While Pfizer has “pledged” to conduct further studies into the efficacy and safety of the Covid vaccine, Japan, perhaps the most disciplined country in the world, is facing a dramatic situation. The state is setting record after record in Covid hospitalizations and deaths, ranking first in the world for the number of infections. Moreover, in October 2022, Japan also received the vaccine adapted for Omicron.

Japan is officially the most “vaccinated” country in the world. 83% of the population has at least one dose of the anti-Covid vaccine, 82% two doses, and 132% the third dose and the fourth dose, the latter being made with the vaccine adapted for the Omicron variant.

Despite the massive amount of vaccination, the country is experiencing an incredible increase in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. After the completion of the vaccination campaign in 2021, when 80% coverage had been reached, the number of cases, at least until then, exploded. Thus, at the end of January 2022, Japan had reached more than 100,000 cases per day, reaching a peak of 255,000 cases in August.

After a halving of infections in September and October, from November 2022, the number of cases has so far remained at an average of 200,000 cases per day.

Worse, hospitalizations and Covid deaths have increased to a record level. Since January 4, 2023, hospitalizations have reached 44,101, surpassing the record set in August 2022, when 38,000 hospitalizations were reported in a single day.

As for the deaths, they suddenly increased to 489, reported on January 12, 2023. The graph of deaths in Japan shows an exponential increase with the mass vaccination of the population. Moreover, a pattern observed in official Covid reporting is that the most vaccinated countries also had the highest number of Covid infections.  The most were registered in Austria, with 644,000 infections per million inhabitants, in South Korea, France, Portugal, Israel, and Denmark, with over 500,000 infections per million inhabitants, or in Australia, the Netherlands, and Slovakia, with over 400,000.

With nearly 250,000 cases per million people and a rapidly increasing number of infections, Japan will soon overtake these countries.

Comparatively, Romania and Bulgaria have low vaccination rates and around 170,000 infections per million inhabitants. Denmark, with over 500,000 infections per million inhabitants, or Australia, the Netherlands, and Slovakia, with over 400,000.

With nearly 250,000 cases per million people and a rapidly increasing number of infections, Japan will soon overtake these countries. Comparatively, Romania and Bulgaria have low vaccination rates and around 170,000 infections per million inhabitants.

Denmark, with over 500,000 infections per million inhabitants, or Australia, the Netherlands, and Slovakia, with over 400,000. With nearly 250,000 cases per million people and a rapidly increasing number of infections, Japan will soon overtake these countries.

Pfizer has informed the European authorities that it will continue the post-authorization studies of the Covid vaccine and will implement a pharmacovigilance plan. In this sense, support systems have been created to capture clinical data on the nature and severity of the Covid-19 disease in people who have received the Covid-19 mRNA vaccine, anticipating that these will provide insight into potential cases of lack of effect of the vaccine or side effects.

At the same time, the potential multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and adults experienced by people following the administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine will be studied. As additional pharmacovigilance actions, the manufacturer announces the conduct and follow-up of 20 safety and efficacy studies, of which five globally, 5 in Europe, 7 in the US, 2 in the US and Canada, and one each in New Zealand and Australia.

Seven of the announced studies will look at the incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis in the combined vaccine overall and stratified by age group, sex, race/ethnicity (if feasible), dose and risk interval. In addition, to assess the magnitude of risk, these studies will include comparative methods (self-controlled analyzes and analyzes involving a separate comparator group).

The experiment continues

Among the global studies are those that will evaluate the safety, tolerability, immunogenicity, and efficacy of the anti-Covid messenger RNA vaccine in healthy individuals, children, and adolescents.

Their completion date is expected at the end of 2024. At the Department of Defense military and civilian personnel and their families (all ages) of the US Military Health System, the studies will focus on active surveillance of the safety of the Pfizer-Covid-19 vaccine BioNTech, particularly in respect of myocarditis and pericarditis, with completion estimated for December 31, 2023.

via RairFoundation