Japan weighs mixing and matching COVID vaccines

As of Thursday, 43.5 percent of the country's population had received two doses.

As we enter the final days of August, 49% of eligible vaccine recipients (age 12+) have been fully vaccinated. Over 61% have received one shot.

How many countries accept vaccine passports showing mixed jabs?

Japan weighs mixing and matching COVID vaccines

Mixing vaccines, is not like mixing ice cream flavour.

As we enter the final days of August, 49% of eligible vaccine recipients (age 12+) have been fully vaccinated. Over 61% have received one shot.

Where this data come from?

sakurasuki  07:00 am JST

As we enter the final days of August, 49% of eligible vaccine recipients (age 12+) have been fully vaccinated. Over 61% have received one shot.

Where this data come from?

https://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/headline/kansensho/vaccine.html

About 10% of the nation is under the age of 12. I’ll let you do the math yourself.

Wow! Something, I said was happening in July and would continue to happen!

Numan wrote:

> In a post to @AntiqueSavings who doubted me a few weeks ago and they suspended my account for proving them wrong, I told them:

> I think it is a logistics issue. I got my tickets and not a senior. I work in Setagaya, and I am getting my first next week at work. We are suppose to get the second during the first week of August. I looked at the website from my Ward office. They are not scheduling any vaccinations in August. July is all booked. The late vaxxers will spill over into the other wards. The private clinics are booked all the way through August or no longer offering maybe due to no supply.

It might become a case of mix and match after August. It might be get it where you can, and you should not mind getting both Pfizer and Moderna.

Most major cities in Japan revise vaccine plans amid supply crunch

https://japantoday.com/category/national/most-major-cities-in-japan-revise-vaccine-plans-amid-supply-crunch

I don’t want the Spanish Moderna with the contamination thank you.

what was all the extra time Japan needed to confirm the safety of the vaccines for?

I saw a segment on CNN that followed doctors of private clinics who private visits and are treating serious COVID patients and unvaccinated people at their homes. They are being refused by hospitals because they do not have anymore beds, or the hospitals just refused COVID patients because of the danger.

The patients are in bad shape and one Japanese guy had blue lips while talking to him. All of these patients are not being counting on the official numbers.

Theses are the people that police are finding passed away at home with no autopsy, but they have evidence of COVID without official testing.

I saw a segment on CNN that followed doctors of private clinics who private visits and are treating serious COVID patients and unvaccinated people at their homes. They are being refused by hospitals because they do not have anymore beds, or the hospitals just refused COVID patients because of the danger.

The patients are in bad shape and one Japanese guy had blue lips while talking to him. All of these patients are not being counting on the official numbers.

Theses are the people that police are finding passed away at home with no autopsy, but they have evidence of COVID without official testing.

The segment I saw on CNN was this morning Monday August 30th, 2021.

More incompetence from the Government in even thinking about mixing vaccines! Pure stupidity!

Not sure it is such a good idea mixing vaccine types. Vaccine passport acceptance might be a problem and antibody longevity efficiency has not been tested.

stickman1760  07:18 am JST

I don’t want the Spanish Moderna with the contamination thank you.

Some might fancy the Dutch Moderna paired with flodeboller.

Instead of planning for the booster shots the Government should prioritize vaccinating people who are really waiting for getting reservations for their first shot! Idiots are running this country!

So once you get vaccinated, you have to receive a booster shot every six months until the COVID-19 pandemic is over or for the rest of your life.

Meiyouwenti 07:32 am JST

So once you get vaccinated, you have to receive a booster shot every six months until the COVID-19 pandemic is over or for the rest of your life.

Geez! Talk about misinformation! Read up on the booster.

Do it because your experts said it is safe and it has been tested not because it's cheaper

"We can expect an acceleration in vaccinations if we gain approval" for the mixed-dose approach from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Taro Kono said in a television program.

Whether it's safe or effective, Minister Kono must first acknowledge the slow and clumsy rollout strategy. Japanese people are not guinea pigs.

Maybe I'm just ignorant but why is it so hard to get the shot and why do thousands of people need to que up in Shibuya? I'm under 40, received vaccination papers in the mail with a list of local clinics offering the jab. I called maybe 10 clinics and made a reservation with the one that had the earliest open slot.

why is it so hard to get the shot

Because you're living in Japan.

Yeah, that’s not gonna end well.

Japanese may lose access to vaccine,with this dumb idea

JeffLeeToday  06:55 am JST

How many countries accept vaccine passports showing mixed jabs?

Ask Canada!

It mixed and matched and as far as I know it is becoming a problem for those that wish to travel outside the country especially to the USA!

GaijinjlandToday  08:01 am JST

Maybe I'm just ignorant but why is it so hard to get the shot and why do thousands of people need to que up in Shibuya? I'm under 40, received vaccination papers in the mail with a list of local clinics offering the jab. I called maybe 10 clinics and made a reservation with the one that had the earliest open slot.

Possibly yes to your first question.

Do you remember this reply to your last similar comment?

AntiquesavingAug. 29  08:14 am JST

GaijinjlandToday  06:28 am JST

I am dumbfounded. In Itabashi, the vaccine info was sent out with a list of hospitals and clinics in the area offering the vaccine. Just call and make an appointment. Simple. I don't know why thousands of people need to line up in Shibuya

My reply was the following:

I have been pointing this out to those that keep saying this stuff.

Your ward/city, town, prefecture has nothing to do with how another place possible the ward right next to yours is doing.

Most of the Vaccination centres will not take outside their ward/city.

If they do, what times are available for appointments?

Notice the crowd, do they look like people that are not working?

As I said the weekend was going to be a mad house of those trying to get vaccinated, why? Because so many employers will not give time off to get vaccinated and even less time of if any side effects like fever occur in the following days.

Think if all the companies that refused to let their employees work from home insisting they travel everyday by train to work.

This applies to some of the big ones.

A close friend works as telephone customer service for a big telecom, contract through an outsourcing company, not telework, everyone have to go to the big telecom office daily, when she asked for time off to go for her vaccine the answer was NO she had to book a date far later and use vacation days, when she got a fever after her second dose, she was told to go into work anyway. ( Those saying No are the telecom giant's direct employees who manage the customer service centre not the the outsourcing company).

I know literally hundreds in similar situations including my sister in law, most of my adult Children's friends all basically recent or near recent university graduates.

So even if your ward/city has vaccine, even if they are vaccinating the younger age groups, unless they have tens of thousands of spots open on Saturday and Sunday, or open late night, most of these people cannot go or make an appointment

The solution to two problems is very simple.

Like AZ Moderna has been quite open to production in none Moderna owned facilities.

Japan has plenty of vaccine manufacturing capability and I doubt it would that long to adapt some to produce Moderna.

This eliminates the need to import and the possible contamination issues ( sorry but Spain isn't know for it's high attention to detail or high quality products).

Pfizer is a dead end, it refuses to outsource or license it vaccine so forget it.

Approving the blending of multiple vaccines that have only been approved for emergency use sounds scary to me .

Approving the blending of multiple vaccines that have only been approved for emergency use...?

"Emergency use only" in Japan? Are you sure about that? Did you fact-check yourself?

Incorrect Zoroto.

for example

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/05/21/national/moderna-astrazeneca-formal-ok/

If you mix the Moderna with others it will dilute the contaminated vials.

No thanks

I’ll wait for the Novavax.

Had my 2nd Pfizer shot on Saturday and no problems at all. Upper arm a little sore yesterday if I touched it but that was it.

This eliminates the need to import and the possible contamination issues ( sorry but Spain isn't know for it's high attention to detail or high quality products).

Pfizer is a dead end, it refuses to outsource or license it vaccine so forget it.

Spain is in opposite to Japan lightyears in front by protecting its own population against Corona!

So Pfizer is stupid coz the wanna secure their Quality and don’t wanna become a second Morderna?

Making a vaccine is not like making a Coke, its a complicated process that needs special hardware and well educated staff!

Numan

that's the true. No need to check the numbers. Most of the people won't even get tested because of troubles afterwards: work, kids school etc.

Situation is worse than presented. That's for sure. People dying alone, kodokushi, how many got covid tested? I think none of them. It's hard to say if they died "with covid" or "because of covid" slight difference but they are not doing covid test when autopsy. It's an old knews. (news year ago)

I am not able to get even first jab in city I live. Still, waiting.

I really wonder if natural immunity is better than the blended vaccine jab. What about all three? A blend of natural immunity, Pfizer and Moderna. Maybe a shot of espresso too.

Making a vaccine is not like making a Coke, its a complicated process that needs special hardware and well educated staff!

Oh so you think Japan doesn't have the education or knowhow and isn't capable of securing the needed equipment!

You do realise that Japan has been producing it own vaccines for decades for just about everything.

Canada hasn't produced any vaccine locally in decades but has building from scratch a production facility for Moderna.

So I guess you think Japan and the Japanese are less capable than Canada or Spain.

Good luck with that idea.

Because not enough foreign material has been found in the Moderna vaccines?

You do realise that Japan has been producing it own vaccines for decades for just about everything.

So , where is the japanese Covid 19 vaccine?

but by the way , my compare with Coke was belonging to your attack on Pfizer that they don’t allow a uncontrolled reproduction of their vaccine by others

So , where is the japanese Covid 19 vaccine?

I guess the concept of producing and developing being 2 different things is foreign to you.

As your example of Coke, they produce in many countries, using you logic, why aren't these countries producing their own developed version?

Plenty of products are developed in other countries then licensed for production in another!

Japanese encephalitis vaccine developed by a Japanese company has been produced firsts via licensing around the world.

This is often how vaccines and pharmaceuticals work.

Now you know.

Why not just Weigh stopping vaccinating all together! Once the elderly and severely ill have been vaxxed there is no need to vaccinate the rest....forcibly or otherwise!

@ Antiquesaving

Can't you assign my answers to your false statements? it also makes no sense to always put my example in a new context. but let's leave that.

So if you don’t get vaccinated, you may wind up in intensive care on a breathing machine, very sick, or dead. These are 90 plus % of the people in the hospitals .

You may wind up, but probably not unless you have some other condition.

New info coming out everyday. This may not be misinformation, but definitely lacking in information since most those in the hospital are probably over 75 years old, which makes this more like fear propaganda than information.

BoJo, the great leader that he is of Little England, declared mix n match vaccines to be A-OK....surely he wasn't just opening his food flap and letting his belly rumble again? Suga, dear leader, has it all covered.....

SuperheroToday  12:10 pm JST

@ Antiquesaving

Can't you assign my answers to your false statements? it also makes no sense to always put my example in a new context. but let's leave that.

What makes no sense is your alluding that for some strange reason Japan wouldn't be capable of producing Moderna under a licensing agreement.

Studies up to now do suggest that combining vaccines gives better efficacy and durability.

But strangely the order of vaccines seems to matter a lot, with e.g. AZ+Pfizer being much better than Pfizer+AZ

Mixing vaccines has and is being done in Europe. There should be plenty of data available. To my knowledge it might be even boost the Immunity.

"Japan weighs mixing and matching COVID vaccines"

Not sure what that even means. I hope they are not thinking of mixing and matching different company's vaccines for first and second doses. I don't think there has been any studies of possible drug interactions between different company's vaccines.

This sounds like a perfect excuse to blame foreigners for the Japanese government's incompetent rollout of the vaccine program. They never had enough doses to vaccinate the majority of the population anyway. Then they mismanaged the supply they did have.

Judging by the down votes most here think that the Japanese are to stupid to manufacture Moderna under licensing agreement.

Interesting!

More incompetence from the Government in even thinking about mixing vaccines! Pure stupidity!

Not at all. There's already a fair amount of data and research done on this which not only says if safe, but actually leads to an even stronger immune response.

I don't think there has been any studies of possible drug interactions between different company's vaccines.

Yes there has.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56730526.amp

For example

I grew up as a kid enjoying a "suicide mix" at restaurant soda fountains—mixing together various flavored sodas to create an original concoction that could be either incredibly delicious or nauseatingly revolting.

Mixing of vaccines, however, brings a whole new meaning to that term...

Mixing the vaccines may be a good idea. When a vaccine is created, it is designed to create antibodies to certain epitopes (think 'shape and charge patterns) specific to a part of the target, that is, it creates a limited range of antibodies specific to just certain parts of, in this case, the 'old' COVID virus. Actual infection and recovery usually means a much broader range of antibodies has been elicited than would be seen with just a vaccine and, being broader, might also block the development of variants in the previously infected.

But, with just a narrow range vaccine blocking the 'old' form, new forms who vary out of the range of vaccine elicited antibodies such as the Delta strain are free to 'hang around' in the vaccinated or even infect them as we are now seeing in many doubly vaccinated individuals including creating severe enough infections to be fatal. "Breakthrough" is a disingenuous term meant to disguise the fact that the vaccine NO LONGER WORKS for that strain. It's a political obfuscation.

Another political obfuscation is that the 'unvaccinated' are somehow responsible for new variants. For unvaccinated people, the 'old' form is just as good as any variant to create infection and there is no 'selection' necessary for variants, no blocking of the 'old' forms allowing 'new' forms to become dominant. But, what we are seeing in the Delta is an accelerated rate of transmission and vaccinated people feeling free to again express their 'droplets' to the world are the 'carriers' and unvaccinated individuals their victims. Again, for unvaccinated individuals, the 'old' form is just as good for infection but what is now being transmitted is almost exclusively Delta, so, while the vaccines may be effective for the 'old' forms, they are facilitating the 'new' forms which are transmitted by the 'vaccinated'.

But, rather than admit that the old vaccines are failing and seeing their credibility sink even further, the Authorities are putting the blame on the virus naive rather than admit that the current vaccines will, at the rate we are seeing variation, soon become useless. This is not something that will be met with positive reactions by those who already doubt these Authorities nor by those who have previously trusted those Authorities.

Therefore, and with the hope that different vaccines may elicit somewhat different ranges of antibodies, mixing vaccines may increase the range of antibody recognition and be more effective than just the same vaccine given twice or even with a booster which, after all, is just more of the same. Regarding the 'fading' of protection, that is more likely the failure of the vaccine than such an uncharacteristic fading of 'immune memory' in such a short period. If immune memory were so labile, many of our other vaccines now providing long term protection for other diseases would show similar rapid 'fading'. Another obfuscation.

Our actual understanding of the Human immune system is still very primitive as evidenced by our inability to 'cure' even one of so many autoimmune diseases which afflict us, or even ameliorate without the agent used creating whole new issues. The best way to block transmission is a physical barrier to droplet expression which we call a 'mask'. We do not yet have any idea how 'variable' this virus may be nor if the CDC's current estimate of vaccine efficacy of 66% effective will sink even lower as time goes on. Probably, it will. Again, a vaccine 'cocktail' may have greater effectiveness of creating a range of antibodies broad enough to eliminate variants before they can become dominant.

But, no one really knows at this point what the future of this new visitor and parasite of our genepool will hold for us and anyone trying to 'predict' what will be next and convince us they 'know' will be lying. But, it's all part of the 'adventure', isn't it? So, mask up to protect yourself and to, perhaps, protect others from you, and the virus and its future kin will take care of those who don't. Life goes on, more or less, regardless, and even this rampant disease will not make a dent in Human hubris, our worst pandemic disease of all.

Japan's health ministry is weighing mixing and matching different COVID-19 vaccines

This is something the German health authorities started recommending a while ago. Others disagree. Fact is, everybody is fumbling, and while this cocktail idea might have some benefits, it also might have risks.

Right now, nobody completely understands the effects of the experimental mRNA shots, and by definition not the long=term ones.

Sanjinosebleed

Why not just Weigh stopping vaccinating all together! Once the elderly and severely ill have been vaxxed there is no need to vaccinate the rest....forcibly or otherwise!

Exactly. Forced mass vaccination of experimental vaccines clearly does not match with the Nuremberg Code. How did we get to the point, where large parts of the population actually accept this?

There is no need to mix and match.

All people who are getting the first jabs presumably are being allocated second jabs of the same vaccine also.

Just keep on jabbing till supplies are all accounted for.

Also start offering astra zeneza in all the inoculation centers now.

I'd hardly call it mixing

I'm not sure if it was used correctly but the expression used by the writer was mix and match, not mix

Japan's health ministry is weighing mixing and matching different COVID-19 vaccines

This is something the German health authorities started recommending a while ago.

If this is true then they may have done it because the second jab was being scheduled without securing the corresponding supply.

Japan need not do it because supply for the second jab is being allocated with the appointments for second jabs

WARNING

Beware of pseudo intellectuals giving you information of vaccines and dont believe everything in the news.

Japan's health ministry is weighing mixing and matching different COVID-19 vaccines

This is something the German health authorities started recommending a while ago.

If this is true then they may have done it because the second jab was being scheduled without securing the corresponding supply.

Japan need not do it because supply for the second jab is being allocated with the appointments for second jabs

It was made in Germany under following circumstances:

Astrazenca was not recommended anymore after investigation by german Government for people under 60 !

So person who already got first jab with Astrazenca and waited for second jab got finally the Pfizer vaccine. This was ok.

It was never the plan in Germany like in Japan now to mix vaccine for reason of supply shortage!

It was made in Germany under following circumstances:

Astrazenca was not recommended anymore after investigation by german Government for people under 60 !

So person who already got first jab with Astrazenca and waited for second jab got finally the Pfizer vaccine. This was ok.

It was never the plan in Germany like in Japan now to mix vaccine for reason of supply shortage!

Thanks for the info @Superhero

I hope we will be not under a similar circumstance, it's conceivable that some people who got Modena for first jab will decline it now due to contamination issue

People need to stop accepting all these government musings on vaccine guidelines.

If you haven’t figured out that this has been amateur hour all along, then now is a good time start thinking for yourself .

These vaccines are not working! Look at what's happening in Israel. It's obvious that this isn't about health.

Huge reduction of hospitalizations and deaths? high-risk population now in comparable terms with the unvaccinated low-risk? this proves the opposite of what you say it would.

And once again, health experts saying this is an important problem while you saying the opposite based on absolutely no evidence is not exactly a very difficult choice.

A UK study has shown that the AZ vaccine followed by the Pfizer one actually gives a better T-cell response than either vaccine on its own. (This doesn't work if you give the vaccines the other way round though, so be sure to get the order right!). So let's have a bit less negativity to this proposal - as long as they get the right combination!

Even with a double vaccination and a negative PCR test at Tokyo’s airports, I still have to self isolate.

If Japan doesn’t believe in vaccines able to stop transmission then what is it doing mulling mixing vaccines?

A UK study has shown that the AZ vaccine followed by the Pfizer one actually gives a better T-cell response than either vaccine on its own. (This doesn't work if you give the vaccines the other way round though, so be sure to get the order right!). So let's have a bit less negativity to this proposal - as long as they get the right combination!

If that's true and has been established then that's a great reason to mixmatch,

not the supply/logistics issue mentioned

And would I really want a product from Moderna with contaminants in?

Having booster shots?

No, now I will take a antibody test and prove to myself how effective these vaccines are…

stickman1760Today 07:18 am JST

I don’t want the Spanish Moderna with the contamination

Me, too and many others for sure as well. Japan should return the entire delivery to the importer/producer and insist on replacement. Contaminated vaccine is a clear NO!

We will see when Japan is ready to produce its own vaccine or at least producing vaccine in Japan on licence.

Easier to control than to import it.

So once you get vaccinated, you have to receive a booster shot every six months until the COVID-19 pandemic is over or for the rest of your life.

The rest of your life .. htmmm.. You make "the rest of your life" sounds like a really long time. Now, with the Delta mutation and hospitals rejecting admissions, if you are unlucky and get exposed to a lot of of the virus , young or old, the rest of your life might be just 2 weeks.