Osaka starts administering AstraZeneca vaccine

Stay Pfizer

The site, with some 60 staffers, is aiming to inoculate 540 people per day. Registration for the shots began on Aug. 16, with slots already filled up until Aug 29.

Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture neighboring Tokyo also started on Monday AstraZeneca shots in principle to those aged 40 or above. Reservation slots of 500 per day have been filled up for the entire week.

"I was not able to book my appointment for any other vaccine. I thought there should be an opening slot for AstraZeneca (because of reported concerns about side effects)," he said.

The first 2 quotes from the article basically put to rest any bs about the Japanese not wanting the Vaccines or vaccine hesitancy.

The 3rd quote points to how desperate people are to get vaccinated.

I never worried about the safety of AZ and if I wasn't able to get my preferred Moderna I would get AZ if that is what I could get as despite its lower efficiency with regards to Delta it is still far better than nothing and anyway 60%~70% after 2 doses is still better than the generally 50% efficiency of many annual flu vaccines.

All family and friends fine with AZ. No need to be negative

Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture neighboring Tokyo also started on Monday AstraZeneca shots in principle to those aged 40 or above. Reservation slots of 500 per day have been filled up for the entire week.

A lot of people might not know this, but Kawaguchi is very multicultural and near the top when cities around the country are ranked by number of foreign residents. In fact, unregistered foreign nationals in the city are also eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford%E2%80%93AstraZeneca_COVID-19_vaccine#Safety_review

I've had 2 AZ. After a few hours you may get any of a selection of minor side effects - shivers, headache, temperature. These may last a couple of hours. Second jab side effects are usually weaker. Some people get no side effects at all. Generally there are fewer side effects from Pfizer but the jab is more painful and leaves you with a sore arm for a day or two. The AZ jab you hardly feel. If you really don't like needles, get the AZ.

You can vaccinate a person with AZ in under a minute. 540 per day is do-able for three staff members in one room. That's a nurse to jab you in the arm and hand you a leaflet, someone to deal with the paperwork and another person getting people to stand in line and get their upper arm ready.

AZ vaccine felt like it was formatting my brain on the the first dose, but second was ok.

People are still catching covid even with two doses, but it's better than being administered to hospital.

Hoorah, at last! The fact Japan has been sitting on millions of doses of this vaccine while people are begging to be inoculated is scandalous. I had the AZ vaccine, half the people I know had it, no issues. The only people against it are the Sputnik trolls.

Viral vector vaccines are much better than the mRNA new kid on the block! At least the Viral vector vaccines are a known process! The mRNA vaccines have zero long term health and side effect data.

AZ vaccine felt like it was formatting my brain on the the first dose, but second was ok.

People are still catching covid even with two doses, but it's better than being administered to hospital.

Only around 1% of unvaccinated people get severely ill. And it doesn't change for the number of people vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna or AZ vaccines.

Hasn’t the AZ vaccine been banned in some European countries for causing serious side effects like blood clots?

People are still catching covid even with two doses, but it's better than being administered to hospital.

Not sure exactly where but I read somewhere that combining AstraZeneca's jab with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine produces a very strong immune response.

AZ is a British company. This vaccine is not good. The only reason that it is on the market is the British are super desperate to be relevant. They are not good. For your own safety and health and future stick with Moderna.

This is great news! Someone in charge is FINALLY doing something positive about improving the vaccination rate.

I wish I could get it.

GBR48Today  07:30 am JST

I've had 2 AZ. After a few hours you may get any of a selection of minor side effects - shivers, headache, temperature. These may last a couple of hours. Second jab side effects are usually weaker. Some people get no side effects at all. Generally there are fewer side effects from Pfizer but the jab is more painful and leaves you with a sore arm for a day or two. The AZ jab you hardly feel. If you really don't like needles, get the AZ.

You can vaccinate a person with AZ in under a minute. 540 per day is do-able for three staff members in one room. That's a nurse to jab you in the arm and hand you a leaflet, someone to deal with the paperwork and another person getting people to stand in line and get their upper arm ready.

-5( +3 / -

Viral vector vaccines are much better than the mRNA new kid on the block! At least the Viral vector vaccines are a known process! The mRNA vaccines have zero long term health and side effect data.

No, one thing is that all vaccines in use are much better than not vaccinating, another is to baseless clame one vaccine is "better" just because the technology used on it is older.

mRNA vaccines have been used for many years without any specific problems of the technology, viral vectored vaccines on the other hand had quite some risks to be examined that are not present when using mRNA. It was fortunate that at least the AZ was safe but problems inherent to the proteins of the vector were always a possibility, it also complicates the development of boosters since the immunity against the vector can make any further use much less effective (because the vector is neutralized before even delivering the instructions for the production of the real protein you want to be targeted.

The only downside is that the delta variant is affecting younger adults kids much more than previous strains.

The reality is Japan has already used the majority of the vaccines that are safer for young people & kids (Moderna&Phizer) on the elderly and adults over 50.

Now when the younger people and kids need to be vaccinated the gov is rolling out AZ which seems to be somewhat less safe for them.

You cant make this stuff up. ;-(

Why not offer it to private companies also? Later?

Only around 1% of unvaccinated people get severely ill.

@ Ingvar - Provide two reputable links to back up that wild claim.

Otherwise, we will all assume you are lying to suit your anti-vax narrative.

0rei0Today  08:36 am JST

GBR48Today  07:30 am JST

I've had 2 AZ. After a few hours you may get any of a selection of minor side effects - shivers, headache, temperature. These may last a couple of hours. Second jab side effects are usually weaker. Some people get no side effects at all.

Eric Clapton would beg to differ, suffering severe reactions lasting ten days for the first shot, and worse reactions for two weeks on the second shot.

It might be hyperbole, but he claimed he feared never playing again.

Hence becoming one of a growing number of vocal critics

@Meiyouwenti

No - Its not been 'banned'. Please get your information from reputable sources.

Is the 8 week gap because of a strong efficacy or lack of supply?

I think recommended gap is actually 12 weeks but shortened to 8 weeks to address fast spreading of new variants

Zoroto  07:13 am JST

"unregistered foreign nationals"

Is that same as an illegal immigrant? How do they get a voucher? Or you suddenly don't need a voucher?

As of late last year, the area had approximately 2,000 Kurds who had fled their countries for fear of persecution and discrimination. More than 700 of them are in the process of applying for asylum.

Those who have overstayed visas and are on provisional release do not have a valid residence card, making it difficult for them to receive welfare public assistance and medical support.

SanjinosebleedToday  07:34 am JST

Viral vector vaccines are much better than the mRNA new kid on the block! At least the Viral vector vaccines are a known process! The mRNA vaccines have zero long term health and side effect data

The reply to this:

virusrexToday  08:41 am JST

No, one thing is that all vaccines in use are much better than not vaccinating, another is to baseless clame one vaccine is "better" just because the technology used on it is older

This can be clearly proven/seen is something as common as the measles vaccine.

The early vaccines based on the older "tried and true" dead virus method used on people just slightly younger than I am ( my sister for example) have shown to have limited long term effect compared to the later newer at the time live virus vaccine.

The result is that those that got the "tried and true" original vaccine are now being told they need to be tested to see if they are still protected and if not get the live virus vaccine. ( As was the case with my sister no protection anymore and got the live virus vaccine now)

As @virusrex says just because something has be around a long time doesn't make it better.

0rei0Today  09:25 am JST

0rei0Today  08:36 am JST

GBR48Today  07:30 am JST

I've had 2 AZ. After a few hours you may get any of a selection of minor side effects - shivers, headache, temperature. These may last a couple of hours. Second jab side effects are usually weaker. Some people get no side effects at all.

Eric Clapton would beg to differ,

Now take a look at his life, think of how much abuse he put his body through for decades with hard drugs and booze, etc ..

I would be surprised if his immune system and other bodily functions are at their best.

My parents, siblings and nieces and nephews had a mixture some AZ, some Pfizer some Moderna.

In order of most reaction to least Moderna, Pfizer, Moderna ( which my daughter and I both got 2 doses and my wife 1 dose the other is this week).

My family back home half got AZ quarter Pfizer quarter Moderna and AZ was the with the least and shortest side effects.

8 weeks has been shown to be the "sweet spot" for the Pfizer jab, I asked the person administrating the second shot to my arm why Japan was doing 3 weeks; "because we are". End of discussion -- of course in terms of the manual having spoken.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57929953

Get your vaccine be it Moderna, AZ or Pfizer. Save lives.

The reality is Japan has already used the majority of the vaccines that are safer for young people & kids (Moderna&Phizer) on the elderly and adults over 50.

Now when the younger people and kids need to be vaccinated the gov is rolling out AZ which seems to be somewhat less safe for them.

You cant make this stuff up. ;-(

The reality is if Japan hadn't vaccinated the elderly first we'd be seeing a lot more deaths with this current wave of infections.

virusrexToday  08:41 am JST

No, one thing is that all vaccines in use are much better than not vaccinating, another is to baseless clame one vaccine is "better" just because the technology used on it is older

Another baseless infomercial.

I got the Moderna; and according to the reports, it was the right choice.

If not mistaken, isn't the actual concern the creation of a spike protein and the unknown effects that protein may have on the body, especially in the mid-to-long term?

That concern is not a logical one, first because also the vectored vaccines produce the spike protein, so they would not be "safer" because of it (the difference is that the mRNA comes inside adenovirus capsid proteins instead of the lipid nanoparticles), and second because the natural infection produces a lot more of the spike protein as part of the viral replication cycle, so any concerns about some hidden effects of the spike protein would mean any vaccine (which prevents the viral infection from developing fully, and therefore reduces the exposure to the spike protein) would be the safest option by default.

Asking questions is not what makes someone an "antivaxxer", that is reserved for people that know the answers but actively refuse to accept and even hide them so they can repeat their loaded questions to others in order to mislead people into having unjustified concerns. Nobody can know everything, but actively choosing ignorance and disinformation is a completely different thing.

Another baseless infomercial.

Why, have you found any respected institution of medicine or science that says vaccines are not safer than the infection? you keep trying to say this is not true, but when told to get at least one that supports that invalid conclusion you never bring any, that is what baseless means.

therougouToday  10:22 am JST

The reality is if Japan hadn't vaccinated the elderly first we'd be seeing a lot more deaths with this current wave of infections

In July 28 the Tokyo government released information on those with severe covid.

On that day there we 80 people with severe covid in hospital, 47 of them were between the ages of 39 and 59 ( we are now over 270 severe cases)

Since then most reports are saying the number of severe cases involving those in their 40s and 50s has only increased.

Seeing that in Tokyo severe means on ventilator and recovery once on a ventilator is generally not so good.

Seeing that in July over half of severe cases were under 59 and growing, we can make an educated guess that a good protection of those that died recently and that will die are not elderly and are between the ages of 39 and 59.

Whilst I applaud the efforts, it is genuinely fascinating that SIXTY staffers are targeting only 540 jabs a day. That's about 9 per staffer, or around 1 jab per staff per hour.

I understand that not all of them are directly administering the vaccine, but come on!

From Wikipedia:

General

Before 2020, no mRNA technology platform (drug or vaccine) had been authorized for use in humans, so there was a risk of unknown effects.[49] The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic required faster production capability of mRNA vaccines, made them attractive to national health organisations, and led to debate about the type of initial authorization mRNA vaccines should get (including emergency use authorization or expanded access authorization) after the eight-week period of post-final human trials.

So they have never been authorised prior to 2020. So these current vaccines were given emergency authorisation (you need to understand what this means exactly because it actually absolves the companies making these of any responsibility regarding side effects long term or short term) None of these current vaccines have been approved by any governments in the normal way they have approved other vaccines which have all gone through years of human trials. Please do your own research and educate yourselves. Look at the mounting cases of death and severe disabilities from the vaccine none of which are reported on by main stream media which tells you everything you need to know about “free press”. How anyone taking these vaccines can think that there could be no possibility of long term side effects which make take a year or more to show up is simply, in my opinion, is blindly jumping of a cliff with closed eyes hoping for the best. If the death rate for Covid was the same as MERS (30%) and I was seeing it spread wildly within my community and I knew of countless people around me or friends of friends dying like flies, well that risk would probably prompt me to take the calculated risk that getting the vaccine would put the odds back in my favour. Currently, for me, it’s not even close to that point. According, again to Wikipedia, the current death rate in Japan for Covid-19 is 1.2%. I am no anti-vaxer but common sense and my own curiosity into both sides of the coins tells me to have a wait and see approach. I am not telling anyone not to be vaccinated or to be vaccinated, that is for you to decide based on your own decision making process. All I can say is have a look carefully at everything before deciding and certainly not because someone else tells you to.

@Duckeleto: Approx 5000,000,000 shots administered. How much more wait and see do you need, when have inoculated the Venetians?

 Please do your own research and educate yourselves. 

Any time you see this phrase skip the wall of text.

You can vaccinate a person with AZ in under a minute.

Oh, you mean like every other vaccination in the history of vaccines?

ADK99Today  10:41 am JST

Whilst I applaud the efforts, it is genuinely fascinating that SIXTY staffers are targeting only 540 jabs a day. That's about 9 per staffer, or around 1 jab per staff per hour.

I understand that not all of them are directly administering the vaccine, but come on!

Have you gotten your vaccine yet?

Let me tell you my 2 experiences.

Entrance one (1) staff with hand sanitizer and one(1) to check you have your papers and point you in the direction you need to go ( in my case 3rd floor. One (1) staff to point to the elevator or stairs, one (1) to direct you to the proper registration desk (2) standing around ready to help people that haven't filled in the needed documents before hand.

2 at the registration desk one to check the documents are filled in the other to check your ID and you actually have an appointment. (Note 2 registration desks so (4) staff

(2) staff to direct you to the Vaccination room, (2) staff in the room to direct you to the "appreciate" chair.

(4) nurses working in pairs each pair with a vaccination cart.

(2) staff to collect your vouchers and bring them to the (4) staff that place the needed stickers and stamps on the vouchers.

(2) staff to lead you out of the room back to the elevator/stairs.

I think that is it, 26? Staff, room holds 30 people to be vaccinated at full capacity.

In each case for my 2 doses the staff out numbered the people there to be vaccinated.

@Slough Brent, the smallpox vaccine used to take somewhat longer "in the day". But, point.

@Dukeleto

As of yesterday in Osaka for this month there have been 107 people under the age of 50 in ICU and three deaths. The most deaths in one month was May at 16. That is the most ICU's in a month since the beginning. I expect that next month will show a rise of deaths for the under 50's.

As for case numbers in Osaka this month is the highest this year at 430. Higer cases link to higher ICU and higher deaths. The numbers across the country show that it is the younger people catching it at the moment and the spread is downwards and now people in their teens make up a larger and larger chunk.

These are from Japanese stats so it is best to consider them as very low compared to the reality. Those people under 50 who are having to travel by train or interact with others on a daily bases do need to think if they are going to get the virus and if a vaccine would be a safer option. I very much hope they consult a doctor rather than a wiki page to make that decision.

Personally as I was only offered the Tizer vaccine I chose not to. Now that Oxford AZ is online I might change my mind. My whole family have had it without any problems and I think if my Brother could tolerate it than I feel it a much safer option than the rest. Plenty of my family have had covid as well without problems. In fact I have yet to know of any person who has got ill from the virus. I have known a few who have had the vaccine and a reaction to it but nothing that did not go away after a few day.

If people do want to do research it is worth noting the first safety dates of the various types because some have safety data going back a lot longer than 2020 even mRNA ones. I would avoid wiki or media or gov sites for your information but there are plenty of studies out their that give raw data level access.

"virusrexToday  08:41 am JST

Viral vector vaccines are much better than the mRNA new kid on the block! At least the Viral vector vaccines are a known process! The mRNA vaccines have zero long term health and side effect data.

No, one thing is that all vaccines in use are much better than not vaccinating, another is to baseless clame one vaccine is "better" just because the technology used on it is older.

mRNA vaccines have been used for many years without any specific problems of the technology, viral vectored vaccines on the other hand had quite some risks to be examined that are not present when using mRNA. It was fortunate that at least the AZ was safe but problems inherent to the proteins of the vector were always a possibility, it also complicates the development of boosters since the immunity against the vector can make any further use much less effective (because the vector is neutralized before even delivering the instructions for the production of the real protein you want to be targeted."

mRNA vaccines HAVE NOT been used for many years! more of your misinformation I see.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/643058-first-mrna-vaccine

Ego Sum Lux MundiToday  11:09 am JST

In Israel, the most-vaccinated country in the world, where the third shot is already being given, 232 of the 242 people who died of Covid in July and August were vaccinated. So pay zero attention to the scare stories, or the ludicrous reports that 90 percent of the people dying of Covid are unvaccinated.

Please provide reliable source for this.

The facts say otherwise.

The majority are unvaccinated

https://www.timesofisrael.com/nearly-200-covid-deaths-reported-in-past-week-but-booster-data-raises-hopes/amp/

Officials say the vast majority of those continuing to suffer serious bouts with COVID are unvaccinated,

"AntiquesavingToday  09:38 am JST

SanjinosebleedToday  07:34 am JST

Viral vector vaccines are much better than the mRNA new kid on the block! At least the Viral vector vaccines are a known process! The mRNA vaccines have zero long term health and side effect data

The reply to this:

virusrexToday  08:41 am JST

No, one thing is that all vaccines in use are much better than not vaccinating, another is to baseless clame one vaccine is "better" just because the technology used on it is older

This can be clearly proven/seen is something as common as the measles vaccine.

The early vaccines based on the older "tried and true" dead virus method used on people just slightly younger than I am ( my sister for example) have shown to have limited long term effect compared to the later newer at the time live virus vaccine.

The result is that those that got the "tried and true" original vaccine are now being told they need to be tested to see if they are still protected and if not get the live virus vaccine. ( As was the case with my sister no protection anymore and got the live virus vaccine now)

As @virusrex says just because something has be around a long time doesn't make it better."

You guys are a real worry. If the viral vector vaccines are worse than the zero long term studied mRNA vaccines the first of which to EVER be approved for use being the pFizer why are there now studys showing only 40% efficacy against delta and rising??? They also now require 3rd shots and most likely one every 6 months(which will make the pfizer accountants happy no doubt) but shows that it is about as useful as not getting vaccinated...

In related news I see the US government is finally giving full recognition to the BioNTech vaccine (‘Pfizer’), perhaps as early as next week.

AZ, created as a non-profit vaccine, can be kept in a normal refrigerator, which is a big plus.

I often read that some people don't want to get vaccinated because the long term effects of the new vaccines are unknown.

If that's the case why conclude that it's unsafe?

What is unequivocally unsafe is the disease, hundreds of thousands have already died and a great many are incapacitated.

Yes, you have freedom of choice regarding the vaccine.

But you don't have that freedom of choice about getting infected:

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/multimedia/2021/08/24/news/dying-name-vaccine-freedom/

you need to understand what this means exactly because it actually absolves the companies making these of any responsibility regarding side effects long term or short term

No, it does not mean that, why would then vaccines be under vigilance? clinical trials let approving officials to evaluate what is actually still possible to observe, anything above this is still completely the responsibility of the company and can have very heavy penalties.

None of these current vaccines have been approved by any governments in the normal way they have approved other vaccines which have all gone through years of human trials.

This is also false, previous vaccines have been fully approved without endless years of trials, just because you ignore something it does not mean it have never happened.

Please do your own research and educate yourselves. Look at the mounting cases of death and severe disabilities from the vaccine none of which are reported on by main stream media which tells you everything you need to know about “free press”.

Not really, it just tell anybody about the terribly low quality of your "research". Misrepresenting things that happen in the same rate on vaccinated and unvaccinated people as if it was something related to the vaccines is just difinformation.

How anyone taking these vaccines can think that there could be no possibility of long term side effects which make take a year or more to show up is simply, in my opinion, is blindly jumping of a cliff with closed eyes hoping for the best.

False argument, nobody has to believe that there is no possibility of long term effects, just understand that this possibility is extremely low when compared with this happening with the infection, specially because COVID is already causing long term and even permanent problems on survivors.

If the death rate for Covid was the same as MERS (30%) and I was seeing it spread wildly within my community and I knew of countless people around me or friends of friends dying like flies, well that risk would probably prompt me to take the calculated risk that getting the vaccine would put the odds back in my favour.

The vaccines still put the odds in your favor when compared with not being vaccinated, not accepting this do not make it less true. Even if this is not true "for you" that only means you are wrong about it, because it can be scientifically proved.

Anybody can say they are not antivaxxers, but using the false information that comes with their propaganda is as bad, because you are not only believing things that are false, you are also propagating this false information that can mislead people that are actually trying to get informed.

https://www.coronaheadsup.com/science/vaccine-breakthrough/uk-vaccine-breakthrough-rate-for-delta-infections-still-increasing/

Some interesting stats here...more people who are fully vaccinated in the UK are dying of covid than the unvaccinated...hmmmm

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210510/Research-suggests-Pfizer-BioNTech-COVID-19-vaccine-reprograms-innate-immune-responses.aspx

or that pFizer can create issues for long term immune response... which lends alot of credibility to carrying out long term data studies before vaccinating low risk cohorts...!!!

Some interesting stats here...more people who are fully vaccinated in the UK are dying of covid than the unvaccinated...hmmmm

Don't know the numbers but if a great majority of a population is vaccinated then at some point it would actually be expected that more of the vaccinated would be infected

You guys are a real worry. If the viral vector vaccines are worse than the zero long term studied mRNA vaccines the first of which to EVER be approved for use being the pFizer why are there now studys showing only 40% efficacy against delta and rising??? They also now require 3rd shots and most likely one every 6 months(which will make the pfizer accountants happy no doubt) but shows that it is about as useful as not getting vaccinated...

Your "argument" do nothing to disprove the fact that vaccines are not worse just by not being virus vectored. In the first place all vaccines are still extremely effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, boosters are not something that is only required for mRNA vaccines either, and older technologies also require them, something that unfortunately is impossible for the viral vectored vaccines, that would require a completely new vector testing for safety from zero for each new inoculation. Specially because the immune reaction by the viral vector proteins complicate things as observed by the clotting problems observed.

Also the "every 6 month" booster is just false, there is nothing indicating this is something that will be necessary to get appropriate protection (nor for both mRNA vaccines)

The numbers of dead and hospitalized patients clearly prove that not getting vaccinated is a much worse option than being protected by any vaccine, including the mRNA ones.

Some interesting stats here...more people who are fully vaccinated in the UK are dying of covid than the unvaccinated...hmmmm

Terribly bad argument because it fails to considerate the populations that are and not vaccinated, which obviously are not the same.

As an example, If before vaccination the people at high risk (that were vaccinated later as a priority) represented 95% of the 1000 weekly deaths, and after vaccination they represent 55% of the weekly 40 deaths they would still be "more" than the unvaccinated patients, but still represent a huge amount of protection. Instead of 950 deaths a week they would now represent only 21.

or that pFizer can create issues for long term immune response... which lends alot of credibility to carrying out long term data studies before vaccinating low risk cohorts...!!!

All vaccines with an intracellular transcription step, (as well as all infections) modify the innate immune response, that is part of the mechanisms responsible for their increased efficacy compared with inactivated recombinant protein vaccines. Nothing in your source indicate this reprogramming do not happen with the COVID infection (which would be extremely surprising because this is normal in infections) nor in the viral vectored vaccines, that also stimulate both th1 and th2 cellular responses.

The problem here is invalidly assuming that something completely expected and that happens with anything that courses with intracellular transcription of foreign proteins only happens with mRNA vaccines or that it would cause negative effects that would remain invisible to strict vigilance even after 8 months of data being available.

Some interesting stats here...more people who are fully vaccinated in the UK are dying of covid than the unvaccinated...hmmmm

strange according to the reports just 2 days ago 75% of those under 50 that died are unvaccinated.

mRNA vaccines HAVE NOT been used for many years! more of your misinformation I see.

https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/643058-first-mrna-vaccine

This Piece of disinformation also requires correction.

The first commercially used mRNA vaccine is not the first time they have been used in humans, just the first time it made enough economic sense to do it.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=mrna+vaccine&sort=date

Hundreds of studies have been done on (cumulatively) thousands of people for a very long time. There are clinical trials from more than 10 years ago https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19609242/

@ADK99 - This IS Japan - before we get too judgmental lets remember how slow the initial rollout was with Pfizer way back when despite the glut of supply. Just an abundance of caution here..as with anything. There are some - one person constantly who back then predicted it would 2028 to get all those who wanted the vaccine inoculated. It has been too slow here but it won't be long before Japan surapsses many countries with a percemtage of population double vaccinated.

You can vaccinate a person with AZ in under a minute. 

got the Pfizer in under a minute, no side effects

also of note as of yesterday Pfizer is now approved by the FDA

The first commercially used mRNA vaccine is not the first time they have been used in humans, just the first time it made enough economic sense to do it.

They would not do this research on targets that did not make "enough economic sense". They were never licensed because they never worked as they hoped. And to be honest, they still don't.

Viral vector vaccines are much better than the mRNA new kid on the block! At least the Viral vector vaccines are a known process! The mRNA vaccines have zero long term health and side effect data.

Yes, they have zero long term safety testing. And one very worrying characteristic of these mRNA vaccines is that unlike other vaccines, much of the injected vaccine quickly leaves the injection site and spreads throughout the body.

I'd say any vaccine is better than nothing.

Because no inoculation might put you in ICU while vaccine's side-effects are acceptable.

Vaccine side-effects can also put you in ICU or worse...

Anyway @Raw Beer: Just to be clear, you can no longer call the Pfizer Vaccine 'Experimental'. Fully approved in the US, no more Emergency Use retort from yourself.

Make sure you now refer to specific vaccines.

You are aware that signing a consent form prior to receiving the vaccine basically provides indemnification for both the government and the pharmaceutical companies, right? 

No it does not, the consent is about the identified and expected problems inevitable for any therapeutic measure, but it does nothing to protect developers against repercussions from things outside of what is expected, falsifying data of the clinical trials, hiding information, producing a vaccine without the necessary quality would be punishable no matter what the vaccinated person signs, in the same way that a surgeon amputating the wrong leg is punished even if the patient signed an informed consent form before the surgery. Lawsuits are NOT the only repercussion a company can have.

These vaccines have all been approved with only months of testing

As previous vaccines have, this is nothing new nor exclusive for COVID vaccines.

You put far, far too much belief in the idea that people are legitimately informed, or that they understand risks or even how medical products work. People don't ask questions. They don't want to know because they don't care.

Some people do, and the answers are already know, just because some people are not interested in an answer do not mean that answer is not known. In this case we do know vaccines are much safer than the infection, the experts know it and can prove it. So the artificial requirement of knowing to a perfect detail the future is still invalid and unnecessary. There is one thing that needs to be known to use the vaccines, and that is that they are safer than COVID, they are.

And in truth no one knows if it's the vaccines that have prevented these cases from winding up in the hospital,

Yes the experts definitely know. One specific case? maybe not, but the whole of them? completely. Anybody that understand even basic epidemiology would understand there is no realistic chance the numbers being seen were just huge coincidences being produced every second all around the world. Vaccinated people do much better than unvaccinated peers, no doubt about it. Your extremely wrong idea that things are either 100% because of something or else they are unrelated makes no logical sense, it is just irrational thinking.

This is the core problem with the general argument. Some claim to support those asking legitimate questions and that it's OK for people to decide they want to wait for more information to be available about delayed-onset problems. But the same individuals then turn around and say it's dangerous to do anything that might discourage people from getting vaccinated. You can't have it both ways.

No, that is also false, it is not dangerous to ask questions nor it discourages people from getting vaccinated, the problem is spreading false answers to those questions which is what the antivaxxers do. Someone actually asking a question is not censured by the experts, but people trying to push disinformation just putting a question mark at the end are, and this is justified and positive. There is no real difficulty on separathing these two things.

They would not do this research on targets that did not make "enough economic sense". They were never licensed because they never worked as they hoped. And to be honest, they still don't

They do, according the the opinion of the scientific community of the world, you may hold your own opinion on very high value but against the scientific consensus it is irrelevant. A safe and effective vaccine that can be used by millions of people to prevent countless deaths is a perfectly fine justification to produce that vaccine and test it, which is why it was done, finding it extremely useful, even if anti-scientific people want to believe the opposite.

Yes, they have zero long term safety testing. And one very worrying characteristic of these mRNA vaccines is that unlike other vaccines, much of the injected vaccine quickly leaves the injection site and spreads throughout the body.

They have much data for much longer time than COVID, and the infection already produce much more frequent and variate long term and permanent problems, long term problems are an argument favoring the vaccines.

And no, you keep repeating the debunked myth that "much" of the vaccine spreads around the body using data from animal experiments inoculated with much higher doses directly to the blood stream, which obviously do not apply to humans. If you are going to misrepresent this so completely it would be the same to do it with all other parts of the trials, and it would be justified to say 100% of the unvaccinated individuals died of COVID.

Vaccine side-effects can also put you in ICU or worse...

A risk that is astronomically lower compared with the infection, which is the whole point.

IngvarToday  07:35 am JST

AZ vaccine felt like it was formatting my brain on the the first dose, but second was ok.

People are still catching covid even with two doses, but it's better than being administered to hospital.

Only around 1% of unvaccinated people get severely ill. And it doesn't change for the number of people vaccinated with Pfizer, Moderna or AZ vaccines.

Unvaccinated are making up the vast majority of those suffering severe illness and death from Covid. It's that simple.

Am I wrong here? Is there some kind of gross misunderstanding?

Yes, you have several. one thing is not correct is that the immune system do not produce the protein, the cells where the mRNA is introduced (connective tissue, muscle, etc) are the ones that temporarily produce it. The immune system only reacts against it. This is completely different from introducing DNA because it can be stopped at the first sign of complications, lets say someone becomes allergic to the spike protein, the first time an allergic reaction appears after a booster that person no longer can receive it.

Now, this is very important. What do you think is the option instead of being vaccinated? assuming the immunity wanes even with boosters and that COVID is going to become endemic and a frequent cause of problems (so boosters remain necessary) not vaccinating would mean that people would get infected repeatedly anyway, and by this exposed to uncontrolled quantities of spike protein produced by the virus during the infection. This is obviously much worse than being vaccinated.

The mistake is assuming an empty need of vaccination (and its very low risks) in the complete absence of infection, which makes no sense. If COVID is controlled and is no longer a health problem then boosters would not be necessary, and if not it would still be a much higher risk than the vaccination.

Another correction is that the spike protein from the vaccines is produced only for a few days because the mRNA is degraded very quickly in the body, with a half life measured in hours. If you think the body constantly produces spike proteins after vaccination that is completely false. During infection the protein is produced as long as the virus is present in the body. which means days to weeks depending on the patient, much more quantity for much longer time.

On the other hand, if the human body is going about the immune protection in a totally different way that has nothing to do with the spike protein, then the question is why aren't researchers trying to create a vaccine based on that solution?

Why aren't scientists working on an imaginary solution you think may be better? mostly because it would be imaginary, and not likely better. Stimulating temporarily the immune system so the body can defend better against the real infection is a proved concept that brings efficient protection without sacrificing safety. What replacement do you think could be possible? modifying the cells DNA to directly produce antibodies? nobody has been able to do it safely even for lethal diseases, so it would be a terribly bad replacement for the current solution.

Now these questions are not something negative, nobody has to know everything and everybody can have misunderstanding, so asking them is not something negative, nor it would discourage people from vaccinating. But imagine if someone asked this, got the answers and then goes to another article and ask again "how come it is considered safe that the vaccine makes the body produce spike protein for all your life?" this is what an antivaxxer would do, keep spreading falsehoods even when fully knowing they are false, just to manipulate other people into having unnecessary doubts about the vaccines.

Wow, I never thought I could have less faith in the FDA....

But, anyway, as some like to point out when it suits them, the FDA is not relevant to Japan.

That is the problem with denying science, makes it extremely easy for people to contradict themselves. Makes an appeal to authority to the FDA as an argument of vaccines not being safe because if they were they would also be fully approved, just to say the contrary once this happens. Circular logic being totally obvious.

Yes, they have zero long term safety testing. And one very worrying characteristic of these mRNA vaccines is that unlike other vaccines, much of the injected vaccine quickly leaves the injection site and spreads throughout the body.

They have much data for much longer time than COVID, and the infection already produce much more frequent and variate long term and permanent problems, long term problems are an argument favoring the vaccines.

What?!!!

We do not know the long term effects of these Covid-19 mRNA vaccines.

It's not just a question of understanding the safety of the mRNA delivery technology. The problem with these mRNA vaccines is that you get spike proteins circulating throughout the body. We already know that in the very short term and medium term, they can have very bad effects.

What?!!!

We do not know the long term effects of these Covid-19 mRNA vaccines.

Which is perfectly fine, we still know the vaccines are much safer than COVID, even without those studies (that are much less available for the infection, since it has been affecting humans for much less time than the mRNA has been used). COVID have caused more long term/permanent problems in less than two years than what has been identified for mRNA in more than 10, this means that these risks are an argument for the vaccines.

The problem with these mRNA vaccines is that you get spike proteins circulating throughout the body.

That would be a much more important problem with the infection, that produces much more of the protein for much longer time.

We already know that in the very short term and medium term, they can have very bad effects.

That is false, you have never produced any evidence for this, just someone saying this "may" be the case, even when the evidence from millions of vaccinations and infections prove otherwise.

And evidence that the protein from the vaccines is more dangerous than the produced from the infection? also completely absent, big round zero.

Osaka doing the right thing in the face of supply issues. Get the vaccines in people's arms.

Meiyouwenti

Hasn’t the AZ vaccine been banned in some European countries for causing serious side effects like blood clots?

I do not think it is been banned, and the blood clots are an issue with all of the mRNA vaccines developed under Trumps "operation warp speed"

Chances are you will be fine and not have an Eric Clapton experience, but the fact is the adverse affects are off the scale compared to traditional vaccines.

Personally, I am holding out for Novavax, which is a traditional vaccine.

The problem with these mRNA vaccines is that you get spike proteins circulating throughout the body.

Even assuming that that is true, wouldn't it be the same when you are infected with the actual virus?

Normally no. For most people, the infection does not make it that far and not at the scale found in the vaccinated people.

Burning BushToday  03:05 pm JST

The supply shortage is a myth.

Wards in Tokyo are well into their vaccination programs and still reporting dismal vaccination figures.

People are shunning the Covid injections en masse.

More anti vaxxers desperation comments.

No proof only conspiracies.

As of now, I would have no problem getting AZ as a booster in conjunction with the two Pfizer shots I've already received.

Some studies have shown that using a different brand vaccine than the original as a booster is more effective than using the same brand.

Those are just preliminary findings. And, more studies need to be done. But, so far, I haven't seen anything that suggests doing that is less effective.

might have side-effects, might get bloodclots..... might might might.... about a million people on planet earth die (not from Covid-related causes) every week, year in, year out..... getting out of bed in the morning is a health hazard....

jiji Xx

might have side-effects, might get bloodclots..... might might might.... about a million people on planet earth die (not from Covid-related causes) every week, year in, year out..... getting out of bed in the morning is a health hazard....

And if there was a vaccine against those non-covid causes, would you not want to take it?

This question of getting the vaccine or not can be answered easily. Well maybe not really easily but more definitely and authoritatively.

Just ask the usual doctor you go to when you get sick and ask if getting the vaccine is good for you or not. If the doctor can't answer that definitively enough, will probably refer you to some other doctor who can.

Why entrust your life to your own intelligence cmon

So now AZ is ok for Japanese then?