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© Thomson Reuters 2021.Vaccine chief Kono blames drug approval system for slow inoculation drive
By Rocky Swift TOKYO©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.
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Alan Harrison
Vaccine chief Kono blames drug approval system for slow inoculation drive
Well, I guess that just sums up Japan. A bureaucrat, dysfunctional, country.
Michael Machida
I think that may be one of the reasons but in my mind, there are many more reasons.
Asiaman7
Latest excuse: Japan’s drug approval system forced the government to administer only 15% of its stockpile of 28 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccines, while the remainder sat in freezers.
Really???
Mark
It's time for Mr. Kono to step aside and let those who can handle this task finish it.
GdTokyo
Who controls the regulatory agency? Oh, that would be you.
How long did you have to change the rules and get ready? More than a year? It would seem that a government could accomplish a lot mor in that time......
So who’s fault is it really? Yep, yours.
Japanoob
And who is to blame for the lack of logistics in place for distribution?
Playing the blame game already. Someone is playing cya.
Mark
Q? for Mr. Kono, Sir how do you explain the 10,000,000 or so doses that were trashed?
Hubert Gulletchip
@Mark
In Japan? There is nobody! The whole government is a big joke. There is not one competent person in elected office.
While most of the rest of the first world are enjoying themselves again finally, Japan still sits on its laurels and wonders "doushiyou?"
quercetum
Japan’s all hands on deck is like an elderly game of pétanque or croquet at a park.
Mark_McCracken
Meanwhile, Kobe will dump 960 coronavirus vaccine doses after a storage temperature error, and in Ikoma, Nara, a hospital mistakenly gave a saline solution shot instead of COVID-19 vaccine.
The vaccine roll out itself is a logistical embarrassment, which has nothing to do with the approval process.
snowymountainhell
Japan: ‘horse & buggy’ pace when ‘warp speed’ was available elsewhere.
obladi
The approval system does have problems. And JT should probably write an article on that. But these problems were well known in advance, and can not be used no to excuse the fumbling by Japan's so-called leadership.
snowymountainhell
Of course, Kono used the opportunity to make a claim for his future political aspirations:
dan
This sums up Japan really!
No one takes responsibilty for anything or is willing to take responsibilty for anything.
A small bunch of incompetent and dysfunctional people have the power.
This is an idiocracy!
A pathetic joke of a government.
This situation is observed in most Japan companies too with a minority of executives making decisions not based on sound logic and reason and blatantly upsetting their staff at the same time.
GrungeHamster
Well you are correct Kono on that. If only Japan had a year or so to get everything in place.
Oh wait, it did and you squandered it.
ChiaPet
I thought Japan has millions of shots in storage..shots that were already approved...This is no excuse, this is just shifting the blame...AGAIN.
happyhere
What a ridiculous excuse from a pathetic man. Japan approved Pfizer on February 14, exactly 3 months ago. And we have about 2% vaccinated since then?
Also using Pfizer imported from the EU, Canada has given the first shot to 40% of its population.
Japan insists on giving the second shot 3 weeks later (as it says on the label) improving immunity from 70% to 90%. This halves the number of people getting a jab. But simple arithmetic (beyond Kono it seems) shows that 100 people with 70% immunity is much better than 50 people with 90% and 50 people with no protection at all.
UK, Canada etc. took the single jab route and it has paid off well.
snowymountainhell
Same day Headline:
In a major step toward returning to pre-pandemic life, the CDC eased mask-wearing for fully vaccinated people on Thurs, outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings.
“Today is a great day for America,” President Joe Biden said.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask,"
. “Get vaccinated — or wear a mask until you do.”
foreignbrotherhoodarmy
Can they fly in an adult from another country to handle this?
noriahojanen
Untrue. Doesn't he see the overwhelming calls and requests for jabs? Lines for booking are always busy.
Currently, manpower shortage is the central problem. A growing concern is that stored jabs will soon be dated and have to be thrown out.
Paul
This is the Japanese way. When you fail to do what you should have done, blame someone else!
Tora
Another excuse!
Number of tests = lowest in 'developed world'
Number of ICU units = lowest in 'developed world'
Number of vaccines administered = lowest in 'developed world'
Amount of teleworking = lowest in 'developed world'
Online classes, social distancing measures, proper lockdowns = lowest in 'developed world'
There is a disturbing pattern here. Shall we move onto things that this country has done well during this crisis?
Promotion of subsidised internal travel and eating at restaurants, encouragement of crowding, through reduced train services, various serious lack of concern about the virus by public, academics and elected officials.....
I can go on and on and on....
Mr Kono: please step down.
didou
One month ago in a TV interview , he exactly said :
“These trials in Japan are necessary to make sure the vaccine fits with the Japanese people”
I recently noted that Kono changes his mind often. Honme /Tatemae
Howaitosan
I'm over 65 and was on track to receive a vaccination through my local council. When I called to make a reservation on the day the lines opened, I got a recorded message telling me to call back later.
I did - for four days - only to get the same message over and over.
Finally a friend went on to the council website and found that the municipality had only been given 3,000 doses for an elderly population in that area of nearly 30,000!!!
If that is how the Government is dealing with the vaccinations, most of us will be dead of natural causes long before the shots become available.
Meiyouwenti
It seems to me that Kono is trying to evade responsibility by blaming it on everyone else. And a recent survey showed he’s the most popular candidate as next PM. Give me a break.
Tom Doley
Excuse number 1 - blame someone else.
Excuse number 2 - other country is doing this, so we can do it too.
Excuse number 3 - our culture, our way of life, accept it.
If all else fails, 105 degree bow.
Welcome to Jgovs operandi modus.
tooheysnew
Simian LaneToday 07:16 am JST
It’s definitely an obsession with a lot of people on here
Jsapc
It's your job to make that approval system go faster, you doofus.
Chico3
If you want to blame, then fine. However, do not blame the drug companies. Blame the slow old government for more talk and far less action.
Harrison Ozwald
I think we need a full color graphic with large arrows to show us who is blaming who. It is really getting confusing.
kwatt
It is very true. About any medicine, any vaccine, health ministry usually takes 2- 3 years or more to get approval of it. Why politicians change the system? Probably because bureaucrats don't want it and don't want responsibility about new medicine and vaccine that may cause some kind of bad side-effect or bad aftereffect.
Mark
"Everything is connected to vaccine hesitancy behavior," he said.
NOT SO TRUE Sir, at first people were hesitant, but since late December early this years people have seen and watched the vaccines benefits and it's positive impact, people have been waiting for 5 months now to get vaccinated, and you are talking about the conditions BEFORE the vaccines were even developed!!!
kyushubill
Nothing but an excuse. Put forth temporary fast track approval, or get out of the way and allow someone else to lead. Kono is a serial yes man follower.
Alfie Noakes
17 coronavirus patients in Osaka died while waiting for beds. Shut up with the excuses, get off social media and get on with doing your job.
tamanegi
And at the end of the day Vaccine Czar Kono will probably be Prime Minister of Japan one day.
vic.M
Every one living in fear. There are cheap and effective medicines for Covid but the powers to be do not want people to use them. Why would you take an experimental "so called" vaccine that is not safe and causing many problems around the world. The evidence is out there- all one has to do is search it as the main stream news will not report it.
iamtheponz
@vic.M
Well, no one in my entire family or friends group had any problems, so...
Jsapc
Because they don't work. Stop spreading false information.
BlackFlagCitizen
Oh please! When the vaccines were first made available, Japan hadn't even secured enough syringes. That tells you everything you need to know - there never was any plan for the vaccination rollout. The Japanese was conned into believing that they were somehow exceptional based on the false information about the low number of infected and deaths, that the government was going to ride this lie hoping Covid was just going to disappear. Now they are caught with their pants down, so it's time for excuses.
JeffLee
Foreign pharma lobbyists have long been pushing for an end to Japan's duplicated, unique, costly and timie-consuming domestic clinical trials, (based on weird and unsettling racial attitudes held by many Japanese).
It is nice this ridiculous problem is being acknowledged by the guilty party. The article could have also mentioned the dominance of private-sector medical institutions, whose doctors are not all that enthusiastic about cooperating in the effort.
thelonius
Partially true.
It's nice that this announcement comes a week before the health ministry will finally make a decision on Moderna and AstraZeneca. They will clearly have some explaining to do. I mean, why not approve it today? Why wait even till next week? What are they doing from now till then? Still sucking and hawing over it?
kohakuebisu
This is nonsense. The government declares weeks in advance when a vaccine will be approved. That means weeks in which to prepare for rollout starting from the following day.
This country is famed for production lines, "just-in-time" logistics, and trains running on time. We are seeing the complete opposite here.
Jim
As some others mentioned above, having approved only one isn’t the problem! Stockpiles of Pfizer vaccination is stilling in storage and yet to be administered! I wonder why the pathetic media didn’t question him on that when he made the strange statement! Only around 15% of its current stockpile has been administered!
thelonius
Problem is, the publication of the data is not in English, and documents are in US Legal size, not Japanese standard A4. J-gov says no.
Pukey2
vicM:
Well, what are these miracle cures? If you'd told us before, many lives could have been saved. We're counting on you.
thelonius:
Now, come on, we have to give the Japanese pharmaceutical companies time to play catch up and develop their own unique Japanese brand of vaccinations. We mustn't let foreign companies get any of the credit.
Bob Fosse
What effective medicines?
Why do the ‘powers’ that be hide them?
What non ‘mainstream’ news source has this evidence?
I know your answers already. But go ahead.
AustPaul
Perhaps the issue also is that they don’t have any emergency approval system in place to fast track the use of these vaccines? Maybe this pandemic will lead to changes in this regard as I’m sure Japan is a bureaucratic paradise.
Also a bit strange to mention vaccine hesitancy when many appear to be dissatisfied with the rollout.
porto
"Well, I for one blame the guy who runs the regulatory committee."
"Isn't that you?"
"Yes, but I can't do anything about it..."
Stewart Gale
‘Change’ and ‘Japan’ in the same sentence, the two words don’t sit right together.
smithinjapan
So, here's a wild idea -- change it. I'm tired of these clowns who say, "Oh, I know... it's awful. But, it's the rules. Oh, I make the rules? I know, but it can't be helped. Even I am not above the bodega."
Chili
He learned blame shifting from Georgetown University where he graduated. He’s slated to be the next PM. He’s showing his inept administrative skills already. I think a safe vaccine testing is better, but the vaccination shot logistics should’ve been prepared already ready to go. As usual non proactive JP government!
Addfwyn
This seems like a really confusing position to take.
I would understand saying the approval process is slow (it is) if there weren't a supply of vaccines ready for use.
The issue is logistics though. The pfizer vaccine is approved here already, and we have plenty in stock. There's no drug approval red tape stopping the government from using it, it has been approved. They just aren't administering it.
The approval process has nothing to do with it unless you insist on having enough vaccine ready for every citizen before you start the process.
runner3
My wife who was born in Japan and is in her 40's is vaccinated in Canada. Her mother who is in her 70's and is living in Japan can't make an appointment to get vaccinated. There's something really wrong in Japan.
藤原
My wife who is Japanese works for the yakuba in the town where we live. She works with hoken sodan and has dealt with the distribution of the vaccine. The time spent in the planning, the usless meetings, the zoom meetings with perfecture, zoom meetings with Tokyo, how to even start to distribute the vaccine, how to correctly write letters to locaal elderly residenccs to see what day they want to schedule an appointment for the vaccine, than another letter to actually schedule the date of the vaccine, which finally started two days ago for 120 elderly 'residence. I had to help my wife with the translation for the foreigners because no one in the local govt can understand or use English or German properly for the few foreign residents we have in our town. The problem is pure and simple, the Japanese government on every level is to complex and the amount of bureaucracy is amazingly astonishing with too few workers and needs an absolute reform.
rainyday
With little lines like this sprinkled throughout the news coverage of the pandemic is it any wonder why almost everyone hates the Olympics by now?
NO, we aren't worried about a fourth wave of infections because it might be inconvenient for Olympic preparations, we are worried about it because it will kill people!
happyhere
@Kono
Could we please have a webpage containing the following 95 numbers updated daily:
doses recv'd to date by Japanand for each prefecture:
recv'd to date and # administered to dateYes, let each prefecture fax in their two numbers and do not outsource the "programming" to a foreign company. Any Japanese high school student could make such a page.
ian
Earlier than pfizer trial?
Seesaw7
Blame, blame, blame ......
GenHXZ
Real title - 'Vaccantations not happening because Japan desu'
Yukijin
Yeah, the people of this country hate to face truth, no matter how obvious it might be.
Nobody has the balls to call people out, that allows incompetency to dominate society, and here we are.
Paul
Approve Sputnik V immediately! Why not let the population decide which vaccine every person wants?
I'm relatively young, no underlying health conditions (I know of) and not obese (though I could lose 3~4kgs). I'll take my chances with the virus rather than the Pfizer vaccine. Specially because after 6~9 months I'm going to have to do it all again if I take the Pfizer vaccine.
snowymountainhell
Mr. Kono: Many here wish they could get vaccinated
We all hope you are still in good health and staying safe. Sadly, even if You jump thru their hoops in the meantime, You have to wait 2 months to apply again?
And then, what?
ian
Damn is this true?
Anyone can pls point to news about this? Haven't been here much or reading the news since a few days ago
Jsapc
I think you're one of the only persons on earth who adamantly wants to take the russian vaccine. Even russians don't trust it as much as you do.
I can think of one.
ian
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Coronavirus/COVID-vaccines/Japan-to-allow-emergency-vaccine-rollouts-without-clinical-trials
vendingmachinemusic
You mean Japanese private sector is known for those things.
Hollytree
"Most countries do not require a domestic clinical trial, but Japan does," Suga told reporters on Friday. "I strongly feel that we need to update our legal framework for emergency situations."
The revisions could be submitted to parliament as early as next year.
I keep seeing the expression 'as early as.....' in articles about the vaccination in Japan. Don't know what you think but next year is not early!
I'm guessing this is the standard translation for a particular Japanese expression, but it doesn't sound right in English. 早くも?
Goodlucktoyou
Russia is one hour flight away. Sputnik V has been tested and is very effective.
i don’t agree about normal young healthy people being injected with experimental emergency vaccines, but old people have a right.
he should step down and not become next PM.
MotMotMot
There's over 70 million doses of European made vaccines just sitting there according to NHK news. This is entirely a self inflicted problem by the government. They should already have laws expanding who can administer the shots. They should have already been training people to administer vaccines. They should have already passed laws to streamline the vaccine approval process.
Sps-Blaka
"Everything is connected to vaccine hesitancy behaviour."
That should be a future problem - deal with vaccine hesitancy after you've vaccinated everyone that's willing to be vaccinated.
Antiquesaving
So is he going to explain why only 15% of the approved Pfizer has been administered and taking such a long time to get the medical personnel vaccinated?
If the vaccination program was working properly the stock of Pfizer Vaccine should have already run out.
More false excuses for poor organisation and incompetence.
shogun36
That's cool. We blame him for it.
ian
Any suggestion as to how they should write it? =)
Kobe White Bar Owner
Does anyone take responsibility for anything here or is it a constant game of blame shifting from childhood to the grave? I used to like Kono and thought the was prime minister material but how wrong I was! Oh and the last bit was me admitting to being wrong..
TheReds
At the end of the day, it's the gov's fault. People died for nothing because of their unwillingness to change.
Sh1mon M4sada
Kono san, you look tired, please take a vacation oh and
戻ってこない
Yohan
runner3Today 09:09 am JST
My wife who was born in Japan and is in her 40's is vaccinated in Canada. Her mother who is in her 70's and is living in Japan can't make an appointment to get vaccinated. There's something really wrong in Japan.
Canada has only 38 million people, 1.3 million infected, 25.000 deaths
Japan has 126 million people, (3 times more than Canada) 660.000 infected, 11100 deaths. (despite almost no vaccine is distributed yet)
It seems those vaccinations are not very effective.
My little country in Europe has only 9 million people, many already vaccinated, but registered 10.400 deaths so far.
USA population is about 2.5 times more than those of Japan, but registered almost 600.000 deaths...
Think about it.
About reservation for vaccination, my Japanese wife and I, we are 69, had no problem to make an appointment to get vaccinated (Okayama-ken). Just calling two days ago 4 medical clinics nearby our home and were accepted, we have a reservation for 1st and 2nd Pfizer shot.
virusrex
It is not like the deaths happened on vaccinated people, also it is not like Japan has an adequate detection system.
Vaccines have been already demonstrated to be very effective preventing serious complications and death, but obviously they are not the only factor that can reduce the number of deaths, even more if you are going to count the deaths of unvaccinated people for your comparison.
Jsapc
The proper form would be 戻ってこないで or 戻ってくるな.
William77
It’s okay,even if they have stocked about 75 milions doses of vaccine sent from Europe Kono and his far right wing dinosaurs will find at a certain point a way to put the blame on the EU like “they should have sent us trained personal too”
In the end this xenophobic and incompetent government will always find a way to put the blame to the gaijin.
Mark my words.
Rezor
This the clear example that of the problem having a health system based in private clinics and hospital.
When you have a sanitary crisis you don't have capacity to do anything because almost ALL your resources are in private hands...
Clear example now...The government have on stock all large qty of vaccines but they don't have capacity and resources to use them. Basically all bureaucrats are trying to move the problem blaming to other. Nothing new.
Yohan
藤原Today 09:15 am JST
My wife who is Japanese works for the yakuba in the town where we live.... I had to help my wife with the translation for the foreigners because no one in the local govt can understand or use English or German properly for the few foreign residents we have in our town.
Well, you can hardly expect local ordinary people living in a small town or in rural areas in Japan who hardly have any contact with foreigners to understand/write properly English and not to talk about German.
There are now translations for those Covid vaccination forms and pamphlets available for download, in 17 languages. (Ministry of Health, Labour, Welfare).
Antiquesaving
Now for the truth and facts.
Most deaths in Canada happened long before any Vaccine existed.
Canada requires autopsies in any case that is not clearly obvious as Japan is not doing autopsies on people over 65 ( the vast majority of the death in Canada)
Ontario alone with a population of only 14 million is testing over 50,000 a day with about 3,000 coming back positive, in comparison Tokyo with 34 million is testing under 7,000 a day with about 900 on average coming back positive.
So clearly something is wrong with the numbers in Japan unless Japan has the highest percentage of positive tests of any country.
If Japan tested like most western countries and if Tokyo tested 50,000 plus a day logic says that the number of infected would be at least 4 times if not more.
Then we would see the real number of those dying with covid.
We have already read about people dying at home after being rejected by hospitals how many other that could not be tested are doing the same, we will never know because no autopsies are required.
Richard Gallagher
Kono, he neglects his responsibility as a government official and shifts blame to institutionalized regulation. He shuns any personal responsibility for the current situation.
The present government, under two prime ministers, from the LDP, are unable to conceive and execute a plan, though the crisis has been in place for 18 months.
They can mess around with Article Nine, but cannot devise a means for attending to the greater good, inoculating the citizens within a short timeframe.
The Prime Minister and LDP, were capable of creating spikes in the spread of the virus by instituting GoToTravel. Inappropriately, lifted the state-of-emergency in March, just in time for Cherry Blossom Season and shortly thereafter, re-instated the state-of-emergency after another surge in the rate of infections, just in time for Golden Week.
Clearly, the present government, lorded over by Suga and the LDP, is incapable of governing. The obsession with the Olympics, certainly spurred on by the likes of Toyota, Bridgestone, Panasonic and other global companies is the center of focus. However, the existent pandemic doesn't seem to register as an obstacle to their plans to enact the spectacle. The health & welfare of the Japanese people being of litttle or faint concern.
And. Of course, blame lies elsewhere. Same with responsibility: The IOC made us do it.
senkan
@William77
Wow. I agree.
As for Vaccine Chief Kono, this just proves how backwards in many ways J-Gov is. The country needs help and he was tasked to lead the way. One would think...logically, the Chief can bypass some regs and get the task completed. To blame on the system, is, wow...no words. Very weak. These so-called Ministers are just...you fill in the blank(s).
Yohan
AntiquesavingToday 12:06 pm JST
Now for the truth and facts.
...If Japan tested like most western countries and if Tokyo tested 50,000 plus a day logic says that the number of infected would be at least 4 times if not more.
Then we would see the real number of those dying with covid.
We have already read about people dying at home after being rejected by hospitals how many other that could not be tested are doing the same, we will never know because no autopsies are required.
I don't see here neither truth nor facts.
In Japan there are about 1.380.000 funerals per year, this number did not change at all during the last years with or without the presence of Covid-19.
The number of testing people mean more or less nothing. You have to count the total number of deaths in Japan, prior to Covid-19 and now.
If according to your opinion, so many Japanese die of Covid-19 there should be a difference between the number of funerals in 2018, 2019, 2020 and now. But there is no difference, so where are all these dead Covid-19 bodies?
Same situation also in South Korea, similar results, not many people vaccinated, but by far less deaths compared to North and South America and Europe/UK.
Antiquesaving
Those in charge of the national government couldn't tie their own shoelaces ( I think most now need velcro closure shoes).
Hand the system over to someone like the head of Rakuten, Yamato, Sagawa, etc.. people that know how to organise and can handle logistical coordination on a national scale.
This is often meant as a joke but at this point I am really starting to think this could be the only way anyone will be vaccinated in a timely manner.
Antiquesaving
As it has regularly been pointed out the yearly influenza season was nearly none existent and most virologist in Japan and other countries attribute that to covid replacing influenza.
Japan not testing for covid but having and having no autopsies means the deaths that happened attributed to "pneumonia" but we're never checked for covid is where the numbers are. These people were often tested for influenza cames back negative then died of Pneumonia but not from the yearly influenza, so where or what caused the pneumonia? We will never know as no autopsies not covid tests.
As for South Korea they did far more testing had far greater lockdowns including forced quarantine, etc... No comparison with how Japan handled things.
Chabbawanga
The alternative would be to blame himself
藤原
Yohan Today at 12pm,
Thanks Yohan. The town has to distribute mail to every resident local or foreign, to make an appointment to reserve a spot for the vaccination. People who recieve this letter need to make an appointment at yakuba to recieve the vaccination. The letters needed to be written in English and sent by mail. So that Help. Thank you.
James
Yes I understand totally that the Pfizer vaccine which was approved on February 15th and now it is May 14th and we have something like 28 million doses of an approved vaccine sitting in freezers is totally the fault of the approval process Yea I can see that makes perfect sense. NOT!
Kapuna
Great idea. So who is "those"
Antiquesaving
Mail seriously mail, like a stamp and envelope mail.
What century is Japan in?
My silly little province in Canada has had an influenza vaccine booking system online for a decade.
They made a quick modification to add covid-19 Vaccine to the system.
The province doesn't even have as widely available internet as Japan.
It boggles the mind at how slow Japanese government is.
Yamato, Sagawa, etc... Are full service online but the city needs to use the post office.
Sure I can see some mail for the oldest that cannot or don't use the internet but the vast majority could easily book online no need for notifications.
justasking
But we have a stockpile of already approved vaccine and yet the roll out is still slow.
The only problem in this is the LDP. Replace these dinosaurs!
Yohan
藤原Today 12:55 pm JST
Thanks Yohan. The town has to distribute mail to every resident local or foreign, to make an appointment to reserve a spot for the vaccination. People who recieve this letter need to make an appointment at yakuba to recieve the vaccination.
@藤原
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/seisakunitsuite/bunya/vaccine_tagengo.html
Japanese forms and pamphlets, translated in several languages can be download by internet, link above.
In Japan all this handling takes a while, Japanese rarely will decide something by themselves as individual, they are accustomed to do all and everything in a group. This takes a while.
Japan might be behind about 3 or 4 months compared to Western countries regarding covid-19, but it will catch up soon - after all of them in a group agree, they will work hard to do the job and there are no demonstrations, no riots claiming covid-19 does not exist, vaccine is a hoax with microchips and such nonsense among its population.
All is peaceful here...
In Okayama City where I live you get a long list to contact hospitals/clinics of your own choice, there was a computer reservation system problem for one day, but it seems it's working now again.
We had no problem two days ago to get an appointment for 1st and 2nd Pfizer vaccination for both of us, just calling 4 clininc near our home.
Medical services are not bad here in Japan in general.
Antiquesaving
I have mentioned before my friend is a doctor, small clinic dealing mostly with elderly people.
His clinic can test internally for influenza but not covid.
He has lost many patients to pneumonia since last year all testing negative for influenza, but could not get them tested by the government for covid and most living on pension would not or could not pay the cost for private lab testing.
He himself got covid and could not get tested by the government and had to use a private lab.
None of his patients that passed away from pneumonia were ever tested for covid none recorded as having covid and most tested negative for influenza.
The fact he caught covid logically means he got it from some patient as did some of his staff.
He has the ability to pay and connections to get private testing otherwise he would not have known he and his staff had covid.
The government is not testing, not vaccinating and all it does is blame everyone or everything else, the EU blocking, supply problems, now it is the approval process.
What next, the full moon?
Antiquesaving
That I can agree with, the medical services my family and I have had have been great.
The problem is not the medical services.
My doctor friend is ready and willing to go vaccinate, has offered his clinic as a location ( he has a large physiotherapy room that can be used as an observation room after Vaccine.)
But he and most of his friends and colleagues haven't heard back from the government on anything.
The problem isn't the medical community it is the government and bureaucrats,
BTW his clinic has 3 doctors ( 4 if you include his father that is retired) all are very skilled at giving thousands of Vaccines each influenza season, all were contacted about giving the covid Vaccine, they all said they were willing to help but then total silence from the ward or anyone else in charge.
Makkun70
Japan had more than a year to get to this point and get the vaccination process right.
Kono slinging excuses around doesn't help matters, he's gone down in my estimation.
When will get a Japanese politician to take ownership?
Yohan
AntiquesavingToday 12:41 pm JST
As for South Korea they did far more testing had far greater lockdowns including forced quarantine, etc... No comparison with how Japan handled things.
While South Korea did more testing, the results are about the same as in Japan.
BTW, Japan has no power to force infected people into military guarded hospital facilities for quarantine like in South Korea where it is impossible to go out - not only for the patients, but also the medical staff are kept there like prisoners.
https://kosis.kr/covid_eng/covid_index.do
South Korea, with its 52 million people found only 130.000 people infected, now are 8000 in isolation and the total number of deaths is 1893 since February 2020. Very low...
Vaccination: South Korea is also far behind Western countries, similar to Japan.
Only 1.4 % of its population, 747.000 people are fully vaccinated, and the first shot received so far 3.7 million people, 7 %.
South Korea plans to vaccinate 12 million people by end of June - herd immunity hopefully by November.
If you claim so many additional people die because of covid-19 in Japan who should be still alive, where are these bodies? The number of funerals during the last years did not change, about 1.370.000 to 1.380.000 per year.
Antiquesaving
@Yohan
Ok you win, rah rah rah Japanese are the special humans not prone to catching Covid and proper reporting on deaths or testing will not change that.
Oh and the government is perfect it is everything else than isn't,
I mean it must be that because of the testing is factual, the number of deaths are factual, then the vaccine roll out must also be going great and any problems are due to other factors.
Do the hustle
Drug approval system? I think he is referring to the sleepy old men dawdling around looking for a specific piece of paper and a couple of red stamps to go on it so they can pass it on the next sleepy old men and repeat the process ad nauseam.
NCIS Reruns
Try getting through to the Setagaya phone number or internet site to reserve a vaccination. It's an exercise in futility. I'm tired of screaming myself hoarse. I think I'll walk over to the mayor's office and rearrange his furniture.
Gorramcowboy
Pass the buck, Popeye. Pass the buck.
Numan
The Russian and Chinese vaccine are not trusted. In fact, the Chinese vaccine has failed to publish any credible research! The Chinese are also importing Pfizer and Moderna while they ship the unwanted SinoVac to Third World countries! Russia is now producing its vaccine in China!
This is what happens when both countries were caught hacking foreign pharmaceutical companies to steal their research to produce a vaccine. They only got the vaccine partly right. It also explains the Chinese lack of publishing.
I am more inclined to believe that this fiasco is partly the typical J-government incompetence, but I also believe they are holding out because the local companies want to produce its own vaccine, so they can get some money and politicians get their corrupt kickbacks.
Everyone knows how Abe's corrupt party does business!
Jtsnose
The 2 vaccines deemed safe in the U. S. which are being offered are Pfizer and Moderna vaccine,
https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/index.html
Paul
What are you so upset about? Don't you support people being given a choice? If around 35% of Russians want their vaccine, it is certain less than 5% want the Pfizer vaccine.
If I were elderly, had a serious underlying medical condition or was obese, I'd take the Pfizer vaccine. As is, forget about it.
Every place Sputnik V goes to reports excellent results with mostly no side effects at all but very mild side effects in around 10%. Very few vaccinated catch the virus and of the very few who do, it's a mild cold, gone within a week.
Zaphod
Alan Harrison
The drug approval system is slow for a reason. The first principle in medicine is "do no harm" and that includes making sure vaccines are safe. Typically, that take about 10 years, not 1 year as with these mRNA treatments, that were rushed through.
AManInJapan
Ignoring the approval process, the fact is that the Pfizer vaccine was approved in Japan on 14-Feb. It is now exactly 3 months later and just over 2% of the population have been vaccinated.
The government now announces that they aim to vaccinate 1 million people a day... this means that in the 3 months since approval they could have given 90 million vaccinations and a lot of the country would be getting back to normal. Instead we are in a permanent state of emergency with absolutely no long term plan...
Such incompetence from politicians that the people of Japan voted and trusted to act in the best interest of the country.
Kono loves to blame everything and everybody (did he finally get his own plane?) but this is HIS responsibility.
God help us.
virusrex
How about some scientific sources for this? it is quite unfortunate but at this point the reported results of the Sputnik vaccine are becoming less and less certain as many feared when the developers refused to let the raw data from the trials to be shared with the world. It seems that every time some extra information is known more problems, unethical manipulations and "mistakes" are found.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00899-0/fulltext
It has become clear why Russia is not applying for vaccine approval in any place where they require the data for examination like Japan, something so incompetently analyzed (or shady if you don't feel like giving the Russians the benefit of the doubt) would never be approved once a professional had a couple of hours with the data.
virusrex
That is false, previous vaccines have been approved after trials on the same time scale as the COVID vaccines without problem. "do not harm" also applies to letting harm be done by refusing to do something to prevent it. Approval is much slower when you have to prove something is better than what is already available, if the only thing it has to surpass is not doing nothing the process is much faster and simpler.
None of the vaccines in use for COVID have a significant fraction of the risk of the natural infection, preventing a possible death every million people is a very poor excuse to let one of every hundred people die.
wanderlust
They have had 8 - 10 months to prepare for vaccinations, so his claim is blatantly false.
Fridges, freezers, forms, faxes, syringes and all of the rest could have been ordered and secured,
as well as staff trained, though an intramuscular injection is standard method of administration for meds.
When Viagra was registered in Japan for male impotence, it took around 6 months only to get approved, in total contrast to womens' contraceptive pill which took around 20 years.
CaptDingleheimer
I've been hearing the "1 million shots a day" thing for a while now, Pfizer is approved and millions of doses are on ice.... so what gives? When are they gonna start?
Michael Machida
Im proud of him. He could have said its America's fault but he did not. Good on him!
[ Laugher here....]
as_the_crow_flies
I'm pretty sure Kono was set up to fail, and think he is being given very limited, if any, powers to actually do stuff. I read the article as him taking (some) responsibility in what is an impossible job for him. He may be hardly helping h in this crisis, but I hope he might be able to bring about some change in time for the next pandemic. A friend once told me Japan is only capable of change like turning one sheet of paper over at a time, and I think that is what we are seeing here. it means we are paying the price for the second time in 10 years (Fukushima was the first ), but short of the public rising up and demanding radical change, the sort of sheet-at-a-time steps we are seeing is just, slightly, better than the nothingburger Suga is serving us up.
Fact check: not just lagging 'wealthy' countries - currently 105th out of 161
Fun fact - there are an estimated 110,000 Olympic volunteers - the ones being armed with bamboo sticks to protect them against Covid. Plus 2 masks and a bottle of sanitiser. And no vaccinations are in the works for volunteers (of course). That's an interesting contrast in priorities.
Alex
I’ve never seen such complacency in a government.
thaonephil
So, if you know something is wrong why is it still without change? why call someone a "vaccine chief" if he can't even get vaccines approved? (not that it would actually help, with millions of doses of the vaccines already approved sitting in fridges for months)
Sven Asai
That can’t be true and is bare of any logic, even under that complained conditions. In such a case you could have ordered for every Japanese the moderna vaccine, that only needs one shot, and have already long distributed it to everyone. And if now saying, the approval process would be missing, well, a test with only 160 volunteers for the Pfizer vaccine is as well no statistically relevant approval too, if it really took those bureaucratic months or even much shorter.
as_the_crow_flies
Because calling him vaccine chief is Japan government speak for doing nothing, like 'tough measures', 'quasi state of emergency', 'fight', 'victory over the virus', 'hope', or whatever the Dentsu catchphrase of the day is. I would bet my bottom dollar Kono has been given absolutely no powers. For the LDPP, he is just a smokescreen and a holding operation with two aims - take the blame for the J-gov shambles that is the vaccine response, and buy time by making noises to ward off public indignation long enough to keep the Olympics porkfest afloat. Then the public will turn all their rage on Kono, and the ruling faction's mission of self-preservation at all costs is accomplished, and the rest can slither out unscathed. I don't believe Kono is good at his job either, just that he less bad than many others by Japanese government standards, but in this case he has been set up. Remember he has 'only' been in the job 4 months, which the way things work in Japan, is nothing.
But in terms of combating the pandemic, all of this is really neither here nor there. Whatever the truth of the internal LDP factional infighting and intrigue, we are seeing that the Japanese compulsive love of overcomplication, of meaningless, choreographed exercises over real-time response to realities, and exceptionalism that makes the country refusal to take lessons from outside are costing, and will continue to cost us many, many lives.
jeancolmar
I am not interested in who is supposed to be blamed, Kono. Get the job done now.
Paul
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00894-1/fulltext
That is the same group who denounced it 6 months ago. Claiming the data was fake. The poor idiot who is the lead author has a contract to provide various Western countries with advice on vaccines. That's the problem. It's not that Russians are smarter (though the Soviet education system was superior and that hasn't been completely lost in Russia) but that the Russian microbiologists at the state owned lab were only interested in making a good vaccine. The Prizer, Moderna, Oxford University microbiologists couldn't get their grubby little noses out of the stick market for long enough to make a good vaccine.
And the Sinopharm vaccine is the second best after Sputnik V. Moderna is only a little worse that the Moderna vaccine though far cheaper and easier to deploy. Pfizer is the least effective, most dangerous insofar as side effects up to and including death, most expensive and most difficult to deploy.
Paul
He is lying. Of course it's the fault of the running dogs of imperialism. If not for Japan being an occupied country, the regime would have acted in a logical manner. We know Russia and Japan don't have much of a trading relationship so can't forgive but kind of understand them not approving the best vaccine by a long way, Sputnik V. But the second best vaccine comes from the country which is by far Japan's No.1 treading partner and quickly pulling further ahead of any rival. So why hasn't the ruling regime approved the Sinopharm vaccine? There is no excuse at all other than the running dogs putting pressure on the puppet regime in Japan to not accept the best vaccines.
Maybe we can agree the US regime should start worrying about American citizens for a moment and leave Japan to do what it likes. How many Americans have died from Covid? Granted that in a first world medical system such as Japan has, that number would be -50~75%.
Wick's pencil
Science journals.
The real question is WHY don't the MSM mention them.
Bob Fosse
No the question is why don’t you link to them.
virusrex
If that were the problem it would be very simple to demonstrate every single argument as false, impossible homogeneous results, unregistered changes to the protocols, number of participants increasing and decreasing all over the place even if they are not suppose to change, etc. etc.
This is very frequently evidence of data fabrication, or of deep incompetence (that is almost as bad) in either case these are just what has been found from the very small amount of data the Russians have let slip, and make the whole thing extremely unreliable by the standards of today.
If someone says he can take your cancer better than the best specialists but completely "forgets" how to wear surgical clothing or the name of the instruments he uses that is good enough reason to ask him to show his degree and license, and the excuse that he can't remember because he is focusing in doing a good surgery is not really believable.
The Russian vaccine is in this point, it is hiding everything that is necessary to evaluate its safety and efficacy and from the small amount of evidence available it looks really bad.
Science Journals reports that most of those "cheap and effective" medicines are actually useless, or with such faint effects that well designed studies find contradicting results. For the drugs that actually show effect (like dexamethasone) science journals and media are again in concordance accepting without problem that they actually work
Scientific and medical organizations of the world base their decisions on those science journals, so how many defend what you say?
Paul
Every single argument against Sputnik V, (and I do mean "every") has been proven false.
1glenn
The virus outbreaks in several Southern Asian countries could happen in Japan, unless the administration of vaccines gets much better.
Don't wait until it is too late, get those vaccines administered now.
Numan
@Paul
Real evidence please!!!
jeancolmar
I think the whole lot of LDP idiots are to blame for this. They should have seen what was coming.
Numan
@Paul
More nonsense! Your evidence is articles written by Russians living in Russia ruled by a dictator known to poison his political enemies.
So, we are suppose believe the people who said they made a mistake the first time after giving Sputnik a porr evaluation.
No one believes them or you without verifiable evidence!
virusrex
For that sources are necessary, else anybody can just say that the "proofs" that the arguments were false were only imaginary.
No, that is not scientific data nor it does nothing to prove false any of the multiple problems already detected with the supposedly professional work.
Raw Beer
No, only those reporting studies funded by big pharma. There are many more studies that continue to show very positive effects.
NCIS Reruns
Why doesn't he blame the Japanese Constitution for the vaccination cockup? Everyone else in his party does.
BertieWooster
This is the same drug approval procedure that took years over giving the nod to the pill but OKed viagra almost overnight!
n1k1
Guys, guys .. i think there is more to this ..
The real problem in Japan , I think are the doctors ! They are now trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of this.
This is why things aren't moving . Why would they approve ? Why would they vaccinate ? They have absolutely no reason to do anything.
Just pay them more , the more they vaccinate the more money they make and it will work
Paul
I really can't understand why you people are so upset by the Russian vaccine. The efficacy, safety and ease of deployment of the vaccine is very telling in your hysterical reactions to it.
All I want is for the ruling regime in Japan to disregard the American running dogs and give the people a choice of vaccines. Obviously the Astra-Zeneca and J&J vaccines are out of the picture but give us a choice of Sputnik V, Sinopharm, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Why is that a problem.
That's why they haven't approved it in Europe yet. It won't look good for the ruling regimes of Western countries to have people lined up around blocks waiting for a vaccine made in a state owned lab in Russia while the Big Pharma vaccines have to be donated to poorer countries.
virusrex
That is misinformation, excuses made by people that cannot accept the consensus of science. Badly made studies with fabricated information, unethically manipulated cannot be accepted as evidence.
That is the reason why well recognized scientific and medical institutions of the world do not recognize them, the excuse that all of them (as in every single one in the whole world) is "on" the conspiracy is obviously impossible to believe.
That is because you don't understand how valid science is done, and think that signs of ineptitude (or willful deception) are minor things, in reality they are enough to disqualify the whole safety and efficacy tests as inadequate, they are huge problems.
Since the Russians and Chinese are not applying for approval you are barking to the wrong tree, write to the Developers and tell them that you want them to open their data and prove their vaccines can be safe and effective enough to apply for Japanese approval, unfortunately it appears by now their data was not as good as they wanted to present, so they may never apply for approval since they would have to confess their vaccines are subpar.
Paul
Of course. The biologists in 50+ countries and in Western peer reviewed scientific journals don't understand science at all. Only you do........
virusrex
There is no evidence whatsoever that biologists in 50 countries nor the journals have had access to the raw data necessary to confirm the data is correct, which is a problem that is in direct contradiction with the written rules of the journals.
According to this, and the problems that have been discovered by professionals (not me) in the published results the Russians already have had to correct their report, and now it is projected to be retracted because of invalid manipulations and refusal to make available the data necessary to disprove the accusations.
So no, the evidence they have done a terrible job in the trials is still completely valid and not refuted by anybody.
You could of course prove it false by linking to a reference where all the problems in my link are explained, or simply accept the criticism is true and that is why the developers are completely against applying in Japan.
Bob Fosse
You should share your knowledge if it’s so important. Take it to the streets and save lives!
Is it too dangerous? Have you already said too much?
proxy
Japan might have dodged a bullet by not approving AstraZeneca.
justasking
You're claiming that the data presented can be false because there's no evidence proving they are not false? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.
Wick's pencil
OK, I think I finally figured it all out. Those agencies that approve the Russian vaccine in their countries are bad agencies, and those that only accepted the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are good agencies. Makes so much sense!
virusrex
No, that is a strawman, the data appears to be false according to the analysis of experts that have found many contradictions and invalid manipulations, so suspicions are justified, not opening the data to dispel those suspicions makes the situation worse because that should have been done since the beginning in the first place.
Every country has priorities, so desperate situations can make a mediocre measure barely acceptable, that does not mean it magically becomes a good one. Japan has better vaccine options available, so if it is going to forfeit regulations to approve a vaccine, the Sputnick simply do not come as the first option to do it. Any vaccine that has the raw data available for confirmation of safety and efficacy automatically is a better option to approve first.
GordonBennett
Crisis? There is no crisis, look around you, do you see people falling down in the street, are your friends and family members dropping like flies? This is all hype so you take the medicine - don't be fooled!
jeancolmar
Who is to blame? Anyone who passes the back is to blame. Kono is to blame. Suga is to blame. The IOC is to blame. The lack of crisis management is to blame. The LDP is to blame. The pharmaceutical companies are to blame.
Add something?
oyatoi
Well, he would, wouldn’t he!
anamericaninjapan
Isn’t it your job to fix the system for a faster emergency approval then Kono-san?
Makoto Shimizu
Very shameful situation, Japan is behind most countries, no sense of urgency, disgusting. HAYAKU!!!
Pierre LeVenerable
Given the fact that this is not really a vaccine, but an more an untested, M-RNA genic therapy with a high risk of future complications, the slow roll out might be a blessing in disguise.
Paul
Never mind, drug approval! It took YOU 1+ years to find out how many syringes are needed, one can google the population of Japan in 5 seconds, but no, it took YOU 1+ years to figure out Japan does not have enough in stock. And then to figure out how many nurses needed to vaccinate, that also took YOU 1+ years. So NO Kono, it was not the approval system, it was YOU who required for domestic vaccine testing to be done on 160 people. 160!!! What is that it is not enough people to do a proper evaluation, you need 30,000. So what was the purpose of your requirement? Delay!!! YOU needed time because bureaucratic wheels in Japan move sooooo very slowly! RESIGN!!!
Hiroshi13
I heard his original comments in Japanese and my rough translation is "hate the game, not the playa".
Judy Itoh
I wrote a letter to Mr. Kono offering to help take on this monumental task. I understand and am very educated in business, medicine, and logistics. I have a track record in Japan of getting great results to impossible tasks. In other words, I have proved myself. He never replied. I don’t care about politics, but I care about getting Japan on par with other nations and their vaccine accomplishments. Pfizer is approved for emergency use in Japan. Time to get those shots into arms. Phoning for appointments is too late. It’s a nightmare on the phone lines, as well! It’s time to get the vaccines to cities across this country. With the Kominkans, this is a doable achievement, but somebody with some real know-how needs to be making it happen! These vaccines require special low temp freezers. A big part of the operation is keeping the vaccines safe during transport. I would take it on, just because I’m sad to see Covid cases rising and not a whole lot being accomplished! I’ve always excelled at huge challenges....and this is certainly a huge one, but very sad, as it is life and death!