Covid-19: Japanese remain suspicious as vaccination campaign opens
Pedestrians wearing protective masks against Covid-19 in a Tokyo business district, January 7, 2021. REUTERS - Kim Kyung Hoon
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2 min
Japan will not begin its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 until Wednesday, February 17, initially intended for health workers.
The government has just approved its first vaccine, that of Pfizer / BioNTech.
With five months before the Olympic Games, time is running out, but the authorities are justified.
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With our correspondent in Tokyo,
Frédéric Charles
Japan has decided to make the coronavirus vaccine free and non-compulsory.
He explains his slowness in deploying his vaccination campaign by the mistrust of the Japanese population with regard to vaccines.
In the 1970s and 1980s, several trials were conducted concerning the alleged harmful effects of smallpox vaccines.
A combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine had been withdrawn after cases of meningitis in children.
Shortage of syringes
Only 60% of Japanese people are ready to receive the coronavirus injection today.
There is still a lack of confidence in government information.
Japan is starting to vaccinate despite a
shortage
of suitable syringes so as not to waste doses.
He is looking to procure special syringes to be able to extract the six doses from each vial of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
Japanese syringes can only take five doses.
The archipelago has been
relatively spared
from the pandemic with 6,500 deaths recorded since January 2020.
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Japan
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