TOKYO – Japan is facing uncertainty over what the coronavirus vaccine expects and when early messages will come back to prevent it.
More than 50 foreign countries are already providing COVID-19 vaccines. But Japan has yet to agree to any, and many local governments with a responsibility to set up vaccines on the ground are sounding the alarm.
“At this stage, we do not have a detailed record of vaccine supply,” Taro Kono, Japan ‘s minister in charge of vaccine circulation, told reporters on Friday.
Kono said not to disregard the opinion of Deputy Cabinet Secretary Manabu Sakai the day before that Japan expects to receive enough vaccines for the whole country by June. It is unusual for a cabinet member to simply drop an opinion with a high-ranking government official.
“We have reached an agreement to receive a total of 314 million doses,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said Friday. “We hope to deliver quickly to stop the pandemic as soon as possible,” he said.
Japan plans to start vaccinating health care workers by the end of February and older adults by March. A timeline has not yet been established for vaccinating people with preexisting conditions and the rest of the population.
Local governments have expressed concern about the lack of information from central government. The city of Chiba designs both major vaccine drivers and inpatient administration at hospitals. But “we can’t set specific dates, because we don’t know how many doses we’ll get,” a city worker said.
“There are a lot of issues to deal with, like how we handle the vaccines and the order in which we administer them,” Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike Friday. “We urge the national government to outline its plan as soon as possible,” she said.
Mayor Yamagata Takahiro Sato is concerned about finding the right places for large-scale vaccinations. Too many people are scared, depending on how many doses the city gets and how the scenes have to be separated.
The challenges in Japan with getting vaccines date back to last April, when the new coronavirus was spreading rapidly around the world. Pfizer decided to conduct clinical trials for its vaccine across countries including the USA, Germany, Brazil and South Africa. Country-by-country tests are more common and tend to produce more reliable results, but the multifaceted approach is faster.
Japan was not selected to host these trials. Although Pfizer has not stated why, it is believed that the country did not have enough issues at the time, almost speaking.
The US and Europe were able to quickly approve the vaccine thanks to data from their clinical trials. Meanwhile, countries like Japan and South Korea that were not included in these trials have yet to start vaccinations. There is no evidence that the Japanese government made special efforts to prevent this delay.
Japanese authorities decided in September that coronavirus vaccines could not be approved in the country without clinical trials here. Pfizer began testing in Japan that October, about half a year after its first round of testing.
Japan was expected to receive 120 million doses from Pfizer by June. But the two sides had not finalized their deal by the end of 2020, leading the prime minister’s office to tell the Japanese Ambassador in Washington to negotiate directly with Pfizer’s U.S. headquarters.
Japan finally entered into a formal contract with Pfizer on Wednesday, two days after Kono relied on vaccine circulation. The country is expected to receive 144 million doses, enough for 72 million people, by the end of the year. But there are concerns that the new timeline could delay vaccination efforts.
More than 56 million doses of coronavirus vaccines were given across 54 countries and regions as of Friday, according to data compiled by Nikkei and the Financial Times. The race is expected to be to secure them. While Japan is desperate to make up for lost time, it is not clear when deliveries will arrive from Pfizer and others.
AstraZeneca began its clinical trials in Japan before Pfizer. But he has not yet applied for an agreement here, which could delay the move of the promised 30 million doses by March. Moderna announced this week that doses would begin in Japanese clinical trials for her vaccine.
Japan is now paying the price for slipping the legs. Efforts to prevent new diseases and revitalize the economy depend on whether the government can catch up quickly.