Japan to buy additional 10 million COVID vaccine shots from Pfizer

Good news for the double vaxxed over 60's. Everyone else doesn't need it.

Money spent for vaccines and vaccinations probably just a drop in the ocean compared to cost of hospitalizations so cost could easily be offset by cost of hospitalizations saved.

That's not even taking into consideration impact on the economy

Is this the vaccine designed for omicron or the old junk designed for alpha? Waste of time!

Complete waste of money!

I'm assuming these shots are still based on the original Wuhan strain.....

utter useless!

omicron is far better protection against covid than vaccines. 

Omicron causes covid

So glad I loaded up on Pfizer stock in 2019. Please everyone, go and get your booster shot and another 1 in a few months. Really appreciate it!

We got our Pfizer boosters yesterday. Starting around lunchtime today, a bit of a fever, a headache, aching bones and a disinclination to do anything more strenuous or cerebral than sit in front of the telly.

Way better than being on a ventilator in the ICU.

omicron is far better protection against covid than vaccines.

Didn’t do much to protect the 236 who died today.

The booster shots work, and save lives. There are occasionally unpleasant reactions to the shots, but that is as nothing compared to getting Covid.

Keep up the good work Japan, never mind the whining of those who know nothing.

Well done Japan , glad to be a tax payer here.

we people did not give the authority and our consent to buy any BS vacinne.

In reality this is 100% wrong. The people voted him and the LDP into office so the "people" gave him the authority to do as he sees fit to run the country.

Let me guess, you arent Japanese and you dont have a right to vote here but you still think you have a say in how things should be run?

And all along here I thought foreigners werent allowed into the country during the pandemic, because this comment smells of jet fumes from someone just off the plane.

we people did not give the authority and our consent to buy any BS vacinne.

Kishida has to pay for it!

Virusrex

omicron is far better protection against covid than vaccines. No one is promoting it as a vaccine but it is what it is and it spreads easily even to vaccinated people with a third booster. Millions of people have had it with no symptoms or ideas they have had it. But they all have the protection now.

Why does Africa have no covid problem despite almost everyone being unvaccinated. It is because omicron spread around and is simply the better vaccine

Coronaviruses are notoriously difficult to make vaccines for.

There is a reason a new flu vaccine is produced every year.

There is a reason there is no vaccine for the 'common cold'

Those are both corona viruses. There is no single vaccine for Covid19 and there never will be; it's just the nature of how these viruses mutate.

People are gonna be getting covid19 in twenty years time. It's endemic now.

The natural protection promoted by people who get infected with omicron (because the government is still to give out boosters) turns out far to be far better (undisputed by all medical experts now) and is FREE

That is still false, Omicron increase the neutralizing activity of the immune system against other variants less than a booster of the vaccines, and it comes with much higher risks than the vaccines, so it can't be called better by any standard.

This is merely internet poster speculation and has never actually been proven scientifically.

Do you understand the concept of "a possibility"? to prove it scientifically it is only necessary to describe how it can be possible, and this is a well known position from many scientists and intstitutions of the world.

Can you provide an example of institutions saying it is impossible for any new variant to appear from now? why do you think this is?

Nobody knows for sure whether Omicron or another other variant developed in a vaccinated or unvaccinated person, or a even a bat.

Baseless speculations product from not knowing the topic are not a realistic alternative for what the science says about it, make a list of the countries where the variants of importance have appeared, that makes it obvious that unvaccinated populations are much more likely to originate them. This obviously is impossible to accept for antivaxxer groups, but that does not make it less true.

Exactly - Slots wide open everywhere if you want Moderna for your booster, I assume because of side effects. I'm not bothered and have booked mine. Pfizer is a lot more desirable as slots are full.

The natural protection promoted by people who get infected with omicron (because the government is still to give out boosters) turns out far to be far better (undisputed by all medical experts now) and is FREE

why are they wasting money on a belated vaccine campaign when it will all be over

As long as whole countries remain with poor vaccination new variants that can prolong the pandemic are a real possibility. 

Japan buying 373m shots for boosters this year isn't going to solve that.

Zoroto

Is the amount of vaccines the problem or the inept distribution?

The latter probably plays the biggest part. As for the former, it's the lack of Pfizer vaccines that is an issue, not the amount of vaccines in general.

I would guess that the J-gov loaded up on Takeda/Moderna because of Takeda being a JP company. But, the majority of the public got their first two shots of Pfizer. And, Moderna is said to have more severe side effects than Pfizer. (It certainly did for me.) Plus, let's not forget the quality control issue that affected Moderna vaccines manufactured in Spain that were discovered in Japan.

All of those factors combined has kept demand for Moderna low, and Pfizer high. Thankfully, the gov seems to be responding to public demand, which is a welcome change.

Not sure if the numbers add up for this. I know there's a lot at play in these deals but the amount of people who will have caught omicron by the time these are rolled out surely means that there'll be far less uptake of boosters in the future.

The virus will have gone by then

As long as whole countries remain with poor vaccination new variants that can prolong the pandemic are a real possibility. Omicron has demonstrated an ability to produce reinfections, this may be exacerbated for the possible next variants. Procuring vaccines that can prevent lots of unnecessary deaths is well justified, but even more is to contribute to the vaccination in all countries so the risk of variants is decreased.

Cha ching!