Anti-vaxxer movement strongest in France

[Maciamo]

The French like to do things differently from everyone else. In the last few months they have made the headlines around the world for the dogged refusal to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

The reasons are varied. Some people believe in the wildest conspiracy theories, claiming that the vaccines are designed to modify people's DNA so that governments can control them! Not only do such people lack any knowledge of genetics/biology/medicine, but even if that was possible, there would need to be a sort of global consensus from all/most governments, a thing that has practically never happened.

Other people simply object to the government telling them what to do. They are anti-establishment, even maybe anarchists. During the Covid lockdowns, the French government imposed heavy fines on people who did not respect the rules, and some of the rules were stricter than almost anywhere else. At one point there was a curfew set at 6 pm! At another there was an obligation to carry a travel exemption certificate (attestation de déplacement dérogatoire) to go out, even to go grocery shopping, clearly mentioning on the paper the reason for going out. This way, if the police stopped someone, they could verify if the reason stated on the paper matched their location. Later they restricted all movements within France to a certain distance radius from one's home. It's understandable that a lot of French people see these rules as abusive limitations of their freedom. Some compared it to living under Nazi occupation and half-jokingly said that soon people who weren't vaccinated would have to carry a yellow star on their arm (in reference to the Jews living under the Nazi regime).

The anti-vaccine movement has been strong in France for a long time. It's one of the few countries with Italy, Greece and the US where a significant minority of the population fears that child vaccines can cause autism or other issues.

BBC News: The vaccine misinformation battle raging in France

"France is one of the most vaccine-sceptical countries in the world - fertile ground for hard-line anti-vaccine activists spreading online misinformation, writes the BBC's specialist disinformation reporter Marianna Spring.

The Facebook group that Gilles helps to run is just one example of a larger trend - an increase in French-language anti-vaccine content on social media over the past year.

Research from BBC Monitoring found that the number of followers of pages sharing extreme anti-vaccine content in French grew in 2020, from 3.2m to nearly 4.1m likes.

These pages aren't about asking legitimate medical questions - they're miles away from the scientific and political discussions currently under way in Europe and elsewhere.

Instead, they're run by people who've firmly made up their minds against vaccinations, and who spread wild false rumours about vaccines killing millions, containing tracking devices, or altering our DNA.

Anti-vaccine pages in French also tend to mix in anti-establishment posts. Many of the discussions centre around concerns that Covid jabs could be made compulsory, with anti-establishment and protest communities fearing that French democracy will be replaced with a so-called "sanitary dictatorship"."

CNBC : France’s vaccine-skepticism is making its Covid immunization drive much harder

"France is thought to be one of the most vaccine-skeptical nations in the world, with public distrust of immunization programs borne out in opinion polls even prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
[...]
An Ipsos survey conducted in conjunction with the World Economic Forum between Dec. 17-20 (and so after the first Covid-19 vaccinations had been given in the U.S. and U.K. but not yet in the EU), found the lowest levels of vaccination intent in France.

The survey — of 13,500 people in 15 countries — found that only 40% of adults asked in France intended to get the vaccine. The highest intention was found in China, where the coronavirus pandemic first emerged in December 2019, with 80% of people agreeing they would get a vaccine if it were available. For comparison, 77% of those asked in the U.K. said they would have the shot, and 69% of those in the U.S. said they intended to get the vaccine.
"

Another September 2020 survey comprising 27 countries shows that a few months earlier 59% of French people wanted to be vaccinated. So there has been a recent decrease. In this poll, France was already among the most anti-vaccine countries. Only Hungary, Poland and Russia were even more so. All countries where confidence in the state is very low!

Intention to be vaccinated (Sept 2020): Russia 53%, France 59%, USA 67%, Belgium 71%, Japan 75%, United Kingdom 85%, Australia 87%...

In the United States, it is mainly blacks and Hispanics who are skeptical of the vaccine. They are also the two ethnic groups that trust the government the least (historically). So it's really about trust.


Yet, the French are in fact heavily divided on the issue. In another survey asking if the Covid-19 vaccine should be mandatory for everyone, 37% of French people replied that it should. That was the lowest percentage in the survey, but still. It means that on the one hand somewhere between 41% and 60% of French people do not want to be vaccinated, but 37% think it should be compulsory. That leaves only about 3 to 22% of moderates in the middle.

[Maciamo]

The Economist reports that 30% of Americans do not plan on getting vaccinated. The largest vaccine-wary groups are white evangelicals, or “born-again” Christians, who make up a quarter of the US population. There is a strong correlation between religiosity and vaccination scepticism. Atheist and agnostics are the least likely to object being vaccinated. That's interesting because in France there is hardly any correlation between religiosity and anti-vaxxers. As I explained above the key determinant is mistrust toward the government/authorities. I suspect that the same is true in the US and that Evangelicals are generally distrustful of political authorities (as are Black protestants).

[Ceribell]

I don’t consider myself to be an anti-vaxxer, but I am going continue and take a wait and see approach.
Being a frontline healthcare worker, I was offered the Pfizer vaccine back in December. We were told that we were “privileged” to be the first people in whole wide world to have this new, approved for emergency use only vaccine.
We just don’t know the long term effects that these vaccines can cause and anyone that tells you otherwise is not being truthful. Time will tell.
Perhaps my race, religion and politics have something to do with the way I feel about taking the jab.
I am white, conservative, Catholic . . . and my ancestry is half French.

[Templar]

. . . and my ancestry is half French.

Man that ending really made me laugh, didn't see it coming.

On a more serious note, I think the decline in social trust in the US and political polarization probably play a major role as well. The Republicans and Democrats are at an all time high of disliking and distrusting each other. Evangelical Christians tend to be Republicans by a wide margin, so that probably plays a part in their distrust for the vaccine.

[Ceribell]

My trust in the government is at an all time low that’s true, but I am not so sure that vaccine hesitancy is so clearly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Robert Kennedy is a big anti vaxxer, a lot like other west coast, new age anti GMO leftists people.
African Americans too, tend to be mistrustful to take it.
I got in trouble at work today for refusing to do a test on a Covid patient.
I’ll no doubt soon be required to either take the vaccine or lose my job.

[Maciamo]

A new Gallup poll covering most of the world assessed intentions of getting the Covid vaccine by country.

The disparities between countries are huge and France does not look so anti-vaxxer after all, with 57% of respondents in favour of getting vaccinated, slightly more than in the USA (53% see full data). In Hungary, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Russia 61% of respondents were against being vaccinated!

The most pro-vaccine Western countries are Iceland (85% in favour), Denmark (85%), Australia (76%), the UK (75%), Norway (74%), Germany (73%) and Ireland (71%).

[Jovialis]

A new Gallup poll covering most of the world assessed intentions of getting the Covid vaccine by country.

The disparities between countries are huge and France does not look so anti-vaxxer after all, with 57% of respondents in favour of getting vaccinated, slightly more than in the USA (53% see full data). In Hungary, Bosnia, Bulgaria and Russia 61% of respondents were against being vaccinated!

The most pro-vaccine Western countries are Iceland (85% in favour), Denmark (85%), Australia (76%), the UK (75%), Norway (74%), Germany (73%) and Ireland (71%).

Thankfully, things are different now, that many people have shifted their opinions since 2020. I think the biggest shift happened in early 2021. Just from an anecdotal perspective, most people I knew that were hesitant, had eventually decided to take it. This is due to family and friends taking it before them, which gave them more confidence.

Also, for the USA, there is certainly a difference state-by-state. For example, Connecticut is the first state in the union to achieve 70% (just about herd immunity) with some other close behind.

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...dults/2483748/

[Jovialis]

My trust in the government is at an all time low that’s true, but I am not so sure that vaccine hesitancy is so clearly divided between Republicans and Democrats.
Robert Kennedy is a big anti vaxxer, a lot like other west coast, new age anti GMO leftists people.
African Americans too, tend to be mistrustful to take it.
I got in trouble at work today for refusing to do a test on a Covid patient.
I’ll no doubt soon be required to either take the vaccine or lose my job.

This is true based on the data I have seen. Even Kamala Harris was initially unwilling to take the vaccine, just because it was developed under the Trump Administration. IMO, this was damaging to the public confidence, especially, among African-Americans.

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/2020-v...virus-vaccine/

both sides of the aisle have vaccine skeptics unfortunately.

[Maciamo]

Two months have passed since I broached this topic. EU countries have largely caught up with the US and UK in terms of vaccination rates. According to Our World in Data, these are the percentages of people who received at least one shot as of 19th June (I rounded up to the closest unit).

• Iceland 70%
• Canada 66%
• UK 63%
• Israel 63%
• Hungary 56%
• Finland 55%
• Belgium 54%
• United States 53%
• Italy 51%
• Denmark 51%
• Netherlands 50%
• Germany 50%
• Austria 49%
• Spain 49%
• France 47%
• Switzerland 45%
• Ireland 45%
• Czechia 44%
• China 43%
• Greece 43%
• Poland 43%
• Sweden 43%
• Norway 39%
• South Korea 27%
• Australia 22%
• Japan 16%

What is surprising is that over the last month (19 May to 19 June), the percentage of vaccinated people only increased by 5% in the USA, 8% in the UK and a paltry 0.65% in Israel. In comparison, it jumped by 24% in Iceland, 21% in Denmark, 20% in South Korea, 19% in Canada...

So it would appear that we are slowly reached the upper limit of people who want to be vaccinated. The chart shows it well. Israel has been almost stationary over the last 3 months, adding only 3% (60% to 63%).

It will be interesting to see in a few months what maximum percentage is reached in each country. That should give us the true percentage of anti-vaxxers. Opinion polls aren't very reliable because it only samples a tiny part of the population, but also because people can change mind. Once people are vaccinated, they cannot change their mind back.

At present it would appear that many countries will reach a vaccination rate somewhere between 60% and 70%.

[Jovialis]

The thing is about Canada is that some provinces have been staggering second doses of the vaccine, far beyond recommended by health officials. Also, some Canadians have been coming south to NY, and other states that provide shots regardless of immigration status. Currently people considered fully-vaccinated are only about 18%, there.

[Silesian]

I'm blessed to live in a country with big pharma therapy and abundance of clean drinking water-is that considered "white privilege?" I don't know(https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/06/...o-clean-water/). However being of little means, I can't afford the experimental treatment being offered against a virus with a mortality rate of roughly .05%+/- give or take(4million+/- divided by 7.9 billion+/-). However if I could afford the experimental treatments; I would want to donate mine to a person of little means in the third world, who have neither access to clean drinking water, or the experimental therapy.

[Jovialis]

I'm blessed to live in a country with big pharma therapy and abundance of clean drinking water-is that considered "white privilege?" I don't know(https://toronto.citynews.ca/2021/06/...o-clean-water/). However being of little means, I can't afford the experimental treatment being offered against a virus with a mortality rate of roughly .05%+/- give or take(4million+/- divided by 7.9 billion+/-). However if I could afford the experimental treatments; I would want to donate mine to a person of little means in the third world, who have neither access to clean drinking water, or the experimental therapy.

Please don't tell me you are against the vaccine, because that is what I am getting from your post.

[Silesian]

Please don't tell me you are against the vaccine, because that is what I am getting from your post.

I'm very grateful for vaccines and even alternative experimental therapies like mRNA. I'm also grateful that there are humble people of little means, who are willing to inject these new treatments into their bodies in the experimental phase, while being under medical experimental supervision(Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS):.
I often wondered with the initial onset of covid 19 why there was not one universal vaccine and or alternative mRNA therapy made freely available to all facilities around the world capable of producing it without fear of being sued, kind of like Linux, everyone shares in the effort to combat the pandemic?

[Jovialis]

I'm very grateful for vaccines and even alternative experimental therapies like mRNA. I'm also grateful that there are people who are willing to inject these new treatments into their bodies in the experimental phase, while being under medical experimental supervision(Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS):.

Here is some reading for you:

On 5 May, Fox News host Tucker Carlson delivered a 10-minute monologue casting doubt on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines on his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight. He announced that almost 4000 people had died after getting COVID-19 vaccines, and added that those data “comes from VAERS,”—the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a U.S. government program that collects reports of side effects possibly caused by vaccines.


It was a misleading statement. The reporting of a death to VAERS indicates nothing about what caused it, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) subsequent investigations have found no indication that deaths were caused by COVID-19 vaccines, save in a small subset with an extremely rare clotting disorder linked to one vaccine. But the TV segment pulled VAERS, a 31-year-old early warning system widely relied on by scientists, even deeper into the culture wars over vaccination. After the broadcast, a new phalanx of antivaccine activists began plumbing VAERS for data to scare the public about vaccination, says Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters for America, a left-leaning nonprofit that is monitoring anti–COVID-19 vaccine activity on social media. “We have been tracking these attacks since February and this one resonated in a different way after Tucker hit it,” Carusone says.
It has been distressing to watch for researchers who use VAERS to detect real vaccine side effects—such as the very rare clotting disorder linked to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine—and to rule out others, thus providing both safety and reassurance to the public. “I can’t believe people are using this database now to try to form this antivaccination argument,” says Eric Formeister, an ear surgeon at Johns Hopkins University.


Formeister and colleagues turned to VAERS, which is run by CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, after hearing anecdotal reports from patients of sudden hearing loss after COVID-19 vaccination. Their analysis of VAERS data concluded hearing loss was no more frequent, and possibly less frequent, among vaccine recipients than in the population as a whole, as they published in JAMA Otolaryngology last week. CDC is now using VAERS data to probe whether COVID-19 vaccines might rarely be causing heart inflammation in children; it has not yet reached a conclusion.


One of VAERS’s strengths—its openness—is also a potential weakness in the politicized COVID-19 era. Anyone who receives a vaccine authorized in the United States can report an adverse event to VAERS, as can doctors, family members, and others. That openness ensures VAERS receives plentiful reports—228,000 for COVID-19 vaccines alone since December 2020, more than four times the number received in all of last year for all vaccines.


Some worry this might make it easy to post false reports. But CDC removes data that are clearly ****, such as a recent report purportedly filed by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro about an adverse event in a beach volleyball superstar. And deliberate, false reporting to VAERS, which is a federal criminal offense, appears to be rare. “We don’t have evidence that there is widespread fraud or gaming of the system,” says Tom Shimabukuro, deputy director of CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, which oversees VAERS. “We have to balance keeping VAERS an open system and getting as much information as we can on vaccine safety against potential data quality problems.”


But even honest reports can be used to spook the public. The reports themselves are not vetted, and, as CDC states in a prominent disclaimer, they “may include incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental and unverified information.”


People may misinterpret VAERS, which is easily searchable, as a catalog of actual side effects, rather than possible or suspected ones. And it’s easy to pull data out of context. “For those who are out to scare, there’s a lot of material there,” says Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.


Take Carlson’s fearful numbers. The Fox News host did not mention the reports are not vetted, nor that among the approximately 4000 deaths after COVID-19 vaccination reported to VAERS at the time of his broadcast, nearly 80% were in people 60 and older, whose mortality from all causes is substantially higher than in younger people. “A review of available clinical information, including death ***********s, autopsy, and medical records has not established a causal link to COVID-19 vaccines,” as CDC puts it on its website.


To counter misinterpretation of its data, the VAERS website prominently notes the reports do not imply causality and that any event could have happened by coincidence. The number of deaths reported after a COVID-19 vaccination as of 24 May—4863—represents just 0.0017% of more than 285 million doses of vaccine given, the agency notes in a continuously updated statement.


But experts who track vaccine misinformation worry the imprimatur of VAERS gives misleading claims a sheen of credibility. “At the moment when we need to persuade people, there is something so incredibly compelling about a database that’s tracking what are designated as ‘adverse events,’” Carusone says. “That Tucker segment has created this catalyst for all sorts of analysis of the database,” including false claims that the vaccines kill babies and that CDC is hiding VAERS reports.


Carusone says the episode has gained particular traction on Spanish-language social media, where a translation was published 2 days later. There, false claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility have also gained attention, although neither VAERS data nor Carlson’s newscast address that claim.


Despite the disinformation, the VAERS system is critical to keeping vaccines safe—and its history during COVID-19 shows it’s working, CDC officials say. VAERS data were crucial to CDC’s ability to quickly detect and guide providers and the public about rare allergic reactions caused by the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines and the even rarer problem with the J&J jab, says John Su, a physician who leads the VAERS team within CDC’s Immunization Safety Office. Keeping the system open to anyone who wants to report a suspected side effect or wants to consult the data is essential, he says.


But Larson says CDC and the public health community need to make a “serious investment right now” to more aggressively counter the misuse of VAERS data, for example by responding as quickly as possible to new myths that are gaining traction, and doing so in lay-friendly language and forums rather than arcane medical journals. “At least make sure you get the right information out there as soon as possible,” she says. “Watch how people misinterpret [VAERS data] … because it’s clearly being misinterpreted.”



https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021...s-scare-public

[Jovialis]

Also the Covid-19 vaccines are not "experimental", this is a false statement:

Correction, April 30, 2021: An earlier version of this check described the Pfizer/BioNtech, Moderna and J&J vaccines as being approved for use in the United States. This has been corrected to say these vaccines have been authorized for emergency use by the FDA. Vaccine makers will need to apply to the FDA for full approval to continue use after the pandemic.

Claims that COVID-19 vaccines are “experimental”, have skipped animal testing and have not completed initial research trials are false. They were included in a Facebook post addressed in this check. 

Titled “6 facts about the 3 vaccines”, the post can be seen (here). Four of the most damaging claims will be discussed below. Any others, however, are outside the scope of this check. 

CLAIM 1 - “All the vaccines are considered experimental” 

According to the post, all vaccines are considered experimental. This is not true – they have all been put through standard safety testing before being rolled out to the public. 

Both the United States and United Kingdom have authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines for emergency use, while the former has also authorized shots by Johnson & Johnson; the latter by Oxford/AstraZeneca. 

Emergency use authorization (EUA) in the U.S. has been issued as a result of the severity of the pandemic. When the pandemic is over, the EUA will cease and vaccine manufacturers will need to apply for full U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval (here). No timeline on this has yet been given (here). The UK, meanwhile, has a similar mechanism (here , here).

The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca shots are viral vector vaccines, a type of jab also used during Ebola outbreaks, as well as in studies of illnesses including influenza, Zika and HIV (here). They both use a modified and weakened version of a harmless adenovirus to deliver instructions to cells to make coronavirus spike proteins. This will generate an immune response and prevent infection (here , here). 

Meanwhile, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA) to generate a similar immune response. While these are the first mRNA vaccines to be rolled out to the general public, the technology behind them has been developed over a number of years (here).  

CLAIM 2 - “All were allowed to skip animal trials”  

The claim that COVID-19 vaccines have skipped animal trials has already been covered by Reuters here) here .� �

Oxford University confirmed the vaccine it created with AstraZeneca has undergone animal trials in the UK, US and Australia (here). Pfizer and BioNTech released information in Sept. 2020 about the effects of their mRNA vaccine in mice and non-human primates (here).  

Moderna has released similar information (here, here), as has Johnson & Johnson (here). 

However, due to time constraints and the urgency to find a vaccine for COVID-19, Moderna and Pfizer did receive approval to run animal testing and early trials on humans at the same time, as opposed to fully completing animal trials before moving on to human trials. This, however, does not mean animal trials were skipped. (  here, here ,  here).

CLAIM 3 - “None have completed initial research trials”    

All four vaccines given emergency authorization in the U.S. and UK have published results from the final phase three trials. 

Pfizer/BioNTech’s phase three trial began in late July 2020 and the results were published in December 2020 (here). The trial enrolled 46,331 participants at 153 sites around the world in Argentina, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa and the U.S., according to Pfizer’s website (here).

Oxford/AstraZeneca’s clinical trials involved 23,848 people across the UK, Brazil, and South Africa between April and November 2020, according to a report published by the Oxford Vaccine Group in the medical journal The Lancet (bit.ly/3u7POsa, page 1).  

Johnson & Johnson recruited 44,325 people for its phase three clinical trial between September 2020 and January 2021 (here, here), while Moderna had 30,420 volunteers for the same phase of testing between July and October 2020 (here).

CLAIM 4 - “None will complete a research trial for 2-3 years”  

This is not true, and likely stems from misinformation shared elsewhere which equates “estimated study completion dates” on clinical trial websites to the actual end dates of clinical trials. 

For Pfizer, this estimated date is listed as Jan. 31, 2023 (bit.ly/3vvVPiz), while Moderna is Oct. 27, 2022 (bit.ly/3aSmb6y).

However, these dates do not mean clinical trials will continue for this long, and instead reference continued safety monitoring after the vaccine has been approved and rolled out, which is standard practice within the industry.  

VERDICT  

False. COVID-19 vaccines authorized for use in the U.S. and UK are not experimental and have all completed animal and clinical trials. 

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work   here  .


https://www.reuters.com/article/fact...-idUSL1N2M70MW

[Silesian]

Also the Covid-19 vaccines are not "experimental", this is a false statement:

The difference- vaccines and mRNA gene therapy. Can you imagine what would have happened if unit 731 had any of this technology? Hard to believe any country would grant them immunity!

[Jovialis]

The difference- vaccines and mRNA gene therapy. Can you imagine what would have happened if unit 731 had any of this technology? Hard to believe any country would grant them immunity!

TBH, I don't even understand what you are saying. Are you saying, the mRNA vaccines are not vaccines? Because that would be preposterous.

Also, if you want to take a traditional vaccine, you can take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine; assuming you are not vaccinated.

[Jovialis]

Also, mRNA vaccines are NOT gene therapy:

https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-b...t-gene-therapy

https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucele...-are-claiming/

All it is doing is sending proteins instructing your immune system to combat COVID-19, rather than injecting you with an attenuated version of the virus. It is not modifying your genes.

Where are you getting this stuff from?

[Ceribell]

I am surprised to see that Japan is way at the bottom of the list, with only 16%.
Japan is a developed, first world country, as well as one of the most densely populated. The Japanese are known for their health and longevity.
I wonder if it will be mandatory to attend the Olympics?

[Coriolan]

I am surprised to see that Japan is way at the bottom of the list, with only 16%.
Japan is a developed, first world country, as well as one of the most densely populated. The Japanese are known for their health and longevity.
I wonder if it will be mandatory to attend the Olympics?

Japan has a relatively low rate of covid infection, so the delivery of vaccines went first two harder hit countries in Europe and the Americas. From what I read the Olympics will be held without spectators.

[Silesian]

TBH, I don't even understand what you are saying. Are you saying, the mRNA vaccines are not vaccines? Because that would be preposterous.

Also, if you want to take a traditional vaccine, you can take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine; assuming you are not vaccinated.

the mRNA vaccines -

General

Before 2020, no mRNA technology platform (drug or vaccine) had been authorized for use in humans, so there was a risk of unknown effects.^[42] The 2020 coronavirus pandemic required faster production capability of mRNA vaccines, made them attractive to national health organisations, and led to debate about the type of initial authorization mRNA vaccines should get (including emergency use authorization or expanded access authorization) after the eight-week period of post-final human trials.^[72][73]

Possible side effects--Did you experience any blood clotting, lumps, or inflammation around your heart with your vaccine? As covid variants appear( like Delta ) how did your immune system react?

[Jovialis]

No, I didn't have any side effects, neither did any of the people I know have such side effects. Which are the majority of my friends and family. I took pfizer. My dad and sister did have some headaches after taking Moderna, but they are perfectly fine now. Which by the way is normal, and can happen with other well established vaccines. It only lasted for a day with them. They're grateful to have taken the vaccine.

[Silesian]

Japan has a relatively low rate of covid infection, so the delivery of vaccines went first two harder hit countries in Europe and the Americas. From what I read the Olympics will be held without spectators.

Japan is an amazing culture. Extremely hard working, low crime, respectful, law abiding. The schooling system has less bulllying, and shared lunches made from local farms-(when compared to Canada).

[Coriolan]

Japan is an amazing culture. Extremely hard working, low crime, respectful, law abiding. The schooling system has less bulllying, and shared lunches made from local farms-(when compared to Canada).

How is that relevant to this discussion about vaccines?

[ThirdTerm]

Japan has a relatively low rate of covid infection, so the delivery of vaccines went first two harder hit countries in Europe and the Americas. From what I read the Olympics will be held without spectators.

The vaccine rollout is slow in Japan because Covid-19 vaccines are imports from Europe and America, which prioritized their own populations. It may take up to a year to finish vaccinating the entire population. So far, just above 350 people died after Covid-19 vaccination, mostly those over 65 who got vaccinated first ahead of the general population. Norway said earlier that Covid-19 vaccines may be too risky for the very old and terminally ill​. All the reported deaths in Norway were related to “elderly people with serious basic disorders.” The Tokyo organizing committee determined that the upper limit of spectators is 10,000 per venue for the Olympics despite fears around the Covid-19 pandemic. Fans may need a proof of Covid-19 negative test to attend the Olympic Games.