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Japan begins COVID-19 vaccinations amid supply worry

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By MARI YAMAGUCHI

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not an high risk group. The people that take the mrna shot are putting themselves at risk.

Unvaccinated people are in a higher risk of problems of death than vaccinated people, even if not in a high risk group, this has been demonstrated scientifically. You not believing it does not make this objective data wrong, it just make you unable to accept scientific realities.

A lot of people fit and healthy died after trusting their immune system instead of taking proper protection measures, being fit do not guarantee you will not have problems.

I'm not taking the mrna shot because some random anonymous guy who comments on every coronavirus article, posing as some kind of expert, response to my comments.

Nobody ever has to do it, people do it because all the experts in the world have the data to prove the vaccines are safe and effective, much more than risking the infection.

Well, at least people that want to be rational and logical instead of thinking their own fixed uninformed opinions somehow are more important than theirs.

That is part of the reasons I have never based anything on my opinion or my "experience" but the professional's. Somehow people that tend to give too much importance to their own opinions tend to think everybody does the same, that is not true.

17 ( +28 / -11 )

The key question for me is how long will the vaccine induced immunity last? 3 months or 3 years? Nobody seems to have a good answer yet.

This is expected, because we don't even know what is the duration of the immunity from the natural infection yet. For now the vaccine seems equivalent to having a heavily symptomatic case of the disease, and judging from the lack of clusters of secondary infections the immunity protects from disease at least for a year.

Judging from immunity to related infections (other highly pathogenic coronaviruses SARS and MERS) it can be expected to proted for many years.

There is no information at the moment that indicates only a few months of protection are to be expected.

It's a mrna shot; gene therapy.

mRNA is not gene therapy, it can be used for that purpose but not in this case.

Everybody will become guinea pigs, in the future it will be necessary to evaluate the effect on the coming strains on people that were not vaccinated, so the appearance of known long-term or permanent side effects of the infection can be compared with people infected in 2020. You are just choosing to be on the high-risk group.

Eat properly, exercise get fresh air and sunlight and good sleep. Your immune system is the best defense for viruses.

Vaccines also act with the immune system, the difference is simply that they activate it in a much more safe manner, this reduce the risk of complications and death, that happens even for people that eat properly, excercise, get fresh light and sunlight and good sleep.

13 ( +23 / -10 )

I am at a loss why people downvote @virusrex, when he makes informed scientific based comments. Those that downvote must only only be influenced by baseless social media propoganda. Dangerous.

13 ( +24 / -11 )

If you really think the vaccine changes you DNA, you should take it as an added benefit...

13 ( +16 / -3 )

A dangerous move. If the side effects include fatalities

Let me stop you there.

13 ( +14 / -1 )

I don't get the logic of vaccinating 3.7 million healthcare workers before moving on to the elderly and vulnerable. Most of those 3.7M healthcare workers aren't going to be having anything to do with Covid patients, whereas the old and vulnerable are much more at risk.

They should vaccinate the healthcare workers in the hospitals that are designated for Covid, and those who are giving the vaccinations, and then start on the most old and vulnerable people. Then they can deal with the other 3M healthcare workers either in parallel or after the most vulnerable.

12 ( +20 / -8 )

Health workers are always the first to get vaccinated.

People who should know exactly what theyre getting and getting into.

Yet many still dont want to get the vaccine.

They choose to give more weight to their fears, or to what they dont know and dont understand,

rather than to what these health professionals represent, by injecting the vaccine into their own bodies.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

If the side effects include fatalities then the medical workforce will be crippled.

No records or proof of death due to the vaccine being new. Only real danger is anaphylactic shock, which is present in any type of vaccine. If you are allergic, don't take the vaccine.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

A dangerous move. If the side effects include fatalities

This is nonsense. You either provide solid reference data or please stop nonsensical statements.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

""Japan fell behind after it asked Pfizer to conduct clinical tests with Japanese people in addition to the company's earlier tests in six other nations. But officials say it was necessary to address the concerns of many Japanese about safety in a country known for low vaccine confidence.""

This goes to the heart of the mistrust Japanese have of foreigners, or some how they think that the DNA structure is somewhat different, sad but it's true.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

What a lot of people means? It means nothing unless you provide statistically relevant data. 

Of course it means something, if the point is that being fit or healthy supposedly means you have no risk from the disease even one single case is enough to prove it false. If there is risk (even if the deaths are uncommon) that would mean the vaccine can reduce those risks.

The question is are they statically relevant among the general population

No, the question would be if they are more relevant than the risks from vaccination, which is the mistaken belief the comment is directed against. Is the vaccine more risky to any population group than the infection? that is the actual thing that would have to be proved statistically to make vaccine refusal something rational.

Moreover, among the people who died from COVID-19 and were aged 0-14 years old, 100% had comorbidities; among the people aged 15-44 years old, 67% had comorbidities; and among the people aged 45-64 years old, 72% had comorbidities.

Even if you only take the group of people of 15-44yo (minors are not a target of vaccination) 33% of the fatal cases were healthy, that is quite a lot and would mean a significant reduction if the population is vaccinated.

You are discussing against a strawman "COVID kills a significant part of healthy young people", the real argument is "COVID can kill even healthy young people, so since the vaccine is less risky than the infection even those people would also get a direct benefit from the immunization".

9 ( +14 / -5 )

I don't get the logic of vaccinating 3.7 million healthcare workers before moving on to the elderly and vulnerable. Most of those 3.7M healthcare workers aren't going to be having anything to do with Covid patients, whereas the old and vulnerable are much more at risk.

They take care of the sick and the infirmed.

That is reason enough to prioritize them.

Not to mention theyare at an increased risk of contracting communicable diseases because of the nature of their work.

Do you really think it's not logical to protect first a cancer doctor, for example, or the nurse or the aide who helps the doctor?

8 ( +8 / -0 )

I hope that is true, but I like I said already before, I didn't expect anything before August - September.

Absolutely, I do not expect it will be available to everyone before the end of summer.

Well, it took time to start, but it is finally happening.

Hoping there won’t be many delays, and that people voluntarily get vaccinated so herd immunity is achieved later this year.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

1st prize to Yuka for the sassiest vaccination pose.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

There have been NO deaths DIRECTLY attributed to the Pfizer Vaccine. Seriously - where do some of you get this rubbish come from.

I've read of anecdotal reports two deaths in the U.S. after receiving the vaccine, but I don't know that the cause of death was fully attributed to the vaccine. Even if true, that is 2 deaths out of 40M people vaccinated in the U.S. to date. Meanwhile, the U.S. is approaching 500K deaths out of 27.7M reported cases....

The math is pretty clear.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

@Raw Beer: Awful source of news - Posting a link form a Website that is devoted to Anti Vaxxer activism will not sway anybody remotely sensible.

Post a link from a neutral website and then I might take you seriously.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

..actually a website that is just anti-anything corporate. Not falling for that.

7 ( +9 / -2 )

and again! Please post a credible source @Raw Beer

7 ( +9 / -2 )

I think people should be offered the choice, to have or not to have the vaccine. But if someone refuses, and then they get ill with covid afterwards, its tough luck i am afraid they should not be intiteled to any medicle care. you cant have it both ways, Here in the UK we're queuing down the street to get the two jabs. I know of around 30 people that have had Covid also at least 10 more people have died, not one says it was a pleasant experience some are complaining of kidney pains and the lack of breath 6-8 months after having it. why do people not see its a major problem and its a killer?

7 ( +9 / -2 )

Raw Beer, why is no-one on the Children's Health Defense board of directors a medical doctor? Why are they mostly some teachers who believe in unproven natural healing nonsense?

7 ( +9 / -2 )

We rarely hear about the vaccine deaths. We only, if at all, hear about those unusual cases such as when a young healthy doctor dies from taking the vaccine.

There is a huge difference between dying after a vaccine and dying from the vaccine, the real reason you don't hear much about them is because vaccines are made with safety as a very important parameter, so it is expected that vaccines do not produce deaths. Prove that one person suddenly dying out of millions being followed is more than what happens in the regular population and you can begin to be suspicious, before that you are just being irrational.

What you don't understand of VAERS is that it is only half of the necessary information, the other half is the incidence of the problems in non-vaccinated people of approximately the same characteristics. After comparing between both groups the importance can be understood, not before.

For example, what if as of Feb 4. there were 700 deaths on the non-vaccinated group? It would mean that the risk of dying is approximately the same no matter if the person is or not vaccinated.

Do you know who reports even less problems than someone that has been recently vaccinated? someone that has not been vaccinated. A person may go to their doctor to say he got a faint headache a couple of days after the vaccine, specially if the doctor instructed this person to do it, a regular person is much more likely not give this brief inconvenience enough importance to report it.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Great. At last.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

There have been NO deaths DIRECTLY attributed to the Pfizer Vaccine. Seriously - where do some of you get this rubbish come from.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/maladies-et-traumatismes/maladies-et-infections-respiratoires/infection-a-coronavirus/documents/bulletin-national/covid-19-point-epidemiologique-du-4-fevrier-2021

If you're trying to say that Covid-19 mortality is low, I'm not sure that a link that says that Covid-19 mortality is still elevated is the silver bullet you think it is.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

people are often reluctant to take vaccines

But have no problem herding their children to get their vaccines on the government's timetable.

I, however, am hesitant when a government bureaucrat is in charge of anything, let alone a health situation.

4 ( +14 / -10 )

My point was not against the vaccine whatsoever, my point was that you come up with doubtful generalization without data backing it up, literally out of thin air.

And I explained why your point is completely invalid. There are a lot of people that are young and fit, you own source prove it. That is the only thing necessary to prove the vaccine refusal based on "no risks" as invalid.

You cannot simply make up a purpose and disqualify an argument based on that imaginary purpose, the intention was completely clear on the comment (as it could be seen if you included the previous sentence from what you cherry picked in your quote). Nothing in your comment does anything to negate that vaccines represent less risk even for young and healthy people than the natural infection.

Look at the data, they still only represented only 1% of the total death in the sampled data. 

And that is still a much higher risk than what is represented by vaccination. I already told you that deaths could be uncommon but still represent a higher risk than being vaccinated. What do you think you accomplish by repeating it? does this in any way make the risk less significant than vaccination? obviously not.

And again, my point is not about the vaccination in general. 

Then why direct it to a comment precisely directed about vaccination? that makes no sense.

My point is that you are trying to argue that since COVID can kill young people (which I did not dispute, I said that although true, this is statistically negligible as demonstrated by the data), one can argue that there is nothing special about that since it is of course observed with many other kind of illness.

Which still does absolutely nothing to refute the whole point I made, because it also applies to many other kind of diseases, I never ever said that COVID was a special case because it kills more young people that other diseases, that is another strawman you pulled out of thin air, my point is that if vaccination is less risky then it is justified, be it for COVID or for any other disease.

Again, you cannot just make up arguments that nobody has used and attribute them to someone to disprove them, either you discuss against something actually being said or clarify you are discussing against something hypothetical that maybe someone somewhere have said (without quoting unrelated arguments).

I am not trying to say anything. I am reporting the data as it is measured in reality. Real data, not vague made up statements.

You mean that someone copied something you wrote for a purpose that you never used it for? How... appropriate.

3 ( +8 / -5 )

Yeah, I guess reporting on the data of the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) would make it an "antivaxxer" site. That must be why other sites never report on CDC's VAERS.

No, trying to mislead people by implying that the data from VAERS means reactions related to the vaccines is what a typical antivaxxer site does, a proper source would say that data from the VAERS is already considered and analyzed by experts proving the safety of the vaccines. Instead of link to the cherry picked and falsified conclusions from a site with a reputation of frequent deceit you could link directly to the data of the CDC, except that this would include the conclusion that vaccines are safe...

3 ( +7 / -4 )

Historically, only about 1% of cases are reported to VAERS. If that is still valid today, then vaccines have a fatality rate of 0.3%.

That is a double mistake.

First the usual, that you still think, even after being corrected, that anything reporte to VAERS means is related to the vaccine, that is still wrong.

Second that you think all kind of reports are the same, which is obviously also wrong, a faint headache or a death are not things that will go unreported in the same way. So assuming deaths are only reported 1% of the time is illogical.

At this point not even one person has been killed by the vaccine, no matter how much you want to misrepresent this. People die with or without a vaccine, and unless you can prove the death rate increases after immunization the only logical thing to conclude is that vaccines are not related.

So can you prove this increase? obviously not.

I am against the ARN vaccin. This is unwise to use it. And we know pacific people have a higher sensitivity to problems with this kind of technology. There is old technology vaccin and she is wiser.

This has no merit, things are not "safer" just because they are older, and no, we do not know of any higher sensitivity to this technology, it is actually the opposite, the immune response is better and less dangerous with the mRNA vaccine than with simple antigen containing immunizations.

If you offer vaccination to people with a plane ticket who have difficulties to find one, you will manage to have a good olympic season.

So your solution for a country that will not be able to vaccinate its own population on time for the games is to magically be able to vaccinate all the people from other countries? and do it on the airport, so they will only have to live there for 6 weeks until the shots are effective? and because of lack of understanding you want people to wait until other vaccines are developed and tested, something that would take at least another year?

That would have the opposite effect, because it would guarantee that the games are impossible to hold this year.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

It will be around June by the time ordinary people have their turn

I hope that is true, but I like I said already before, I didn't expect anything before August - September.

2 ( +9 / -7 )

Over 20% of the nurses at my wife’s hospital declined the vaccines and they had a cluster take over an entire floor last year.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

and by the way, this article photo really worries me, LOL

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Personally, I just want more exact information and data, for instance the contents of what’s in the syringe. It’s not only mRNA and salty distilled water, you know...Also, it takes 6 weeks to get the immunity level propagated, so what happens if I suddenly catch the infection additionally in the meantime? An amplified death torture or nothing at all?

and the billions of dollars at stake should the Games fail

Yes, we come nearer to the truth every day...lol But that’s off-topic, right?

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Half of the recipients of the first shots will keep daily records of their condition for seven weeks;

the vaccine is still not approved for use in Japan.

they are on the last step of the testing: trace on 20,000 people for side effects.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

@Raw Beer: So you don't have a credible link to post then? Just to be clear.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Doesn't really matter who get it first. Personally i do agree that all medical personal should get vaccine first. This way the country medical staff can finally resume their daily work without having to worried that they get sick and infect patients at the hospital that require medical attention. Hay fever season has arrive. I am just glad they decided to start the vaccine procedures already. Let just weather it out. Hope this our country can get back on it's feet before the year end. I am more worried about the new variants that keep popping up everywhere around the world.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

Yeah, just like there is a huge difference between dying from Covid19 and dying with a PCR positive result.

Then why do you keep making the mistake of confusing between both?

COVID deaths are determined by professional doctors, if you have evidence of any significant amount of deaths from COVID being actually only deaths with COVID you can present it. So it can be corrected as I did with your mistaken statement.

Yeah, so says the manufacturers, and they will do everything they can for people to believe that.

One of the easiest things to do is to make them actually safe, which is not as hard as antivaxxers want to mislead people to think. Experts of all over the world coincide in consider the Pfizer vaccine as safe and effective, with clinical trials examined in more detail than any other therapeutic product in history. You don't have to trust the manufacturers, the world professionals have the data to prove it.

Most vaccines don’t work on new strains and even if vaccinated, you can still spread it.

That is false, information until now is that vaccines still work for the new strains, specially because there is no clusters of secondary infections, which means that the immunity for the previous strains (which the vaccines mimic) still protect against the new ones. Also it is much more likely that spreading is reduced, just we don't know how much.

Personally, I just want more exact information and data, for instance the contents of what’s in the syringe. It’s not only mRNA and salty distilled water, you know

All is completely open information, you only have to google it to get it from many different sources.

https://www.hackensackmeridianhealth.org/HealthU/2021/01/11/a-simple-breakdown-of-the-ingredients-in-the-covid-vaccines/

Also, it takes 6 weeks to get the immunity level propagated, so what happens if I suddenly catch the infection additionally in the meantime? An amplified death torture or nothing at all?

False dichotomy, it does not have to be only one of those two possibilities, speaking in general terms the more time it passes between the vaccination and the infection the more protection you get, never a more important problem than if not vaccinated. The 6 weeks are just the cutoff value where the best protection level is reached.

1 ( +6 / -5 )

Sorry the link I provided was wrong. Here rather

https://www.santepubliquefrance.fr/maladies-et-traumatismes/maladies-et-infections-respiratoires/infection-a-coronavirus/documents/bulletin-national/covid-19-point-epidemiologique-du-4-fevrier-2021

0 ( +5 / -5 )

Bob Fosse

1st prize to Yuka for the sassiest vaccination pose.

Tomoka.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

@virusrex

My point was not against the vaccine whatsoever, my point was that you come up with doubtful generalization without data backing it up, literally out of thin air.

> Even if you only take the group of people of 15-44yo (minors are not a target of vaccination) 33% of the fatal cases were healthy, that is quite a lot and would mean a significant reduction if the population is vaccinated.

> "COVID can kill even healthy young people, so since the vaccine is less risky than the infection even those people would also get a direct benefit from the immunization".

Look at the data, they still only represented only 1% of the total death in the sampled data. And again, my point is not about the vaccination in general. My point is that you are trying to argue that since COVID can kill young people (which I did not dispute, I said that although true, this is statistically negligible as demonstrated by the data), one can argue that there is nothing special about that since it is of course observed with many other kind of illness.

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

If you're trying to say that Covid-19 mortality is low, I'm not sure that a link that says that Covid-19 mortality is still elevated is the silver bullet you think it is.

I am not trying to say anything. I am reporting the data as it is measured in reality. Real data, not vague made up statements.

Moreover, the link specially indicates that the excess of mortality during the period of interest was only significant for the people aged 65 years and more, and particularly for people aged 85 years old and more.

-1 ( +6 / -7 )

1st prize to Yuka for the sassiest vaccination pose.

Tomoka.

Says Yuka.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Same people who panic over corona, now panic over the virus.

Same people who think the government is fudging corona data, also believe big pharma is pushing a dangerous vaccine.

I guess some people will always find something to complain about.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Does this mean that doctors and hospitals will actually no longer fear treating people with the sniffles and actually will get a chance to see a doctor without delay when feeling your sick?? I hope so.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

HOW TO SAVE OLYMPIC GAME ?

°

I am against the ARN vaccin. This is unwise to use it. And we know pacific people have a higher sensitivity to problems with this kind of technology. There is old technology vaccin and she is wiser.

Soon, we will have an oral treatment much safer.

Japan need to rassure that the game will be and with no problem.

Normally, you should propose free vaccination to people coming to the game in their homestead, before they are leaving. This is for all those who buy ticket to come to japan during the olympic game. Put vaccination stands in main airports and ambassy. If you offer vaccination to people with a plane ticket who have difficulties to find one, you will manage to have a good olympic season.

The goal is to save the game to avoid economic losses at this point.

°

MMF 

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

The key question for me is how long will the vaccine induced immunity last? 3 months or 3 years? Nobody seems to have a good answer yet.

Many people aren't going to leave their homes, get on a train, wait in line at the clinic, and probably pay something, for just 3 to 6 months of immunity.

-6 ( +12 / -18 )

Historically, only about 1% of cases are reported to VAERS. If that is still valid today, then vaccines have a fatality rate of 0.3%.

Hmmm, just as deadly as Covid19!!!

So I hope they really look closely at how many people are killed by these vaccines.

-6 ( +2 / -8 )

A lot of people fit and healthy died after trusting their immune system instead of taking proper protection measures, being fit do not guarantee you will not have problems.

What a lot of people means? It means nothing unless you provide statistically relevant data. Like any other illness, you can always find exceptions among such a large population of individuals (worldwide). The question is are they statically relevant among the general population. As a side remark, children or young adults across the globe can die from a variety of causes. 15,590 children in the U.S alone are diagnosed each year with cancer. Cancer is the leading cause of death by disease in American children, resulting in the death of approximately 1,800 kids each year.

So returning back to COVID-19, according to the France official governmental data, as of February 2nd, 93% of people infected with COVID-19 and who died from it, were aged more than 65 years old. The median age at death is 85 years old. Moreover, among the people who died from COVID-19 and were aged 0-14 years old, 100% had comorbidities; among the people aged 15-44 years old, 67% had comorbidities; and among the people aged 45-64 years old, 72% had comorbidities. Those are real data, facts, the reality. Not some vague approximation of it that you often do here.

You can find very similar stats across the majority of countries worldwide.

file:///home/seddik/Downloads/COVID19_PE_20210204_v2.pdf

-7 ( +5 / -12 )

I've read of anecdotal reports two deaths in the U.S. after receiving the vaccine, but I don't know that the cause of death was fully attributed to the vaccine. Even if true, that is 2 deaths out of 40M people vaccinated in the U.S. to date. Meanwhile, the U.S. is approaching 500K deaths out of 27.7M reported cases....

The math is pretty clear.

We rarely hear about the vaccine deaths. We only, if at all, hear about those unusual cases such as when a young healthy doctor dies from taking the vaccine. But there are many more deaths following Covid19 vaccination. As of Feb 4, there were 653 Deaths + 12,044 other injuries reported in the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. Furthermore, the VAERS system has been criticized because only a tiny fraction of cases are usually reported, perhaps as low as 1%.

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/vaers-injuries-covid-vaccine-cdc-data/?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=defender&fbclid=IwAR1lGQckIlQUrwbf4wsLIcEqx1sAc2I90QXActGKzwpvptGeghwXRA4cqPk

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

@Raw Beer: Awful source of news - Posting a link form a Website that is devoted to Anti Vaxxer activism will not sway anybody remotely sensible.

Post a link from a neutral website and then I might take you seriously.

Yeah, I guess reporting on the data of the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) would make it an "antivaxxer" site. That must be why other sites never report on CDC's VAERS.

-7 ( +3 / -10 )

There is a huge difference between dying after a vaccine and dying from the vaccine,

Yeah, just like there is a huge difference between dying from Covid19 and dying with a PCR positive result.

the real reason you don't hear much about them is because vaccines are made with safety as a very important parameter, so it is expected that vaccines do not produce deaths.

Yeah, so says the manufacturers, and they will do everything they can for people to believe that. And this includes doing what Pfizer has already been fined billions for doing over the years: falsifying data and bribing officials.

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

Most vaccines don’t work on new strains and even if vaccinated, you can still spread it.

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

If this was a vaccine that took a weaker version of the virus so your immune system gains learned immunity i would consider taking it, but it's not. It's a mrna shot; gene therapy.

No one is worried. Informed people I know won't be taking it. Only the old folks that watch nhk and Japanese main stream media news will be lining up for this one.

I say go ahead, they can be the guinea pigs for us. I'll wait 10 or so year to see the long term effects of the mrna shot.

Eat properly, exercise get fresh air and sunlight and good sleep. Your immune system is the best defense for viruses.

-9 ( +15 / -24 )

A dangerous move. If the side effects include fatalities then the medical workforce will be crippled. Much better to test on old people first. Less important.

-11 ( +4 / -15 )

I not an high risk group. The people that take the mrna shot are putting themselves at risk.

I trust in my immune system, I've been sick before and I have taken vaccines before.

I'm not taking the mrna shot because some random anonymous guy who comments on every coronavirus article, posing as some kind of expert, response to my comments.

-17 ( +11 / -28 )

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