Why Many Asian Countries Are Being Cautious on Vaccines

Japan Times ^ | Jan 15, 2021 | IAIN MARLOW, LISA DU AND JINSHAN HONG

[nickcarraway]

The nations quickest to enact social distancing and contact-tracing systems have mostly kept COVID-19 in check, but their citizens now find themselves lagging in receiving the shots needed to finally end a pandemic that has devastated millions of lives.

Governments from Japan and Australia to Hong Kong and South Korea are taking their time before granting regulatory approvals for vaccines, in stark contrast to the Western nations that have rushed to inoculate populations.

That cautious approach may seem strange given the urgency to resume normal life, but low infection rates mean that Asian governments are able to wait to see how the unprecedented vaccination drives play out elsewhere. Still, the strategy runs the risk of leaving them economically disadvantaged against places that botched containment but rushed out vaccination.

In New Zealand, which has the top spot on Bloomberg’s Covid Resilience Ranking of major economies that have best fought the pandemic, the main opposition party asked Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to explain why the country “has fallen behind the rest of the world with its vaccine program.”

In South Korea, an editorial in newspaper Hankyoreh said “we cannot forever ask people to stop their daily lives and endure the economic pain.”

[DesertRhino]

It’s the collective pegging of very large numbers of bullshit meters.

[noiseman]

The highest priority should be to ensure that something like this never happens again. The only way to do that is to remove the Chinese Communists from power, no matter what it takes. Trump should have launched a covert war against them while he still held power. But with Biden taking over, we know that nothing will be done to China, other than handing our country over to them on a silver platter.

So now we’re really in a box. While dems continue to hold power, the welcome mat will be out for China, and if Trump or another strong America-first president takes back the reins, China will just release another virus, possibly more deadly, to force us into hiding again.

[CatOwner]

I think it was Taiwan a decade or so ago who started vaccinating for SARS when numerous school-age children started dying after the vaccine shots. This prompted the country to stop with the vaccinations.

[CatOwner]

Or maybe it was H1N1, not SARS.

[buwaya]

In the Philippines only 25% are willing to take the Covid vaccination. One reason is the Dengue vaccine disaster of 2016, in which hundreds of children died from defects or misuse of the vaccine.

[TigerLikesRoosterNew]

For Japan and S. Korea, I was told the delay is not due to medical reasons. Some in general population may have misgivings. But that is not the real reason why their governments delay vaccination.

S. Korean government botched to secure vaccines in time. They wasted their time betting on domestically developed vaccine. Now they are scrambling to get vaccines from the market. Since their order came too late, they would be lucky to get vaccines in third quarter of this year.

For Japan, they have a problem keeping track of people to be vaccinated. They don’t have national ID card. Japanese government actually created ID and encourage Japanese to get it but only some of them(25%?) got it. So they have problem to find people to be vaccinated. They also have to make sure nobody gets the shot more than once. So they have to set up a new mechanism in place to keep track of people for vaccination. This causes delay even though they have enough vaccines for entire population in Japan.

[exnavy]

As soon as i saw “Bloomberg” i knew manipulation of facts for control of people was happening.

[faithhopecharity]

At least two brands of these vaccines employ a genetic mechanism never before tried in mass inoculation. Not the proven kinds of vaccines. ( And some caution is normal, perhaps prudent, whenever medical approvals are rushed through in record time for almost any treatment procedures or drugs )

[IgnorerOfLiberals]

Because they are smart.

[ballplayer]

Do your research,it wasn’t just China doing “Gain Of Function” research,it was being done in this country by Dr. Anthony Fauci before the U.S. government banned it for being to dangerous.
This virus is not natural,it was genetically engineered,you have vaccines being developed that have never been used in the body before to fight a man made virus,who know how the virus or human body will react.
The Government says it is safe? Then why are the companies that produce it insist on liability protection?
This is one country wide experiment and we are the guinea pigs,the Asian countries are wise to wait. Problem is it takes tears to really see the results of new vaccines,suppose in a year or two another corona virus comes along,you get it and the action of the vaccine for this man made virus doesnt recognize it but reacts in the wrong way?
Who know,we will be finding out,good luck