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Why did it take so long for Japan to start vaccinating against covid-19, even with the Olympic Games to come? | CNN

2021-02-27T16:16:24.856Z


The Olympic Games that will begin in Tokyo in July. So Japan had every reason to act quickly to approve a COVID-19 vaccine and begin inoculations. But the country only began vaccinating its population of 126 million with Pfizer-BioNTech injections last week, more than two months after the vaccine was launched in other major countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. World | CNN


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Tokyo (CNN) -

The Olympic Games that will begin in Tokyo in July.

So Japan had every reason to act quickly to approve a COVID-19 vaccine and begin inoculations.


But the country only began vaccinating its population of 126 million with Pfizer-BioNTech injections last week, more than two months after the vaccine was launched in other major countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.

The United States has administered more than 68 million doses since its vaccination program began in December, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In Japan, only about 18,000 doses have been administered, according to the Japanese government.

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Japan's case burden is not as high as that of the US or the UK, but in recent months its healthcare system has been overwhelmed by the worst wave of infections since the pandemic began last year. with hundreds of new cases still being reported every day.

And Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is under pressure to reduce infections before Japan welcomes the world to the Summer Olympics.

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Like the US, Japan is using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as part of its program.

However, it took two more months for Japanese regulators to approve its use.

The government says it has been deliberately cautious.

After a series of vaccine scandals dating back 50 years, Japan has one of the lowest rates of confidence in vaccines in the world, so winning over a skeptical audience is crucial.

However, the decision to act slowly has been criticized by some medical professionals, including Dr. Kenji Shibuya, a professor at King's College London, who says that the delay in the implementation of vaccines in Japan and its lack of strategy vaccination will eventually cost lives.

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Japan has a very cautious vaccine approval process

Pfizer-BioNTech conducted extensive Phase 3 clinical trials of its vaccine over several months late last year at approximately 150 clinical trial sites in the US, Germany, Turkey, South Africa, Brazil and Argentina.

On November 19, the companies announced that the vaccine was 95% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections.

Two weeks later, the UK became the first Western country to approve the vaccine for emergency use, followed by the US on December 11.

On December 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) also approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use.

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Japan's approval came six weeks later, on February 14, after a smaller test in the country of 160 participants showed results consistent with international tests.

By Japanese standards, approval came quickly;

typically, the process can take between one and two years.

But critics say the delay cost the government valuable time.

"With a sample size of 160 people, it doesn't provide any scientific evidence on the effectiveness or safety (of a vaccine)," said Shibuya of King's College.

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of launching the coronavirus vaccine in Japan, said the country's clinical trial was conducted to build public confidence in the program.

"I think it is more important for the Japanese government to show the Japanese that we have done everything possible to demonstrate the efficacy and safety of the vaccine, to encourage the Japanese to get vaccinated," Kono said.

"At the end of the day, we could have started slower, but we thought it would be more effective."

Scandal and Skepticism: A History of Vaccines in Japan

According to a study published in The Lancet medical journal that mapped the confidence of vaccines in 149 countries between 2015 and 2019, less than 30% of people in Japan agreed that vaccines were safe, important and effective, compared with 50% in the US

Japan's resistance to the vaccine dates back to the 1970s, when two babies died within 24 hours of combined vaccination against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.

The vaccine was temporarily suspended, but confidence had already been shaken.

For several years, childhood vaccination rates declined, leading to an increase in whooping cough cases.

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In the late 1980s, there was another scare with the introduction of a measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine produced in Japan.

Early versions of the vaccine were linked to aseptic meningitis, or inflammation of the membranes around the brain and spinal cord.

The problem can be traced back to the mumps component of the MMR vaccine, which led to legal action and a substantial payment of damages.

The National Institute of Health Sciences discontinued the combined injection in 1993 and replaced it with individual vaccines.

After the MMR scandal, Shibuya says that the Japanese government became "risk conscious" and its national vaccination program became voluntary.

Infectious disease expert Dr. Yuho Horikoshi says the lawsuits led to a "vaccination gap," in which no vaccines were approved in Japan for about 15 years.

The case of the HPV vaccine in Japan

Most recently, in 2013, Japan added the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to the national calendar to protect girls against the sexually transmitted virus, which is known to cause cervical cancer.

However, videos of girls allegedly suffering adverse reactions began to circulate on YouTube, prompting the government to remove her from national programming.

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The Adverse Reactions to Vaccine Review Committee investigated the incidents and found no evidence to suggest a causal relationship between adverse events and the HPV vaccine.

But the reports and the withdrawal of the vaccine from the Japanese government program caused a sharp drop in the number of girls vaccinated, from more than 70% in 2010 to less than 1% now.

That low rate could result in nearly 11,000 preventable deaths from cervical cancer in Japan over the next 50 years, according to a study by The Lancet.

The WHO recommends giving the vaccine to girls between the ages of nine and 14 to prevent cervical cancer, which kills 311,000 women worldwide each year.

According to a study published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, rates of cervical cancer in England are falling due to the vaccine.

And Australia is on track to eliminate cervical cancer by 2028, according to another recent study, also because of the vaccine.

Professor Shoji Tsuchida, an expert in social psychology at Kansai University, says that despite Japan's resistance to vaccines, there is no widespread "anti-vaccine" movement in the country.

"Most people who don't want to get vaccinated fear the potential side effects and don't believe (what they consider) 'bogus' science," Tsuchida said.

"The past side effect vaccination cases from Japan, especially the HPV case, are mainly affecting the minds of these people."

Source: cnnespanol

All news articles on 2021-02-27

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