Tokyo News: Tokyo Governor Koike says internal Covid-19 vaccines are national security

Tokyo News: Tokyo Governor Koike says internal Covid-19 vaccines are national security

Kanako Mita and Chika Mori

Modern Tokyo Times

The coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis began in Japan on January 16, 2020. Since then, not one single Japanese company is providing a coronavirus vaccine for usage. This is a far-cry from nations including America, China, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and others, that have internal vaccines – or have produced jointly.

Recent tensions over the shipment of vaccines between the United Kingdom and the European Union (EU), the release of vaccines by the EU to other non-EU nations, and other issues related to internal usage have led to many tensions. Hence, Japan is currently reliant on the creation of vaccines by other nations and is suffering from national self-interests that are leading to supply issues.

The Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, is extremely worried about Japan being reliant on other nations. Koike said Japan must “produce domestic COVID-19 vaccines as soon as possible from the perspective of national security.”

Yesterday two more Japanese companies began vaccination trials in the hope of future approval. This applies to Daiichi Sankyo and KM Biologics. These two companies join Shionogi and AnGes who began trials earlier than Daiichi Sankyo and KM Biologics.

NHK reports, “The Daiichi Sankyo product is of the same type as the Pfizer vaccine that uses mRNA. Inoculations with the Pfizer vaccine are already underway in Japan.”

Overall, Koike raises an important point about national security. Similarly, many people in Japan are also waiting for improved data information and will be more open to taking internal vaccines.

Japan needs to speed up this angle because in recent times more viruses are emerging. Likewise, given the supply disputes between several nations, it is incumbent on Japan to have internal companies that supply vaccines.

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20210323_03/

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