Japan should have scrapped domestic COVID vaccine trials: Kono

From The Asahi Shinbun:

“Pfizer’s international tests were conducted from July to November on about 44,000 people in six countries, including about 2,000 Asians. Japan requested tests on 160 Japanese people,”

So why didn’t other Asian countries do this, why only Japan? Perhaps it’s because there’s this pernicious idea that the Japanese people are somehow unique and that this idea also extends to their very DNA. Remember when there was talk of the ‘Factor X’ and ‘high degree of culture’ last year? Not so different from other people after all it would seem. This kind of arrogance has cost lives.

Love how he throws the opposition party under the bus, saying they demanded the trials. I'm pretty darn sure that there are just as many old xenophobic members in Kono's own party that would have screamed murder if anything happened with a vaccine from abroad!

Well I’m shocked ! Of course nobody else realized it would delay everything

It's probably necessary for ordinary times, but in the case of emergency, or state of emergency, like COVID-19, I think we should have started the vaccination as early as possible."

No, statistically it is meaningless even for ordinary times, the local tests serve no scientific purpose and they are only a way for politicians to say they are "protecting" the people by making things unnecessarily difficult. That has been obvious for many years, recognizing it right now would indicate deep hypocrisy or being completely unqualified for the job.

They were predicated on bizarre racial ideas that a significant number of Japanese hold.

You knew that from the start Konno, but did you said that during the meetings ?

""Japan's requirement of domestic clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines cost it precious time""

AMEN. I rest my case.

Trying to pin it on the opposition? Experts were saying that the half-measured clinical trials made no sense. LDP always says that they will confer with the experts, why didn't they throw this back in the face of the opposition at that time? Sorry, poor excuse Kono, doesn't fly. It was the LDPs poor leadership in a time of crisis, nothing more, nothing less.

Not just vaccinations Kono a whole list of drugs.

Anyone and everyone with half a brain said so at the time. The domestic trials did nothing and would have led to unnecessary deaths.

Hmm.. Maybe you should make up for it by scrapping the overly complicated reservation/voucher/booking system and follow the example of other countries.

"It's probably necessary for ordinary times, but in the case of emergency, or state of emergency, like COVID-19, I think we should have started the vaccination as early as possible."

What a an absolutely ridiculous statement.

DO YA THINK SO?!!

Well, at least he admitted the mistake.

20/20 hindsight from Kono. Just what you need from a leader.

We must be getting closer to the Olympic Show, the blame game is getting louder and more desperate!

"It's probably necessary for ordinary times, but in the case of emergency, or state of emergency, like COVID-19, I think we should have started the vaccination as early as possible."

And yet, with more than a year to have thought of that, he couldn't possibly, nor could he heed the calls to do it. Now he has to deal with the "I told you so"s, and the fact that he's very likely out of his job post-Olympics. They other thing they "should have done" was stop trying to come up with a domestic vaccine in lieu of using a foreign-made one, just to appease the extreme weakness and paranoia of many citizens.

....just to appease the extreme weakness and paranoia of many citizens.

J-Gov in a nutshell.

Slow like a snail ... US started in Dec 2020 ... 2 months monitoring/screening and prep ready from February start .. Elders and Medical staff and mass population from April at latest ... why Kono saying it now? Election and Gov desperation to save face!

Blimey, I agree with Kono.

Why don't these politicians speak up when it counts? Saying this back in January would've actually helped.

Anywhere else he would be out of job for that mistake that cost lives and livelihoods

This guy's a piece of work. Utter failure on all fronts. Hope the history books reflect this one day.

Few weeks ago he said he was hoping they would vaccinate 1 million per day in May. Now they are hoping to do it by the end of June... my guess is it won't be there until July.

I don't know how Kono gets away with these bogus excuses.

Can we recall that even with the Japanese trials, Pfizer was approved in Japan on Feb 14, 2021 which was 3 months ago. In those 3 months the other G7 countries have given at least one shot to at least half their eligible population, Canada has managed 70%. Japan? Maybe 12% or so. The need for Japanese trials had nothing to do with the pace since Feb 14.

Journalists, could you ask Kono to give a detailed explanation of what happened during these 3 months?

This is probably the only true thing an LDP politician has said since the pandemic started. A whole bloody year wasted, with people twiddling their thumbs and sucking through their teeth as others died. Not to mention the fact that they tried to depend on the emergence of a locally developed vaccine by a local pharmo company - in the end nothing came of it, and so more time and lives wasted. With the Olympics being held here, you'd have thought Japan would be the first country to get vaccinations organized. But no, total logic and common sense flies out the window.

"If I could go back all the way to the beginning, I would have probably scrapped the clinical trial that we did," Kono told reporters.

and

"It's probably necessary for ordinary times, but in the case of emergency, or state of emergency, like COVID-19, I think we should have started the vaccination as early as possible."

Ah, the so popular だけど. So many people pointed out, that experiments on a relatively large sample of people were conducted. But even so, Japan decided to carry out its own tests, using only a fraction of the number of people already available in the existing study. 200 people tested is almost at the level of statistical error.

And the cost of testing 200 people in Japan certainly outstripped the results. Just consider how many people are involved in even an absolutely trivial activity, such as cleaning the windows of a house. One person washing a window, another person holding a bucket of water, a third person standing underneath holding a flag, 4 people standing on all sides using the flag to direct pedestrians. And there are flashers and barriers all around.

And don't forget the cost of reporting everything, etc.

I see it as a mistake myself. I am assuming of course that the Japanese public would have agreed to be vaccinated without a trial on Japanese people. There is quite a lot of anti-vaxxer sentiment in Japan and it, along with Japanese people thinking they are different and special, must share the blame.

Pukey2Today 11:36 am JST

This is probably the only true thing an LDP politician has said since the pandemic started. A whole bloody year wasted, with people twiddling their thumbs and sucking through their teeth as others died. Not to mention the fact that they tried to depend on the emergence of a locally developed vaccine by a local pharmo company - in the end nothing came of it, and so more time and lives wasted. With the Olympics being held here, you'd have thought Japan would be the first country to get vaccinations organized. But no, total logic and common sense flies out the window.

Kono Taro/Taro Kono has been told in no uncertain terms that he's out of the running for the Iron Throne after Suga gets canned, so he clearly feels free to speak his mind now.

Japan should have scrapped domestic COVID vaccine trials: Kono

Japan should have scrapped Kono

-fixed

Now hear this: damage control parties report to you stations...this is not a drill!

Is there an election soon or is this guy actually having a moment of clarity (rhetorical question).

mizuame:

A rough calculation - average 25 per people per day have died in Japan from Covid 19 since the start of 2020. The trials caused a delay of perhaps one month. Assuming ultimately 100% of the population is eventually vaccinated (unrealistic, I know), the delay caused perhaps 700 extra deaths...

Nice try, but you're playing around with statistics just like the Japanese government does.

Up to the end of November 2020, there were 'officially' around 2,000 covid-related deaths. From December 2020 to now, there were, 12,000 deaths (and counting). In other words, most of the damage was done THIS YEAR. If the government has done something last year (what the heck have they been doing since the Olympics were cancelled last year???!!!), we may not have seen so many cases and deaths this year.

If he were wrong though he'd have to give many deep bows, apologies, and resignations etc. Its always better to delay a decision in Japan than be wrong.

Didn’t know Kono is a specialist in medicine?

160 people in a trial is statistically meaningless..........

A rough calculation - average 25 per people per day have died in Japan from Covid 19 since the start of 2020. The trials caused a delay of perhaps one month. Assuming ultimately 100% of the population is eventually vaccinated (unrealistic, I know), the delay caused perhaps 700 extra deaths...

The common sense thing to do would have been to have local trials and allow volunteers, those that don't want to wait to get vaccinated at the same time.

However this is all just political subterfuge by Kono, shifting blame away from the party to the rules. The real mistake has been the hugely inadequate preparation to setup the vaccination centers, systems and personnel. The roll out could already be much further ahead based on the same rules and same doses delivered to Japan.

said opposition parties pushed for domestic trials and media would have pilloried the government if accidents had happened without them.

Leadership.

You are the last person on earth to figure this out.

"go back all the way to the beginning, scrap the clinical trial that we did,"

said everyone, NOT named Kono.

@fxgai you make a very important point. I agree 100% I always said in UK. Politicians should not be allowed to control Defence Education or Public Health. They have no skills in these areas and are dangerous

old xenophobic members in Kono's own party.

LDP is the right-wing conservative party equivalent to Republicans in the USA. So yeah, most of them are old and xenophobic.

@hatsufred, thanks. We’re in an uphill battle because all the conservative people of the world are used to the notion of central bureaucracies meddling in various aspects of our lives, despite pretty much each of us being perfectly capable of making decisions for ourselves.

At least if those of our mind could opt out of such madness that would be great, but we typically don’t even get given that choice either.

Still there is hope for less large government that actually focuses on core roles, rather than taking on too many responsibilities that could absolutely be divulged to individual citizens. Because government keeps demonstrating its inferiority in many areas so much of the time!

opposition parties pushed for domestic trials and media would have pilloried the government if accidents had happened without them.

This is both true and also a reason why important efforts like public health ought not be left in control of politicians.

Honestly.

If someone wanted to take the vaccine of their own personal volition, who the heck is anyone else to tell them that they may not?

Drinking alcohol does no good for health, yet we don’t have politicians telling us we may not consume alcohol.

A free market approach to vaccinations would have been far more effective and kept politics out of this important public health issue.

Some things are simply too important to be left in control of politicians.

 media would have pilloried the government if accidents had happened without them.

Yes, everyone will blame them if something bad happens, so? Leaders need to make hard decisions and take responsibility.

It's a public health emergency. Just make the best informed decision with a view to saving as much lives as possible and be ready to accept responsibility no matter the outcome.

It shouldn't have been difficult to scrap it actually.

The vaccine will be used way in advance in other countries before supplies reach Japan so plenty of time to continually assess data and risks.

Like the situation with astrazeneca vaccines now. It has been approved for use already but on hold because of the blood clotting issue

I told 'ya!

said everyone, NOT named Kono.

Said everyone on JT maybe, but Kono is not a medical expert, so he was most likely taking the advice of those so-called experts. The same kind of people that said the Olympics will bring a new COVID variant, with no explanation whatsoever.

Yep.　Opposition's quick shifts or reversals in their stances are as always amazing, just like a chameleon.They made domestic clinical trials must in supplementary resolution in December last year

To be fair, a large number of the population at the beginning did not want the overseas vaccines or any kind in fact. While buying them from overseas cost a lot of money and instead there are always opposition that would rather that Japan spend investment on making their own to compete with the rest of the world.

Especailly i heard ever since the pandemic, it had create a lot of new billionaires all around the world. These vaccine companies are getting filthy rich.

"It's probably necessary for ordinary times, but in the case of emergency, or state of emergency, like COVID-19, I think we should have started the vaccination as early as possible."

It was the first time for japan to be confronted with such a pandemic.

Japan and also the rest of the world were overrunned by the pandemic.

So it is normal to make mistakes.

But let us not complain about those mistakes.

Let us all learn from those mistakes.

Continue and further improve your vaccine roll out programm, and then hopefully we can all go back to our normal life within this year.