Tag - vaccines

 
 

VACCINES

A man receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Tokyo on Oct. 1. Experts say fears over the newly approved replicon vaccine are unwarranted.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 7, 2024
Experts move to allay replicon COVID shot fears in Japan amid backlash
The health ministry and experts say concerns around "shedding" are unwarranted.
A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot in Tokyo on Tuesday as this year's routine vaccination program for people age 65 or older began.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Oct 1, 2024
Routine COVID-19 vaccinations begin for elderly in Japan
The program mainly targets people age 65 or older. It began on Tuesday and will run until March 31 next year.
Health minister Keizo Takemi fields questions from reporters in March after a Cabinet meeting to deal with health problems caused by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's beni kōji red yeast rice supplements.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024
Health Minister Keizo Takemi on how to improve Japan's health care system
Digitalization, hiring high-skilled foreign workers and increasing wages are among the steps that Japan could take.
In the past 11 months, health minister Keizo Takemi has been charting his own path, seeking to make Japan's health care policies more global and digitalized.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 14, 2024
Global mindset crucial for reform of Japan's health care, minister says
International strategies and domestic health care reform are inextricably linked, says health minister Keizo Takemi.
A health worker puts on an adhesive bandage after inoculating a man with a booster shot of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Manila in January 2022.
WORLD
Jun 14, 2024
U.S. ran secret anti-vaccine campaign to undermine China during pandemic
The clandestine operation aimed to sow doubt about the safety and efficacy of vaccines and other life-saving aid that was being supplied by China.
Boxes of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 developed by Walvax Biotechnology and Abogen Biosciences
ASIA PACIFIC / Science & Health / FOCUS
Apr 20, 2024
China's drugmakers can't sell mRNA shots but haven't quit yet
While Chinese firms are pursuing new targets for the novel messenger RNA technology, they face a tough path, crimped by a lack of revenue.
A new study has found that women with long COVID had significantly lower levels of testosterone compared to those who had recovered from their infection.
COMMENTARY / World
Apr 17, 2024
Sex differences could be key to the successful treatment of long COVID
New research links testosterone levels to the severity of long COVID in women.
People wear masks at an evacuation center in the town of Anamizu, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Jan. 8. The number of people with acute respiratory infectious diseases, which include COVID-19 and influenza, at evacuation centers in the prefecture stood at 142 as of Sunday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jan 15, 2024
COVID and Japan, four years later: Normality, but words of caution
The nation has mostly returned to the pre-pandemic norm, but experts warn against people letting their guard down completely.
Demonstrators rally against COVID-19 vaccine mandates in Buffalo, New York, in February 2022.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 26, 2023
It’s past time scientists admitted their COVID-19 mistakes
In 2019, 13% of Americans were distrustful enough to say they weren’t confident in scientists to act in the public’s best interest. Now it is 27%.
NHK headquarters in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward
JAPAN / Media
Dec 6, 2023
NHK found to have breached ethics with COVID vaccine news segment
A report in "News Watch 9" suggested three people lost family members to COVID-19 infection when they actually died after being vaccinated.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida receives a COVID-19 booster shot in Tokyo on Nov. 11.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Nov 28, 2023
Japan approves first domestically developed COVID-19 XBB vaccine
The XBB-adapted coronavirus vaccine will be available as a booster under the nation’s free COVID-19 vaccination program beginning next week.
When COVID-19 first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 18, 2023
Life after COVID turns rocky for reshaped health care businesses
When the coronavirus first emerged, companies across the health care industry raced to reconfigure themselves. That transformation is now unraveling.
Employees monitor the production of Covishield, the local name for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, at the Serum Institute of India in Pune, Maharashtra, India.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 5, 2023
Top vaccine maker seeks growth by selling shots to globetrotters
Serum Institute of India plans to start production of yellow fever and dengue shots for travelers to countries where those diseases are endemic.
A new study defines some critical differences in certain biomarkers of people with long COVID.
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 4, 2023
Long COVID is real. Now the evidence is piling up.
In what the researchers believe is a first, they did a detailed study of the differences between people with long COVID and those who are healthy.
Katalin Kariko (right) and Drew Weissman, the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their discoveries enabling the development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines
COMMENTARY / World
Oct 3, 2023
Nobel for mRNA vaccines shows the power of perseverance
Decades of work by Nobel Prize winners Kariko and Weissman made the rapid development of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines possible.
A screen at the Karolinska Institute shows this year's laureates Katalin Kariko of Hungary (left) and Drew Weissman of the U.S. during the announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 2, 2023
Pair win medicine Nobel for work related to COVID-19 vaccines
Their findings "fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system," the Nobel committee said.
A vial of the Moderna COVID-19 booster vaccine targeting BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. Japan will roll out an updated version targeting the XBB variant on Wednesday.
JAPAN / Explainer
Sep 19, 2023
Japan to begin COVID vaccine drive targeting XBB subvariant
The free shots will be offered until March next year to prepare residents for an expected uptick in infections during the winter.
A man receives a COVID-19 vaccination  at Aoyama University in Tokyo in August 2021.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Sep 9, 2023
Japan to end free COVID-19 vaccinations in March
From fiscal 2024, the country will provide a COVID-19 shot once a year between to people aged 65 or over who are at high risk of severe symptoms.
A health ministry panel of experts discuss their approval for an RSV vaccine during their meeting on Monday.
JAPAN / Science & Health
Aug 29, 2023
Panel OKs first RSV vaccine in Japan
People age 60 or older will be eligible to receive the vaccine.
One big challenge public health officials now face is how to restore trust so that people listen to future guidance on everything from flu shots to childhood vaccines.
COMMENTARY / World
Aug 27, 2023
Not all COVID-19 ‘misinformation’ is equal — nor misinformation
Public health scientists have to figure out how to get back to the kind of nuanced, thoughtful discussions that were the pre-pandemic norm.

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?