider these alleged vaccines alter your DNA, why would the Japanese risk having their DNA altered just to reduce the birth rate, especially when their birthrates are alarmingly low already. I.M.H.O. what the Japanese Government is doing, is very clever indeed and miles ahead of all the other sycophant Governments who are all involved in this World wide scam.

  8. Mary J Nelson says

    Get Ivermectin and you may not need a vaccine.

  9. Ash Warren says

    Hello, Tokyo permanent resident of 30 years here.

    Im not going to weigh in on the pros or cons of vaccinations, but the issue here is that despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the Japanese WANT to get vaccinated, they have not been able to due to endless delays brought on by unnecessary clinical trials (translation: arse covering) and there being no competent rollout plan for the vaccine (albeit one in pretty short supply). Mainly this is a a problem of bureaucracy, and this is what Japan is essentially, a bureaucracy rather than a democracy. At the time of writing only 3% of the population is vaccinated, and the websites and landlines at local government offices are swamped with people requesting and failing to get vaccination appointments. This is going to continue for many months to come.

    Covid has and continues to cause a crisis in the medical system here, and this needs some explanation. Why would a country as advanced as Japan not be able to cope with relatively few infections compared with other nations? The reason is that Japan has a shortage of critical care wards as it is primarily a country of small private hospitals rather than the large ones which normally provide critical care. It also has a shortage (over many decades now) of doctors and nursing staff. Thus the Japanese medical system is not capable of dealing with a sudden large influx of very sick patients. Even a worse than average flu season is enough to see the red flags rising.

    Even so, the government is pressing ahead with the Olympics, which are seen as a further threat to the health system, as it means at least 90,000 people flying into a country where hardly anyone has been vaccinated and holding mass events not only in Tokyo but in Hokkaido and other places, where the medical system crisis is at its worst. According to the latest polls 80% if the population are against holding the games at this time. But of course the government and the IOC, who are only interested in money and face saving, are going ahead.

    Whether or not you agree with vaccinations here is not the point really. The point is the medical system, particularly in Osaka and Hokkaido and other places is at breaking point. This is not made up news, this is a fact. The delay in getting people vaccinated has only made the issue worse.

    1. Dan Pane says

      I agree with you about the bureaucracy in Japan slows things down. However I will disagree with the hospitals being at their breaking points. I have a friend who works in a big public hospital in Sapporo and they said that the hospital is operating as normal. It could be the private hospitals getting full to make profits and mislabeling cases as COVID to get funding. Japan is really controlled by the US and it’s the media who is flooding the miss information out to scare everyone. Why is it now that Japan is getting or keeping a worse situation when the US is miraculously opening up and getting back to normal? It’s the big pharma, the Gates foundation and Fouchi that’s driving this fear to get rich off the vaccines. Once Japan starts allowing the sheeple that are scared from the main stream media to get the vaccines then they will be allowed to be free. Oh also just curious why it’s getting worse when no foreign people are allowed in Japan without special circumstances and you need a negative Covid test before getting on a plane to Japan and another on on arrival in Japan and then needing to quarantine for 2 weeks.

      1. Romy H Vu says

        Japan is the most efficient country in the world. If it is truly critical, the government will go out full force to protect its citizens. They intend to slow down the distribution of the vaccines because they know something is fishy about it. Never underestimate the Japanese government. They know how to take care of their citizens.

        1. joey_n says

          If the Japanese govt. knew how to take care of their citizens, they wouldn’t announce plans to dump nuclear wastewater or continue on with planning the 2020 Olympics, both of which having been met with protests at least once.

  10. Vannnie says

    I suppose this research from Japan may discourage the population from having the vaccines…quite rightly! https://omny.fm/shows/on-point-with-alex-pierson/new-peer-reviewed-study-on-covid-19-vaccines-sugge

  11. Larry says

    Its VERY important to understand EPSTEIN GUILTY Trump’s ROLE in this so you dont make the SAME MISTAKES or support him as he MAKES MORE! CASES NOT DEATHS! EVENT 201 proves this was all a PLANNED FARCE! Understand that Epstein GUILTY Trumpy is a deep state FAKE like all others before him and gave Gates GAVI group a BILLION to FORCE a DNA ALTERING NOT-a-vaccine on YOU using the MILITARY in a ‘powerful way’ Gates controlled and funded Fauci AND Birx and they ALL should be EXECUTED. Trump PARTIED WITH Clintons, Gates and EPSTEIN and AS A DEMOCRAT! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pV1U9s3vJ0

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