Japan's COVID-19 vaccination rollout picks up steam

You actually think that clinical trials not looking for adverse reactions helps your case?!!!

Again, not looking for every single possible thing that may go wrong until the end of time is, because that is just an antivaxxer fantasy that is impossible to do for anything in the world, vaccines are not an exception.

Negative side effects in a segment of the population are expected and precisely why it having previous allergic reactions is a valid medical exception (as many others) more importantly these reactions are not even a significant portion of the risk a person non vaccinated is exposed. So even with them the vaccines are safer than not vaccinating.

Only trace amounts of viral products have been detected in some infected patients, nowhere close to the 1 gram you claimed.

So you think they took all the viral products from the whole body during the complete period of infection and they found "trace amounts"? I would like to see that reference to see how badly you are misunderstanding it. and how you are calculating the total amount. It is not like you just assumed they took it all in a sample, right? Infected cells keep producing viruses, and accumulating spike protein during the whole time the infection is active. And the protein goes to the blood torrent and is spread around all the body without problem.

The body is designed to handle the virus at the normal point of entry. However, regardless of how healthy one is, the vaccine will bypass this natural barrier and most likely immediately spread throughout the body.

And that is a mistake, since the virus multiplies constantly and can reach every tissue of the body that means it is simply a matter of a few replication cycles to produce more and more of this "super toxic" protein than even the full dose of vaccine (that do not replicate) can ever produce. Your understanding of the mechanisms of infection are insufficient, else why would some patients have replicating viruses in the brain causing death of neurons and other cells? Even for them the virus entered in the "natural" way.

Again, the infection produces much more spike protein, if you think is toxic (even if asymptomatic patients also have more of it than what can be produced by the vaccine) then vaccinating is the best way to expose people to the least possible amount.

Because the argument that "clinical trials are made to find out all and every single problem that can happen" is false,

You actually think that clinical trials not looking for adverse reactions helps your case?!!!

When the vaccination rollout started, they were surprised that many were reacting to the PEG or who knows what else was in the vaccine. If they really did 100's of clinical trials, they should have expected this.

Who knows what other surprises people will get...

You continue to use misleading words when you are referring to the "microscopic fraction" when referring to the vaccine and "endless accumulation of spike protein" for the natural infection. Only trace amounts of viral products have been detected in some infected patients, nowhere close to the 1 gram you claimed.

The body is designed to handle the virus at the normal point of entry. However, regardless of how healthy one is, the vaccine will bypass this natural barrier and most likely immediately spread throughout the body.

Oh, so there must be a number of products using this technology on the market. Are there?

Not being able to surpass existing products, or being tried against well known difficulty to treat diseases has absolutely no effect in their safety, even if that makes it so they are not effective enough. For COVID on the other hand there was no previous vaccine to replace, nor coronavirus are particularly difficult to neutralize with vaccines according to the many studies done since the first SARS problem. As a result a very safe approach is perfectly adequate to tackle the problem.

The spike protein being expressed by these Covid19 vaccines are very toxic and find their way throughout the body (brain, spleen, liver, ovaries...). The mRNAs you say were used in 100's of trials were not for spike proteins.

So what? the vaccines mRNA is non replicative, so the very small amount introduced is a microscopic fraction of what is actually produced in an infection, and that includes asymptomatic cases.

You do know that viral replication (and endless accumulation of spike protein) have been found in almost every organ examined for infected people right? If the spike protein worries you so much that would make the vaccine much more necessary, because a thousand, a millionth of the protein is protective and can even prevent infection (and so the body less exposed to this supposedly super-toxic protein, that produces no symptoms in many people).

Why didn't they know that from the "hundreds of clinical trials without evidence of any negative effect specific for the technology"?

Because the argument that "clinical trials are made to find out all and every single problem that can happen" is false, a strawman made by antivaxxers to put an impossible standard not real for any kind of drug ever.

The real purpose of the clinical trials is to confirm if the vaccine is safer than the infection, and that purpose was fulfilled without problem for all the vaccines that are used in the general population. This has not changed at all. Being vaccinated still means having less risk of complications and death than remaining exposed to the infection. Proved scientifically,

the mRNA technology has years of advantage in this aspect, being used for long time in hundreds of clinical trials without evidence of any negative effect specific for the technology.

Oh, so there must be a number of products using this technology on the market. Are there?

The spike protein being expressed by these Covid19 vaccines are very toxic and find their way throughout the body (brain, spleen, liver, ovaries...). The mRNAs you say were used in 100's of trials were not for spike proteins.

And strange that when they started vaccinating people, they seemed surprised that many people had negative reactions to the PEG. Why didn't they know that from the "hundreds of clinical trials without evidence of any negative effect specific for the technology"?

Fact: the mRNA vaccines are used under "Emergency Use Authorization" and do not have full FDA approval.

So what? this does absolutely nothing to refute the evidence if excellent safety and efficacy, both from the clinical trials and the data from millions of people inoculated already.

Fact: the long-term effects of a new medication that has been developed with the last year are by definition unknown.

And how many decades do you imagine SARS-CoV-2 has been infecting people? the mRNA technology has years of advantage in this aspect, being used for long time in hundreds of clinical trials without evidence of any negative effect specific for the technology. COVID-19 on the other hand has a much higher risk of producing more problems in the future, not only because it already has produced long term and even permanent health problems, but because it is a viral infection, which are well known to increase many kinds of risks on people, some identified a long time after the people were exposed.

Japan's COVID-19 vaccination rollout picks up steam

Well, I guess it is true to say that there is a lot of hot air about the vaccination rollout.

Fact: the mRNA vaccines are used under "Emergency Use Authorization" and do not have full FDA approval.

Fact: the long-term effects of a new medication that has been developed with the last year are by definition unknown.

Most vaccination centres are not even partly full, they are mostly empty. Yes, there have been a few exceptions, but they do not prove the rule. Empty centers and waiting for people of a given age to come in. It was just scheduled for a certain date and done. As you can see from the many photos with excess staff, the premises are staffed as well, so there is no reason to wait for someone to come or not come at all. Just send out invitations, phone numbers, the person makes an appointment and either the date will be free or not. And by making an appointment, they're also showing interest.

I saw one place on TV where the doctors, instead of sitting in a small room and waiting for the patients to come in one at a time, were using rolling chairs and giving the shots in the waiting area. Two nurses in front were taking vitals and sterilizing, the doctor gave the shot, and two nurses behind did the clean up. Then they all just scooted on down the line to the next person. Got the whole day's work done before lunch. 

Great for them, but it seems they should have started a second shift after lunch and gotten twice as much work done. As far as I'm concerned, public hospitals should be giving shots all day, every day, but even the ones where I live only have limited hours. Tax yen (not) at work at all levels of government.

Slow slow inept inept

My expectations about Kyodo articles are very low, but this one is at least informing us, somewhat indirectly, that next in line after the over 65s will be decided at local government level. Some authorities are choosing workers seen as being at risk, others people who are 60-64, and so on.

A different article I commented on the other day seemed to suggest that fundamentally all under 65s are the same and that no age bands would be used. However it's going to be done, I believe this simple issue of "who next?" is something the public should be told about.

I commented a few days ago, Japanese Government and the media outlets supporting them will start flooding media with non-news to make it look like everything is awesome.

Japan's COVID-19 vaccination rollout picks up steam

No facts, no data but a sensational headline.

Thank goodness the Olympics are going ahead or they'd still be needlessly tinkering with the vaccines' approval.

There's a difference between "developed"vs "Industrialised"

Having a lot of factories does not equate to being developed.And this is where Japan belongs.

The sad thing to me is how the central (national) government is trying to take credit for the small successes that have happened so far. The central gov't basically threw the vaccines at the local and municipal gov'ts and said, "Here, you do it." A lot of the local gov'ts have been very creative and efficient in carrying out the vaccination - their work, not the LDP or the Diet or the national bureaucracy.

I saw one place on TV where the doctors, instead of sitting in a small room and waiting for the patients to come in one at a time, were using rolling chairs and giving the shots in the waiting area. Two nurses in front were taking vitals and sterilizing, the doctor gave the shot, and two nurses behind did the clean up. Then they all just scooted on down the line to the next person. Got the whole day's work done before lunch. Another place was setting up a service for folks who can't drive. Small things, but getting the job done.

Unfortunately, Suga and the rest will claim the success was due to their "leadership" and some people will actually believe it.

Don't pat yourselves on the back just yet. Last week, there was an average of just 700 000 per day, which means it will be at least next March/April by the time all adults are fully vaccinated at this pace.

I'd like to see what percentage of doses available have been administered. That is a much better metric of efficiency. I'd be surprised if it's even as high as 25%, which is a pathetic failure, considering thousands of people have died since the vaccine became available.

Only reason the vaccination rate is picking up is that the rest of the developed world are moving on and Corona will no longer be a big thing in a few months.

Meanwhile, here in Japan, with the Olympics coming up, had Japan still been behind, they would be the laughing stock of the world. It's all about reputation. This is connected to the "success" of the Olympics, which is the ONLY thing that matters.

Meanwhile, some municipalities have decided to prioritize residents based on their occupation.

It would have been better also to include people at special risk from the infection at all ages, some people run a very real danger of death if they get infected and have to take extraordinary measures to avoid it, protection from a vaccine would bring very necessary peace of mind and a return to a more normal life for these people.

on June 21

Why not on June 10? Start already!

This story must be fake news, we've had posters on this site saying it will take until 2022 or 2023 to get everyone vaccinated at the rate they were going. And we all know then, and still, that it is literally impossible for Japan to improve their rates of vaccination, so who is lying with this article? Can any of the people who said it would take a year or two or three please tell me who is lying to get this article written?

What happened to “before the opening ceremony in July”  ?

What happened to “by the closing ceremonies in August” ?

What happened to Suga’s meeting abroad promising “by September” ?

The current ‘media blitz’ doesn’t make up for Japanese government’s overall ineptitude. Covering ‘all the bases’ because ‘the world is watching’. - (Not one, but two articles Today? One in “National” and one in “Poilitics”).

We don't need a steam train. We need the space shuttle.

It’s as if the theyre trying to make a deadline for something...

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, facing criticism for the slow vaccine rollout compared with other developed countries, 

yes, but he's not only facing criticism for the slow vaccine rollout.

It's the vaccine slow rollout coupled with the Olympics steam-roller