Japan to get first batches of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from U.S.

So Japan approved before the US? Unheard of.

So Japan approved before the US?

I don't think it has been formally approved in Japan yet. (But please correct me if I'm wrong about that.)

Approval expected in May. Does not prevent purchase from abroad or domestic production. Approval for Moderna also expected in May.

Getting vaccines into the country has not really been the problem so much as doing ANYTHING with them once they are here except wait for the refrigeration to go.

I realise securing a steady supply into the country is important, but maybe work out the logistics of actually getting them out of warehouses and into people too?

At the current rate, we won't even be close to 10% by the end of the year. Maybe I should book dinner at a restaurant three years from now to celebrate.

I really hope they can start producing the vaccines domestically ASAP. That will remove all the import/export headaches, and they can have more direct quality control measures.

Good.

Hopefully, ALL JT "Japan vaccine detractors" will be inoculated with Astra.

Happy days.

I don't hurry myself to take a vaccine, though I probably take it when a vaccine ticket came from city hall. I don't mind if I take a vaccine shot next year. There's been no problem so far as long as I take a usual precaution when I go out.

I wish we would get a choice of which vaccine to take. Pfizer is certainly preferable over Astra.

Get on it. Be proactive for once Japan.

I look forward with hope to the US manufacturing enough vaccines to help the rest of the world. After the disastrous last four years, it feels good to see us doing something right for a change.

I very much doubt that I would take the vaccine. I have never had the flu one either.

Research has been done into the vaccines but the timescale prevents us learning if there may be any long term effects. The vaccine is also unlikely to be able to protect against the virus as it mutates.

Not a big fan of vaccines but there seems to be a worldwide blind panic over the virus!

Well, I had the Astra Zeneca shot about 20 minutes ago and am feeling ok ....so far.

Will update if I make it...

Yup, still plan just to go to US and get J&J.

Moderna, too many reported harsh side effects on 2nd dose.

Don't trust AZ at all.

Pfizer fine but Japan will have its thumb up it's arse way too long to wait for it.

most likely the slow roll out has something to do with the under reported adverse reactions to the experimental vaccines.

Research has been done into the vaccines but the timescale prevents us learning if there may be any long term effects. The vaccine is also unlikely to be able to protect against the virus as it mutates.

So just to avoid some undefined risk you prefer to run the perfectly demonstrated risk for short, medium, long and permanent problems that the natural infection has? this is not a rational decision.

most likely the slow roll out has something to do with the under reported adverse reactions to the experimental vaccines.

This is extremely unlikely, being an imaginary problem. The vaccines are not even experimental since the phase III finished.

> most likely the slow roll out has something to do with the under reported adverse reactions to the experimental vaccines.

Maybe those adverse reactions are just ‘hot air’. That seems most likely.

Its better to get something rather than nothing at all. Some people cry over spilled milk.

I find it ironic that the people who scream about America's recent resurgence of "nationalism" sit in silence as the US supplies Japan with COVID vaccines...while the "multilateral/global-minded" European Union clamps down on life-saving exports in order to put "Europeans First"! lol

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Not a big fan of vaccines but there seems to be a worldwide blind panic over the virus!

How many millions of people dead would change this from "panic" to minor virus?

AstraZeneca doses were conditionally bought for use in the US and have been manufactured for months with the expectation they would become approved. Those already manufactured doses have a shelf life. If not used, they become worthless, so AstraZeneca is trying to sell them outside and needs President Biden's approval due to the War Powers surrounding vaccines.

Read somewhere that 30m doses had already been made of the 300m ordered by the US. ~ 4M were given to Canada and Mexico. AstraZeneca said they can create enough doses for 650M people in US plants.

The US is funding the Covax program more than any other country, BTW.

astrazeneca, banned in most european countries for side effects, is now arriving in Japan.

I feel worried for who is gonna get this vaccine....

the only good vaccine is Sputnik V, pfeizer with mRNA is the most dangerous in the long terms, astra in short terms

I won't get any vaccine as I did in the last 30 years.

AZ and JJ are out. I don’t let kill me by idiots. I intend to wait for Pf/BT, Mod, CurV or SpV in these cases.

“What do you have to lose? Take it”

the only good vaccine is Sputnik V

But, Putin!

I mean, maybe the vaccine works. But to believe it works, you'd have to trust that Russia is giving truthful data. To do that, you'd have to trust Putin. The problem is, Putin.

Fact check: completely false.

Primary endpoint for the demonstration of safety and efficaccy is already reached, analyzed and reported. The trials is not recruiting patients, dosing them and its only passively collecting information on cases of infection if they are present. For all practical purpose the study is finished and people being vaccinated are doing it to get the therapeutic value and not for the purpose of collecting scientific information. This is as experimental as the aspirin.

https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2021/astrazeneca-us-vaccine-trial-met-primary-endpoint.html

Trying to understand scientific information is much more difficult when your personal belief system is based on rejecting science.

@cognac: AZ is not 'banned' in most countries. Where is your credible source?

Mod: Please receive these fake, and dangerous comments.

So digging just a little at the hard data means that adverse effects from vaccines are extremely rare. And with COVID, we just don't know if you catch it if you will fully recover, have a life long issue, or be completely healthy.

The COVID vaccines have been tested, albeit on a faster timeline, with the Moderna vaccine having a plus 94% efficacy. Which is far better than cathcing the virus and hoping for the best. 30000 people were tested. That is a nice sample size to actually draw conclusions from. And the serious side effect was at about .6%. Nothing fatal.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2035389

I think the anti vaxx crowd just needs to listen to the science (sound familiar), and understand that this is saving lives.

My second Moderna shot is next week. I'll let you folks on here know how that goes.

astrazeneca, banned in most european countries for side effects, is now arriving in Japan.

Banned in Eu countries for political reasons. EMA says it's as safe

AZ is not 'banned' anywhere. Can we take these unsubstantiated comments down please @Mod. Some of the debate you remove, but let this rubbish remain.

Daily Mirror. Enough said - Sensationalist newspaper who change their tune after the Brazen Headline. Are we really going to use red top rags as reference?