EU approves first shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Japan

The Japanese government plans to vaccinate medical workers first, then the elderly, followed by people with health conditions and those working at elderly care facilities.

so it’s gonna be about 2025 by the time the rest of us get it.

Taro Kono. He did not say how many doses the first shipment would contain, or when it would be delivered.

That's on a need to know basis, and the public DONT need to know; otherwise, we would have to answer questions! Straight out of the J leadership playbook. Carry on, heads down. Nothing to see here.

It is mid February.

It appears each shipment requires EU approval, said the minister

It appears? This makes it seem like he's only learning this piece of information just now. Does this guy have any handle on the task at hand?

Forgot to add, how soon can Japan vaccinate 24 million people?

I assume you meant each vial has a small area that can’t be reached.

No, a small amount of the vaccine remains in the syringe; it cannot be expelled.

A new type of syringe has a special plunger that pushes almost all of the solution out of the syringe, so less waste.

New problem for Japan with the vaccine now , they need 20 % more, The vaccine comes in vials of 6 doses but Japanese syringes only can take 5 so this has suddenly reduced the amount of vaccine Japan is getting by 20% . The extra part in each vial of 6 will be wasted. Source- todays 7 PM NHK news.

@anon99999

Are you sure you're getting that right? A new syringe would be used on each and every patient... so a syringe only needs to be able to hold one dose.

Good news!

Thanks EU!

The EU imposed these restrictive, anti free trade rules late in the day to distract their own rightly objecting population from their own incompetence.

Japan has a commercial contract with the supplier but the EU interposed it’s self after the fact to interfere with that contract.

Last figures I saw over the weekend the UK had given just short of 12 million shots. 18% of the population, so the impact of the vaccination programme should begin to start showing.

Even without the EU’s interference Japan has a long way to go to reach rage 20% figure where it’s considered to begin to have an impact on the spread of the disease.

@zoroto

Thanks for the clarification. I assume you meant each vial has a small area that can’t be reached. All makes sense now. And solution seems pretty damn straightforward too! Buy the right syringes for the job!

@Raw Beer

Got it. Thanks.

So the government has a choice. Buy the better syringes, or waste the vaccine. Seems like a simple choice, subject of course to available supply of the better syringes.

@anon99999

Not sure where you or NHK got this but NO!

The facts have been known for months,

The vials official contain 5 doses but if very careful hospitas in the USA and UK have been able to get 6 doses.

So fact they are 5 doses vials meant to give 5 doses and even in the USA and UK only professionals have been able to get 6 doses where they are using trained volunteers that have just been given a crash course on vaccinating they are not able to do that.

Also it is not uncommon to vaccine vials to have over the dosage in them in the event human error mishaps, etc.. you cannot use vaccine from a different vial to top off a low dose in a syringe so they over fill as a precaution.

looks like india is in no rush to collect their darwin awards...

Or, their generics manufacturers are close to being ready to rollout a knockoff.

Many Brexit fanboys don't get their news right, still. First of all, any country within the EU could order vaccine separately. Yet they chose to order as one for better conditions. Britain would've ordered separately anyway if it was still in the EU, never seen much solidarity from there. Second, British based AstraZeneca, sponsored with millions of Euros from the EU, did not fulfill the contract (cut by more than 60% to EU only) by diverting vaccines to the UK, hence this was the reason the EU had to impose export control on vaccines. Nevertheless, the EU never seized any vaccine to third countries so far and probably never will do so, this was even declared when the export control neccessity has been decided on. Since the US basically doesn't allow export of BionTech/Pfizer vaccine produced in the states, the EU plants still serve the rest of the world. Since Britain is in desparate need of any vaccines, they decided to even delay the neccessary and important second shot by months. One shot is not very effecitve so whether this is the right way to do, nobody knows. But hey, statistics of vaccinated people go up. So despite all of this I'm positive Japan will have enough vaccine once they start the inoculating process for its people.

Japan has to wait for the EU's approval! No wonder it's taking too long. Thankfully the UK got away from those control freaks and so have already administered over 10million vaccines and counting. Brexit britain keeps winning.

One aspect we dont really hear enough about is if Japan can even HANDLE a shipment of vaccines.

I dont think they have enough cold storage set up around the country with enough space to accommodate any decent sized shipments so if it were shipped in quantity can Japan even store the ones that need -70C

My gut says they cant & THAT is a big reason why they are saying shots for the masses starting by June .......maybe

One thing we know for sure & that is the govt is keeping this all clear as mud as usual, they just continue to treat their masses with contempt as they have always done!

The EU has sponsored BioNTech and AstraSeneca with millions of Euro. Unlike the US and UK, the EU allows export of vaccines.

BUT, isn't it more serious the fact that the EU and USA have near 100% control of how much and who can get the vaccine even when they ordered and paid for it from a private company.

This is serious, but at the same time unfortunately not all that surprising.

"The Japanese government plans to vaccinate medical workers first, then the elderly, followed by people with health conditions and those working at elderly care facilities."

What about getting it in your home country where this is not the order (apparently)?

Psst: this the Global order for inoculations’.

Just don't tell anyone.

Here is what has been going on.

Canada bought millions of doses from Pfizer USA got its first shipment then the USA government blocked exports, so Canada bought more from Pfizer EU, only to have that blocked also, desperate it did the same with Moderna and then AZ all with the same results blocked blocked blocked.

Now Canada is using its Covax option and the EU cannot block that but instead is criticizing Canada for taking vaccine that could go to poor countries Note Covax deal is in theory pay for 2 doses get one and one goes to a poor country).

I suspect something similar is going on with Japan but as usual the Japanese government opaque nature means the public is kept in the dark about all of it.

But seeing Canada is not the only country having this problem I think it is the most likely scenario going on in Japan.

To point out how bad it is, Canada has actually ordered over 400 million doses and paid for the bulk of these orders and hasn't even recieved enough to cover first responders let alone the elderly in a country of 37 million people.

That story was something like that...5 doses officially in the vial, but some more content to avoid problems like complaints etc. And now they officially squeezed 6 out of it in Europe to vaccinate more people with the same amount of bottles. What followed? Pfizer-BioNtech also not stupid , now declares those bottles containing 6 doses, so that they can earlier complete their delivery duties. Nothing changed, but 16% faster the fulfillment and the same contracted money...lol

first jabs 2 days later

Or rollout at least if they dont mean the same thing

Tonights 7PM NHK news February 9th said that because of the size of Japan's syringes they can only get 5 does out of a vial instead of the 6 that is designed to be delivered. Because of this Japan will lose 1 does per vial so it means they will be getting 20% less doses than they though they would be getting. I am only reporting what the news said.

I dont know if this is correct and perhaps the experts on this forum know better, but that is what they said. and this story confirms and explains in more detail

https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2021/02/6b5b9a101956-fewer-people-to-get-pfizer-vaccine-in-japan-due-to-syringe-shortage.html

@anon99999

If the info on that link is similar to the nhk news, you may indeed have misunderstood some details. No need to dwell on it though , the important thing is that you shared information and you also provided sources.

@tokyojoe brexit fanboy don,t get too excited, the UK is a mess right now ... ...

All the complaining about the Japanese government handling is justified.

BUT, isn't it more serious the fact that the EU and USA have near 100% control of how much and who can get the vaccine even when they ordered and paid for it from a private company.

In Canada the country has had to sign contracts for 400 million doses for a population of 37 million because so few vaccine has been delivered because both the EU and USA blocked all the exports to Canada.

So Japan has no vaccination schedule at this time but how could it seeing it hasn't actually been told by the EU until today when or even if Japan would get its already paid for vaccine.

As it is now if the EU does as it has with Canada, Japan will probably have production of the AZ vaccine in full swing before even 20% of import vaccine gets here.

So Japan has no vaccination schedule at this time but how could it seeing it hasn't actually been told by the EU until today when or even if Japan would get its already paid for vaccine

I think ive read something about that before.

Iirc They were aiming to vaccinate around 57 million priority individuals until around July at which time vaccination for general population will commence.

The article from i thnk japantimes has a breakdown of that 57M scheduled from april to july not including frontliners which will get jabs before april

Ah no, what you said may be correct. Syringes used here may be bigger than the special syringes that can draw 6 doses.

The problem is that these big syringes cannot inject all fluid it draws from the vial so some vaccine is left after injecting to a person. So to be able to inject a proper dose, more vaccine needs to be drawn and some will be left in the syringe after inoculation.

@Fuzzy

I suspect India is waiting for some way to get the AZ formula or possibly Moderna and Pfizer then do as it has done with HIV meds give them the ultimatum of supply fast and cheap or the Indian government will emergency license generics without paying royalties.

They have done it before and I don't think they will hesitate doing it again.

Emergency use would mean that Pfizer wouldn't be handing over all the technical information right away thus making giving it to a generic maker not possible.

@Tokyo-m

See my post on that. You need to have the right technology and the rights to use the already patented technology which no Japanese company has.

Funny how these companies even after getting billions for governments are even trying to claim patents of the human genome.

@Peter W.

Canada put in more per capita the second largest contributor to Covax that was AZ development and others but the EU has blocked shipments.

So no it says it allows shipments but in reality it has done nothing but block them in the same way they have here.

EU never seized any vaccine to third countries so far and probably never will do so, this was even declared when the export control neccessity has been decided on. 

Oh the technical mumbo jumbo.

No they haven't seized any, true the just refused to grant export licenses.

6 or half a dozen the same thing.

Ask Canada about that one

Japan and other countries that tried and could not develop their own vaccines ran into the same problems.

So note carefully and learn.

Unfortunately like so many things today big companies have cornered the patents on so many things and that includes nRNA and certain technologies needed to produce a vaccine for Corona type virus.

There are only so many methods that can produce a viable vaccine and the big guys own it all.

Japan tried using other attempts without infringing on patents but this failed like every other ones tried.

Certain countries ignore these patent rights or claim they developed the method before or separately ( you can take a guess at which ones).

So barring some sudden breakthrough Japan did what it could, it used it's backup plan of using the option it secured under Covax to get the AZ vaccine method and produce locally as it has the capability to do that, but AZ despite having done all the testing in Japan has still not formally applied for approval in Japan mostly because it is still trying to squeez more money from Japan.

And the fact the EU is blocking exports is putting more pressure on Japan to pay more.

Japan is not alone in this situation but Canada and others are in the same or worse ( Canada unlike Japan doesn't actually have domestic vaccine production capabilities needed and is just building them now).

Other countries are looking at forcing local production by generic makers if supplies are not available soon but that means somehow getting the companies like Pfizer, Moderna and AZ to hand over the formula/method.

Japan like Canada, Brazil, India, South Korea, etc... Are caught between a rock and a hard place pay but still no vaccine, pay more and still nothing then pay even more and maybe get permission to produce it locally and maybe one day the original order will be delivered.

The vials official contain 5 doses but if very careful hospitas in the USA and UK have been able to get 6 doses.

That would mean 1 out of 6 individuals will not get a chip, no wonder the required special syringe seems nowhere to be found

yeah!!

we will have so much vaccines we can make an "all shots you can take" for free!!

Dont get too excited. Just careful with your decision. Some weak and even healthy people in UK are having nightmares with side effects. It is little bit premium version of Fku Jab.

First of all, ask yourself one thing. Do you really have to take vaccine?

It's plausible that they're trying to sell these vaccines before everybody finds out how ineffective they are. The AstraZeneca vaccine is not effective and we'll see about the Pfizer, but it doesn't look good. it appears the virus is a runaway train that's left to the vaccines at the train station. How could this happen? I thought viruses were supposed to mutate themselves into a harmless state. How could they be changing and getting so much worse? Could it be that the vaccines are allowing the stronger and more dangerous traits to prevail? Nobody knows? When are they going to come clean with us about this virus?

Now it's almost mid-February,

LOL japan hater. Mid means middle. So for a month with 28 days means around the 14th. Mid February was for the approval of the vaccine. Here is what the govenment said:

Health minister Norihisa Tamura said he’s hoping Pfizer Inc.’s coronavirus vaccine will be approved by mid-February under an accelerated process.

Tamura’s comments came after Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga reiterated this week that the government was preparing to start the inoculation program in late February, and added that local governments were readying vaccination centers.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2021/01/16/national/japan-february-pfizer-vaccine-coronavirus/