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Monty
Japan is considering making vaccines available for foreigners illegally residing in the country,
Hae?
How is that working if they are illegal residing here?
They go to the vaccination side, get their shot, and then get kicked out of the country?
Or will the government say, thank you for taking the vaccine and now continue to stay illegal?
Or is this a kind of trap, to find illegal foreign residents?
Cricky
They do seem to be prioritising everyone? But not delivering to anyone.
Albert
And again j-gov is having wrong priorities.
It should prioritize the workers, people we have contact jobs such as bars, restaurants. They are the be suffering and losing money.
Tom Doley
Whats the point? After the Olympics, the Tokyo strain will cause a new pandemic and the Japanese will be barred from every country in the world.
Jolyon
The US should refuse entry to Japanese students until American students and all other nations are allowed entry to Japan to study here.
OlympicSupport
It seems that there are alot of people who are "prioritized". This is a good thing! Keep up the great work Japan!
snowymountainhell
As always, @P.Smith 6:57am calling out the obvious truths about Japan:
Agreed:
Mark
I just can't believe how complicated this whole thing has become!
Japan JUST can't do it the simple way.
TriniinJapan
The vaccine role out here in Japan is beyond pathetic. All my friends in the US and London are vaccinated. This is the country with the Olympics and their movements are so archaic. Japan is really a slow country.
Yukijin
Prioritization is code for exclusion.
Exclusion of the masses.
They will be sitting around a bunch of vaccine waiting for the prioritized ones to show up and the end result will be low numbers of doses delivered.
foreignbrotherhoodarmy
They sure are good at prioritizing, not at anything else though. But the prioritizing is good!
Aly Rustom
simply put, exactly. Its an intricate part of being Japanese
divinda
No, university students actually became eligible on June 1st, the same day the gov made everyone in Japan eligible.
It was also the same day Japan's Olympic athletes started getting vaccinated, though there was little fanfare or media coverage about it.
snowymountainhell
It’s call “a roundup” @Monty 6:45am. There will be ore ‘fun times’ anticipated for any ‘voluntary’ participants at Japan’s Immigration Detention Centers:
U.S. law enforcement periodically sends out free “VIP” tickets” for major sporting events to their known, ‘wanted felons’. When they show up for ‘the big, pre-game party’: “Surprise!”, the ‘hosts’ reveal theirselves to the ‘guests’. (Sadly, they miss the game.)
ian
Some posters want the students to instead travel to the US unvaccinated and get vaccinated there.
Brilliant
Yubaru
No they can't. Particularly when there is a system set in place where everyone has to agree before there is any action taken. That system, while it worked for a generation, is far out of date in today's "instant" world!
virusrex
The government is going all in circles without clear direction, as with the Olympic athletes this is not a valid priority, ethically is not justified.
snowymountainhell
Agreed @P. Smith 7:35am Very little innovation. As we’ve all seen over the last year and a half, the J govt watched and waited for the rest of the world to take the initiative.
However, the Jgov’t, at that time, were very effective in copying the style of of their German counterparts in regards to population control, converting the disenfranchised into an effective labor force and the industrialization of formerly beautiful and peaceful towns. Eisenaach comes to mind. )
Perhaps we should all be wary of any “prioritizing” by the government?
theFu
Gotta agree. Students can get vaccinated on-demand in China or the US. Chinese aren't exactly waiting in line to get their home-grown vaccine. In the US, show up 2 weeks before classes, perhaps stay with a roommate's family, hit the local grocery store or pharmacy, get the J&J shot and be considered "fully vaccinated" 2 weeks later.
Some states might require local residency for the free cost. Not all do.
https://www.traveloffpath.com/these-u-s-states-will-vaccinate-all-foreign-travelers-for-covid-19/ has a list - about 15 states allow anyone, provided the purpose of the trip is not primarily to get vaccinated. Have hotels, attractions, school schedule/plans and that should be fine. This assumes the University isn't already setup to address pre-travel vaccination.
The risks for any complications from COVID for people under 30 is greatly reduced. They can get sick, but recover. After recovering, getting vaccinated is recommended, after some waiting period, which I don't recall now.
Michael Machida
I guess they want to give us all something to talk about without any action on their behalf.
Ai Wonder
How nice. They can bring new variants back to Japan with them.
ian
It is being presented as a better option, actually making the vaccination from point of departure wholly unnecessary, according to you if recall correctly.
You think unvaccinated travellers going to your country and having their vaccinations there is better than them being vaccinated from point of departure, up to you.
shogun36
Yeah.......how about we work on actually getting the tax paying workers vaxxed first, THEN maybe consider the rich kids going off to study in foreign lands.
ian
That segment of population is going to different countries.
Even assuming that all schools in all those countries give vaccinations to in coming foreign students, I think you should reconsider the importance of prioritizing and vaccinating them here.
If not all schools offer it...
ian
Anyway glad to know you're not afraid of travellers bringing the "Olympic virus" to your country.
Most posters here are deathly afraid of it even if their delegation are already vaccinated
pepelepew
Vaccinated Japanese students can go study abroad but vaccinated foreign students are not allowed to come to Japan?
This move is just a false sense of security, just like the daily testing for all foreign Olympic athletes but no testing at all for the 70,000 Olympic volunteers who will also have to commute to work using public transportation.
ian
And I think even without the pressure the staging of the Olympics amidst the pandemic is bringing to the govt, it's prudent for the govt to prioritize minimizing the risk the country brings to the world.
Aly Rustom
BEST post so far on this thread!
egads man!
All this prioritizing for certain groups makes it so no one gets priority anymore. First it's the over 65, which makes sense. Then its Olympic athletes who get priority...followed by students who also get priority. Okie dokie Japan.
Doc
There is that magic word again. The one that the Japanese government loves to use.
PRIORITIZE.
What does that mean in Japan? And where can we see evidence that the government understands what it means?
In the meantime, I think it's best I "prioritize" my retirement plans.
didou
I'll also be a priority,
when being part of the last ones to get the vaccine, at the end of the vaccination program.
Antiquesaving
I may sound like I don't care about these students and that they could lose their tuition fees or even their university chance overseas.
But yeah at this point I don't.
58,000, isn't a priority.
In normal times tens (10s) of millions use the public rail (JR, Metro, etc..) ( 40 million rides but that is not individuals but number of rides so I guess 15 to 20 million individual people) every day in Tokyo even if that number is down due to some portion working from home, we still have tens of millions daily passengers a large part older and more at risk.
These should be a bigger priority
Some dude
No they can't. Particularly when there is a system set in place where everyone has to agree before there is any action taken. That system, while it worked for a generation, is far out of date in today's "instant" world!
”We are sorry for the delay. The vice-vice-sub-vice section chief’s sub-vice assistant is on holiday, and without his approval and his hanko we are unable to move forward. Please be gaman”.
falseflagsteve
Very caring and understanding, the young are our future.
mstaana64
Can I be prioritized because I am mandatorily paying my monthly health insurance?? It is time to put it into good use.
spinningplates
Is it just me, or is just about everyone a ‘priority’ now except anyone who works in service industries, education, transport and basically any job that requires people to work with large groups??
blue in green
Any university that requires a student to inject an experimental vaccine as a prerequisite for admission, is breaking the Nuremberg Code.
J-gov is now promoting this, by putting prospective students, to the front of the "vaccine" queue.
The coercion here is unbelievable, dangling admittance to a place of higher education,
for compliance...
https://sorendreier.com/1000-lawyers-and-10000-doctors-have-filed-a-lawsuit-for-violations-of-the-nuremberg-code/
virusrex
That is false, first because the Nuremberg code applies for war and prisioners of war situations, the real ethic basis for informed consent are other, and second because people are not getting vaccinated to obtain data for an experiment, the vaccines are being used for their therapeutically value.
And I am sorry but your reference makes absolutely no sense. Saying that a test is "100% innacurate" would also means it is 100% accurate, because it would report always the opposite of the real situation, which means it could be used without fail to detect positive and negative cases (just by reversing the results)
Try to increase the quality of the sites you use to get information, anything using the Nuremberg code for arguments against COVID can be said to be mistaken even without reading anything else.
wtfjapan
Very caring and understanding, the young are our future.
yet students in many other 1st world courtiers have a much high uptake of vaccinations compared to Japan, US , UK you can get vaccinated easily and months ago.
and what about the elderly in Japan, theyre the ones that built Japan into the country it is today which the young now benefit from.
seems a little hollow that statement
Doc
The subject of Nuremberg Code (or Declaration of Helsinki) is not exactly applicable to prisoners or war only. "The judgment by the war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg laid down 10 standards to which physicians must conform when carrying out experiments on human subjects in a new code that is now accepted worldwide.
As most often the case, the legal implications against any act (including adminidtration of medicine) is really hinged around intention.
You can read about the code here:
https://www.marshall.edu/ori/nuremberg-code-directives-for-human-experimentation/
“The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, overreaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision.”
Whenever these things kind of codes are referenced in medical emergencies you have to examine and prove the intentions behind the provider. And the informed choice of the receiver.
As far as I am concerned, you need to prove the former in a court of law. And the latter is really difficult to ascertain at any given time because people process information differently.
This whole discussion is about what government prioritizes for it's citizens. As of now, it's trying to manage an approved medical treatment, not trying to get around a war crime. From what I see, I don't think the national government in Japan is capable of doing either.
My observation only.
justasking
It's fascinating how Japan can make such arbitrary rules. This has the footprint of a dinosaur.
Antiquesaving
@Doc and anyone else that tries bringing up "Nuremberg Code (or Declaration of Helsinki)"
Please stop.
It has no application in any of this for the simple reason anyone can say "NO".
There is no "right" to enter another country and if the people chose to not get the vaccine then they have that right and the other country, University can refuse entry or attendance in the same way if the don't pay tuition fees or meet other requirements.
No one is being forced locally unless their specific job may require it but even then medical personnel that chose to not get vaccinated were give the choice not to.
No one is forcing any student it is their choice Vaccine or no Vaccine and that may mean remaining in Japan and going to a Japanese university.
If going overseas to get an education was some sort of right then why did I have to provide proof of financial capability for living expenses and proof of tuition being paid and a legal background check when I'd did it years back.
People try remaining in reality and facts and not go off on tangents that don't apply in this or pretty much anything to do with the subject.
Doc
I was only responding to a discussion point. I also concur that it’s all out context.
I eat, drink, and ingest things that I am mostly clueless about anyway. But I enjoy them, remain healthy, and carry on. Happy all the way.
That’s my priority. Shhhh , don’t tell the Japanese government and any up and coming War Crime investigators. Ha ha ....
virusrex
But is it directed to this situation, while much more relevant documents are readily available to have a proper and valid discussion about vaccination, like the Helsinki Declaration or the International Code of Medical Ethics.
More importantly the code refers explicitly to informed consent on human experimentation, which obviously do not apply for the COVID-19 vaccines, that are being used therapeutically, people are not being enrolled in a study by receiving the immunization, they are being treated to prevent the problems from the infection, that obviously still means informed consent is necessary, but not for human experimentation (for which the Helsinki declaration would be much more pertinent) but for treatment (for which the ICME would be the actual basis).
Goodlucktoyou
I’m with that.
FACT: the very profitable vaccines are being forced on humans. They are “experimental”. Fact.
virusrex
That is false, nobody has to be vaccinated and can simply choose to keep the alternative to prevent spreading, which in this case is the social distancing measures.
The vaccines are not experimental, and nobody is being included in any experiment, since every human trial has to be registered that would mean if this were the case you could simply link to the clinical trial code that shows the vaccines recruiting millions of subjects for the experimentation. If you cannot do this that can only mean the people are not being experimented on, they are being treated, even if you mistakenly believe the contrary.
Commodore Perry
@P. Smith
Not true, because many states in the US still require incoming foreigners to quarantine for 14 days, and colleges and universities only allow fully vaccinated students on its campus and to use its facilities, such as the housing you describe, making it impossible for non-vaccinated foreign students to stay in international housing facilities.
virusrex
"very profitable" for a vaccine is still a tiny fraction of the profits made by patients that require even short hospitalizations, not developing a vaccine is the most profitable option for any company that makes drugs.
Also, emergency authorization still requires proof of safety and efficacy that was provided by the developers without problems, greatly surpassing the minimum requirements to make the vaccines a valuable therapeutic option. Being under emergency authorization do not make the immunized people participants on any trial.
as_the_crow_flies
And what seems to have been lost in the noise is that an huge entire vulnerable group has been deprioritised: those with pre-existing conditions (under 65). This is millions of people, including people with cancer, diabetes, chronic cardiovascular, lung, liver disease, kidney failure, anyone on immunosuppressants, people with autoimmune diseases, as well as many people with developmental disorders that makes it harder for them to protect themselves. At first, the government talked about the vulnerable being third in line after health workers and the over-65s, but over the weeks they were gradually dropped from the conversation.
Seeing Olympic athletes, study abroad students being bumped up the line means that people at extremely high risk will be left vulnerable for even longer. They are not a clear, visible group, unlike the elderly, who also happen to vote massively for the LDP.
It does feel like the government would be happy to let Covid run its course through this group, causing an accidental cull through neglect. Eugenics in action.
Doc
Wow, so many facts. How are these kids ever going to get an education abroad with so many confused adults?
As far as I am concerned the prime source of who defines safe, approved, experimental, or whatever classification is the government heath regulation body. There is a category that's a mix of definition.
If you're American, you can always check what the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues. On December 11, 2020, the FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‑19 Vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19.
The use of Vaccines like the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‑19 fully authorized and are approved. That’s a fact.
However, their use is authorized by the FDA under an EUA emergency use. And in this case, these vaccines are categorized as an Investigational Vaccines. The FDA defines states that an Investigational drug can also be called an Experimental drug and is being studied to see if your disease or medical condition improves while taking it.
https://www.fda.gov/patients/learn-about-expanded-access-and-other-treatment-options/understanding-investigational-drugs
You can read the approval description here from the FDA dated last month.
https://www.fda.gov/media/144412/download
"Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‑19 Vaccine is for use for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in individuals 12 years of age and older. The vaccine contains a nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (modRNA) encoding the viral spike (S) glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2 formulated in lipid particles. It is an Investigational vaccine not licensed for any indication."
G. Pfizer Inc. must submit to Investigational New Drug application (IND) number 19736 periodic safety reports at monthly intervals in accordance with a due date agreed upon with the Office of Biostatistics and Epidemiology (OBE)/CBER beginning after the first full calendar month after authorization."
The FDA themselves refer to IND as an experimental drug.
https://www.fda.gov/drugs/types-applications/investigational-new-drug-ind-application#Emergency
"Emergency Use of an IND vaccine allows the FDA to authorize use of an experimental drug in an emergency situation that does not allow time for submission of an IND in accordance with 21CFR , Sec. 312.23 or Sec. 312.20. It is also used for patients who do not meet the criteria of an existing study protocol, or if an approved study protocol does not exist."
So, these vaccines are essentially approved, fully authorized, and so far tested safe investigational/experimental drugs according to the FDA.
Those are the facts.
garypen
I think it's of utmost importance that they prioritize whatever group I happen to be in.
100% of the people who are writing this agree.
Pukey2
In other words, back to square one.
As far as I understand, Japanese tourists and Japanese with absolutely no links to the UK are allowed into the UK (with the usual quarantine and tests), whereas no Brits are allowed into Japan unless they are resident there. On top of that, unrelated to the pandemic, any Japanese can join the line for Brits at Heathrow, by-passing any checks by officials and fingerprint checks, whereas Brits who have PR in Japan have to go through the whole shebang, face checks, fingerprints, questions, separate slower lines (the automated gates offer little advantage). Reciprocity please.
FtGuy2017
@Doc, thanks for pushing Factual and detailed information to this board.
@Goodlucktoyou, guess you could even name it from now and until it get FDA IND approved, "Experimental / Investigational vaccine not licensed for any indication."
HBJ
This is exactly why the J government is doing it - they don’t want the embarrassing news stories when all the Japanese students get their shots overseas.
If only there were other ways to shame them into getting a shift on vaccinating the rest of the population.
Aly Rustom
ABSOLUTELY!! NICE ONE!!
Antiquesaving
If people knew just how many drugs/medications/treatments each year were used regularly but classified as experimental, limited use, trial, conditional, etc... It would blow your minds.
My friend came to Japan several years back to get treated for colon cancer because the last resort drug was not available in my country or the USA and didn't become available until many years later.
He survived and is cancer free today do to a totally new drug and method that the medical community in my country and the USA viewed as far to experimental but used in Japan.
Now it seems after years of doubt most western countries including my country and the USA have changed their minds and accepted what was once thought to be far to experimental.
The research has been done for a long time the background on these types of Vaccines had been read and done based on covid 1 over a decade ago and only now with a New Corona type virus was it out to use.
Stop the fear mongering!
virusrex
You understand that this is not at all a contradiction of the text your are quoting, right? People still applied for the universities even if they were not accepted or received a visa. This is like saying the US gas shortages of previous weeks prove that Americans have reduced their gasoline needs.
Luddite
They haven’t vaccinated the old and vulnerable yet, now they prioritising students who are leaving the country. Bizarre.
hmmm1
By the way it is going, I am looking forward to get my jab in 2025.
Raw Beer
@ Doc
Excellent posts. You made it very clear that these are investigational vaccines; however I avoid saying that these vaccines are FDA approved, as this implies that they have a level of safety that is not warranted.
On the FDA's own homepage under Emergency Use Authorization, they state:
"Under section 564 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act), when the Secretary of HHS declares that an emergency use authorization is appropriate, FDA may authorize unapproved medical products or unapproved uses of approved medical products to be used in an emergency to diagnose, treat, or prevent serious or life-threatening diseases or conditions caused by CBRN threat agents when certain criteria are met, including there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives."
I believe the distiction between "FDA Approved" and "Emergency Use Authorization" is important.
kyushubill
Olympic athletes, priority.
Exchange students, priority.
Elderly, semi-priority.
Everyone else, "Sorry your call has been disconnected. Please check the number or redial, this message is recorded and will disconnect."
Doc
Hi Raw Beer.
As I conclude: "...these vaccines are essentially approved, fully authorized, and so far tested safe Investigational / Experimental drugs according to the FDA." I believe I explained the why.
I would like to comment on the classification of "Experimental" though. There seems to be an automatic association with extreme risk or hazard with the term "Investigational / Experimental". But in my opinion there is also the other side of the coin. They could be the introduction of a revolutionary and technological leap as well. Leave alone being an immediate fix to the current crisis.
I really don't know. But these vaccines could very well represent 5 steps forward, 1 step backward. You know, if we obsessed about heights, we would never get into airplanes (even though they crash on rare occasions).
Another distinction that needs to be addressed is about the source of this virus: Was it man-made or natural. Does it matter? It is actually irrelevant to the crisis at hand. If there was criminal activity behind the origin, that will have to be addressed by legal types. It does not take away from the fact that people's health is at risk now. In fact, one may even conclude the situation even more dire as result.
I try and keep a top of it all. But it's pretty messy. Like the fog of war. The one easy thing to spot though is when the Emperors have no clothes. That's a one benefit of this crisis. Really shows up where the useless ones are placed.
James Patrick R. Susano
now you suddenly wants to vaccine different kind of age group?
i thought you gonna make up your own vaccine? no time for olympics ? gomenasai?
ian
Thanks @Doc for trying to help allay the confusion
Need more of you here.
ian
Seems a few tens of thousands of students placed on same level (at best) of priority as people with underlying conditions made some feel the people with underlying conditions were disenfranchised.
I for one don't think so.
At around 500,000 jabs per day capacity and growing, this would hardly affect the speed of inoculations for the people with underlying conditions.
And most probably, the inoculation centers the two groups would be using will be different anyway.
The students will probably be using the universities while the people with underlying conditions will probably be not using the universities
ian
@P Smith
Sorry for running again in the middle of a discussion, and for the unfortunate jab, twas not intended for you
Commodore Perry
DocJune 4 02:39 pm JST
Ahh, thanks, for the facts, I think.
as_the_crow_flies
How do you know? In my own case, I have had my first jab. But I look around and see something very wrong with what the government is doing, even though I'm all right.
Seems like some people find that notion hard to understand. A philosophy of individual selfishness has been fetished over the last 30 years or so, and some people use that as a cloak to justify their own selfish thinking.