Japan is believed to be “slow” to vaccinate people. According to Our World in Data, about 20 percent of its population has received an injection and more than 9 percent are fully immunized.
At the same time, Tokyo donated vaccines to several countries in Asia.
Japan has a low vaccination rate for some reason, said Pham Hung An, a Vietnamese working in Tokyo. VnExpress International.
The country approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in February and rolled out vaccination for health workers immediately after that. However, mass vaccination was only carried out from mid-June.
One said the Japanese are skeptical about the safety of the Pfizer vaccine in part because the government approved it exceptionally quickly and newspapers have written about the complications and deaths it causes.
He has yet to be called in for the vaccination since he lives in Chiba, about 20 km from Tokyo and is not a priority area in the vaccination program, he said.
“I guess it will take a long time for me to get the vaccine.”
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Pham Hung An is in Naga City, Japan as of April 2021. Photo courtesy of An. |
According to Kyodo News, while Japan obtained enough AstraZeneca vaccines for 60 million people and approved their use in May, it does not intend to use them immediately in public immunization programs due to reported cases of blood clots abroad.
Nguyen Phuong (name changed), who lives in Osaka, said she doesn’t think Japan’s vaccination program is slow, but that the government just needs to select the age groups in a certain order and monitor closely people after their vaccination to ensure their safety.
In her residential area, people aged 65 and over get vaccinated first. People between the ages of 20 and 30 should be vaccinated in July and August.
“While on the waiting list, I am looking for information to be better prepared.”
Asked about attitudes towards the vaccine, she said people, including Vietnamese, were not too keen on getting the vaccine, explaining that some fear side effects and others want to have the best vaccine possible to ensure Security.
Dang Thi Bao Tran, who lives in Kobe, said another reason for the “modest speed” of the vaccination program in Japan is that the elderly are not good at using the Internet to register, even though they are listed. on the priority list.
In addition, the number of hotline operators is insufficient to meet demand, she said.
She expected things to speed up in July when young and middle-aged people get vaccinated.
She herself received two injections of the Pfizer vaccine because she worked in a hospital.
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Dang Thi Bao Tran is on Awaji Island, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan in June 2021. Photo courtesy of Tran. |
In the city of Sakaiminato, Truong Cuong, a Vietnamese man working in a retirement home, said he did not know the rhythm of the vaccination but that all of his colleagues wanted to be vaccinated.
Local authorities are increasing the number of vaccination sites and have even canceled several Japanese tests allowing foreigners to take control of examination sites. Cuong is on a priority list and therefore received the first Pfizer vaccine, and will have the second at the end of June.
Not too many worries
Tran said that although she had a high fever after receiving the vaccine, she felt good and safe with her job in the hospital.
An said he was not very worried about the risk of contracting Covid, especially after knowing that the disease might not be serious for young people.
Life in Tokyo has been normal for a long time now as people seem to be “tired” of the pandemic, he said. They are coming out for work and for other activities, regardless of the fact that the number of new cases is increasing day by day, he said.
He himself has no difficulty at work and in daily life, except for the fact that he was unable to visit Vietnam and his family.
Phuong said she always wears a mask and follows social distancing rules to be careful.
“But I am not too worried as I have familiarized myself with the new normal caused by the pandemic.”
