667 Deaths After COVID-19 Vaccination in Japan... Authorities Say "No Causal Relationship with Vaccination"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Jae-hee] Since starting COVID-19 vaccinations in Japan in February this year, it has been reported that about 600 vaccine recipients have died; however, authorities have not officially recognized a single case where the vaccination was the direct cause of death.

According to the vaccination status disclosed by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare at an expert meeting on the 21st, approximately 37.6 million people had received at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines as of the 11th of this month.

The Japanese government has approved the domestic use of vaccines from three companies: Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.

However, since cases of thrombosis after vaccination have been reported overseas with the AstraZeneca vaccine, it is not used in official vaccinations in Japan, so only Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are administered there.

The number of people who died after receiving one of these two vaccines was counted at 667.

By vaccine type, Pfizer had 18.3 deaths per one million people vaccinated, and Moderna had 2.8 deaths per one million people vaccinated.

Regarding the causal relationship between vaccination and death, it was concluded that for 664 people, the information was insufficient to evaluate causality, and for the remaining 3 people, causality was not recognized.

However, one person who died from thrombocytopenia and subarachnoid hemorrhage was classified as the only case where causality could not be denied, but ultimately it was concluded that evaluation was not possible.

In Japan, if death is directly caused by receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, the government pays the bereaved family a lump sum of 44.2 million yen (approximately 460 million KRW) under the health damage relief system.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare reported that myocarditis and pericarditis, inflammations of the heart muscle and surrounding tissue, were confirmed at rates of 0.8 and 1.1 cases per one million people vaccinated with Pfizer and Moderna vaccines respectively, but no deaths due to these conditions were reported.