Japan refuses to get vaccinated
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/only-1-japan-fully-vaccinated-against-covid-19-it-ready-olympics
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.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/05/only-1-japan-fully-vaccinated-against-covid-19-it-ready-olympics
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.
