Is Japans remarkable vaccination campaign on time for the Olympics?
TOKYO (AP)  After months of frustration and delay, Japan has reached the remarkable threshold of 1 million vaccines per day. The pace of vaccination is accelerating even as young people remain hesitant amid an anti-vaccination disinformation campaign and authorities have slowed vaccination bookings as demand exceeds supply. Add to this the continued political and bureaucratic mess and the arrival of highly contagious coronavirus variants, and there are fears that the governments efforts to step up vaccinations ahead of the Olympics may be insufficient. Thousands of private companies and some universities have joined the vaccination campaign, complementing government efforts to prioritize full vaccination of the elderly by the end of July. The acceleration is raising concerns about a supply shortage, and further progress is now uncertain. Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccinations, on Wednesday brutally announced a temporary suspension of many new vaccination stocks, saying vaccine distribution could not keep pace with demand. Its a tight rope situation, Kono said. Much will depend on whether or not the countrys youth immunization program is adopted. Even as more and more people receive the vaccines and it now seems likely that he will fully inoculate the countrys 36 million elderly people, young people are still largely unvaccinated, and their movements during the holidays d summer and the Olympics could trigger another upsurge in infections, propelled by the most contagious. The Delta strain, which should be dominant by then, experts say. A resurgence of cases among young people has already started in Tokyo, which reported 619 new cases on Wednesday, up from 405 on a seven-day average. The vaccination campaign could run out of steam if young people, many of whom believe they are less likely to develop severe symptoms, do not get vaccinated. Skeptics are sometimes swayed by rumors and misinformation online about vaccines. The story continues  How we might encourage younger generations to get vaccinated is a big deal, Kono said. Officials plan to contact them on social media to provide accurate information. Despite fears that things will slow down again, observers recognize an unexpected turnaround in the vaccination campaign. As of early May, only a quarter of a million vaccines were given daily, with only 2-3% of the population fully vaccinated. The pace has since picked up to 1 million per day, a goal set by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga that was once widely seen as too ambitious. As of Tuesday, about 8.2% of the country was fully immunized. While impressive here, given the slow pace of deployment, it remains low compared to the UKs 46.3%, US 44.9% and the global average of 10%, according to Our World. in Data. The workplace vaccination program began on Monday. The government received applications from nearly 4,000 sites run by businesses and universities, covering more than 15 million employees, their families and students, the prime ministers office said. Suga now has a new goal of fully vaccinating anyone who wants it by October or November. Officials did not say when new immunization bookings might resume, but noted that the overall schedule of the program would not be affected. The vaccination rollout in Japan began with medical staff in mid-February, months behind many other countries. The delay was due to additional clinical testing required for vaccines developed abroad. Vaccinations for the elderly began in mid-April but were slowed by uncertainties in supply and distribution, sloppy booking procedures and a lack of medical staff to give the injections. Japan, still without vaccines developed in the country and ready for use, depends on imports. Supply increased from May, and despite earlier expectations of vaccine hesitancy in general, virus-fearing seniors rushed to get vaccinated. Since May 24, Japan has opened army-run vaccination sites in Tokyo and Osaka, while local municipalities have established tens of thousands of other centers across the country. The Japanese government and Olympic officials, despite their early commitment to hold a safe and secure Games without vaccines, have accepted the donation of doses of Pfizer by the International Olympic Committee for participants, as they scramble to speed up public vaccinations. If things continue, 70% of the elderly will be fully vaccinated by August, while 70% of workplace vaccinations will be completed by the end of November, Mizuho Research & Technologies said in a recent report. If this is achieved, it would increase the GDP by 1%, he said. A range of major retailers, automakers, and trading companies have started providing government-distributed snapshots of Moderna to their employees and families free of charge. Anna Hatakeyama, a 26-year-old office worker, said she will receive her first vaccine next Tuesday as part of her workplace vaccination efforts. She welcomes the blow, but thinks the deployment is still slow. Most of my friends havent received it, she said. I have been fortunate that my company will administer vaccines.  To attract younger people, tech giant SoftBank Group Corp. offers discounted tickets to SoftBank Hawks professional baseball games to those who are getting vaccinated. The company opened its first inoculation site Monday in Tokyo and aims to install more by the end of July for as many as 250,000 employees, their families and neighbors. Japan has had a historic distrust of vaccines, in part because the rare side effects have often been highlighted by the media. A court ruling that held the government responsible for side effects associated with several vaccines led to the end of mandatory vaccinations in the 1990s. Vaccination officials have also faced protests from skeptical parents opposed to coronavirus inoculations of children aged 12 to 15 who were recently added as eligible recipients. Earlier this month, a Kyoto municipal office was inundated with appeals accusing those responsible for attempted murder by immunizing children. Even if vaccinations increase dramatically in the coming months, waves of infections could still occur until young people are largely vaccinated, said Dr Shigeru Omi, one of the governments top COVID-advisers. 19. While vaccines are very effective, they are not 100% effective, and I think it will be some time before we can get the infections under control, Omi said. We have to wait a bit before letting our guard down.   ___  Associated Press writer Kantaro Komiya contributed to this report. ___  Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi  Kantaro Komiya on https://www.twitter.com/kantarokomiya