Covid-19 in Japan: the delay of the booster dose upsets Tokyoites
In Japan (here Tokyo), the campaign for the third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is slow to start.
AP - Koji Sasahara
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The Omicron variant is spreading day by day, including in Japan.
Except that in the archipelago, the vaccination campaign for the third dose has not yet started.
Hence the concern and discontent of the population.
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With our correspondent in Tokyo,
Bruno Duval
In the fight against Covid-19, the vaccination campaign for the booster dose will probably not start until March for the general public in
Japan
, given the slowness of decision-making in this country and the problems supply.
A situation that annoys and frightens some Tokyoites.
“
Omicron is spreading at frightening speed
around the world, and Japan, as usual, is dawdling with the vaccination.
It's really not reassuring,
”says a woman.
“
We have to step up the pace there, it's no longer possible.
People are scared.
Me, in any case, this new variant worries me a lot,
”adds another.
“
The slowness of the government will spoil my New Year's Eve.
I had to give up spending it with my grandparents so as not to risk endangering their health.
So we can't wait for this third dose, that we can see each other again,
”says a man.
"They will make a mistake and inoculate Moderna instead of Pfizer, or vice versa"
And these passers-by are not even sure that this campaign is going well, when it finally starts.
“
The reservation system will crash again.
And then, they will make a mistake and inoculate Moderna instead of Pfizer, or vice versa.
In short, like the last time, it will be a mess,
”plague a Tokyoite.
“
We will receive the third dose eight months after the second.
In other countries, it's five or six months ... You don't have to try to understand,
”laughs another.
Epidemiologists do not laugh.
They point out that the level of antibodies and immune defenses decrease more quickly in the elderly.
However, 29% of Japanese are aged 65 or over.
► To read also: Variant Omicron: Japan closes its borders to foreign visitors
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