In Japan, expectations and high hurdles for vaccines against COVID-19

Currently, the results of clinical trials of vaccines against coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) are being reported one after another from overseas (1).

To date, research results from Phase 3 clinical trials of vaccines against COVID-19 in the United States have shown high per capita efficacy (2,3,4,5). So far, there are vaccines using inactivated virus against coronavirus for animals. The coronavirus vaccine is included in the combination vaccine given to baby dogs.

Worldwide, researchers and veterinarians have experience with live and inactivated vaccines against coronavirus. Based on these experiences, researchers around the world believed that the vaccine was not highly effective against the coronavirus. However, to date, the results of clinical trials have shown the high efficacy of the vaccine against COVID-19.

On 9 November, Pfizer Inc announced that its vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19, and on 16 November, Moderna revealed its vaccine was 94.5% effective (6,7). On 23 November, the University of Oxford in collaboration with AstraZeneca, announced positive results from an interim analysis of their ChAdOx1 nCoV-2019 vaccine, with efficacy between 62% and 90% (8,9).

If the vaccine for COVID-19 is approved in Japan and vaccination against COVID-19 will be started, the vaccination for the elderly will be started first. Then, vaccination is performed on the COVID-19 to other people. However, many people, have immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), until herd immunity is established to prevent the spread of COVID-19, in Japan, several hurdles exist.

"Side reaction problem" Bitter experience of cervical cancer vaccine in Japan

A high hurdle for new vaccination in Japan is the side reaction problem. So far, there have been no new vaccines given by people around the world, such as the vaccine against COVID-19. When people around the world are vaccinated against COVID-19, it is absolutely likely that they will have some mental or physical problems. Adverse events vaccinated against COVID-19 would be expected to heavy from mild ones. Now, Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, has launched a new project to respond to adverse events by vaccinated against COVID-19.

The Japan Government must prepare a database of adverse reactions to vaccination against COVID-19. Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare must examine the causal link to adverse events associated with vaccination against COVID-19.

Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has a bitter experience with cervical cancer vaccines. Therefore, Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare must utilize a database on side reactions caused by vaccination against COVID-19. This activity of Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is essential for the dissemination of vaccines against COVID-19.

In Japan, since April 2013, the cervical cancer vaccine for girls in the sixth grade of elementary school to the first grade of high school has been routinely vaccinated at public expense (10). However, the Japanese government has stopped actively recommending cervical cancer vaccination because the mass media reported sensationally about poor health after cervical cancer vaccination. Therefore, Japan is a very underdeveloped country regarding the inoculation of new vaccines (10).

If negative public opinion about vaccines against COVID-19 is formed, the strong coverage of the public opinion by the mass media may change the policy of the Japanese government. Even in such public opinion, it is a crucial point whether evidence-based medicine can be established.

Reference
1. Diamond MS, Pierson TC (13 May 2020). "The challenges of vaccine development against a new virus during a pandemic". Cell Host and Microbe. 27 (5): 699-703. doi:10.1016/j.chom.2020.04.021.
2. Le TT, Cramer JP, Chen R, Mayhew S (4 September 2020). "Evolution of the COVID-19 vaccine development landscape". Nature Reviews Drug Discovery. 19 (10): 667–68. doi:10.1038/d41573-020-00151-8.
3. "COVID-19 vaccine development pipeline (Refresh URL to update)". Vaccine Centre, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
4. "COVID-19 vaccine tracker (Choose vaccines tab, apply filters to view select data)". Milken Institute. 16 November 2020. Retrieved 9 November 2020. Lay summary.
5. "Draft landscape of COVID 19 candidate vaccines". World Health Organization. 12 November 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
6. "Pfizer and BioNTech Announce Vaccine Candidate Against COVID-19 Achieved Success in First Interim Analysis from Phase 3 Study". Pfizer. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
7. "Moderna: Covid vaccine shows nearly 95% protection". BBC. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
8. "AZD1222 vaccine met primary efficacy endpoint in preventing COVID-19". www.astrazeneca.com.
9. "Oxford University breakthrough on global COVID-19 vaccine". www.research.ox.ac.uk.
10. Larson HJ. Japan's HPV vaccine crisis: act now to avert cervical cancer cases and deaths. Lancet Public Health. 2020 Apr;5(4):e184-e185. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30047-5　                                                                                                                                                        Science Published on November 2020. by Kyoto@Takuma H