Japan's New Woes...

From a "vaccination" with self-amplifying mRNA "vaccine", to 12th Covid wave, to flesh-eating bacteria, to walking pneumonia. The sky is falling!

Japan has been the first country to embrace a self-amplifying mRNA vaccine, to be injected into its seniors: “Routine COVID-19 vaccinations begin for elderly in Japan” (The Japan Times, 2024.10.01):

Routine COVID-19 vaccinations, mainly for people age 65 or older, began in Japan on Tuesday in a program running until March 31 next year. Available in the program are five vaccines that can combat the JN.1 omicron variant, including a new type called a replicon vaccine using self-amplifying messenger RNA that creates proteins evoking immune responses against the novel coronavirus.

Surprisingly for such authority-obeying population, this has alarmed many in Japan and provoked a pushback. “Unverified info on new vaccine leads to rejection of customers” (Asahi Shmibun, 2024.10.11):

Hot yoga studio chain LAVA asks users who took the replicon vaccine to refrain from entering its facilities. (Captured from the company’s official website)

Some stores and medical-related facilities have refused service for people inoculated with the replicon COVID-19 vaccine because of unsubstantiated rumors about the dangers of the shots.

The medical experts weighed in on the side of the jabs. “Experts move to allay replicon COVID shot fears in Japan amid backlash” (The Japan Times, 2024.10.07):

The health ministry and experts say such fears — fueled by comments circulated both online and offline that the vaccine multiplies in the body indefinitely and as a result causes the “shedding” of its ingredients from an inoculated person to unvaccinated individuals — are unwarranted.

“There’s no scientific evidence that the replicon vaccine will make an infinite number of proteins in the body or its components will be transmitted to others,” the health ministry states on its website.

No scientific evidence? How about this study? “Broad-spectrum immune suppression encoded in self-amplifying RNA enables sustained, reversible, and non-immunostimulatory expression” (biorxiv, 2024.09.24):

…despite the potential for prolonged transgene expression, therapeutic applications of saRNA are largely limited to contexts that benefit from immune activation, such as vaccines. To address this limitation, we developed a fully saRNA-based strategy that simultaneously inhibits multiple dsRNA sensing and inflammatory signaling pathways using cap-independent translation. In mouse primary fibroblast-like synoviocytes—a model relevant to inflammatory joint diseases— this approach reduced cytotoxicity and antiviral cytokine secretion while enabling sustained transgene expression that can be reversed with a small-molecule antiviral. These findings pave the way for saRNA therapies that offer durable, controllable transgene expression without persistent immune activation.

So, some scientists are concerned with uncontrollable transgene expression producing persistent immune activation. So much so that they propose a small-molecule antiviral to disrupt and “reverse” the transgene expression from the sa-mRNA shot. As for the shedding part, please read

What Is The Current Evidence for mRNA Vaccine Shedding?

As sa-mRNA has a potential to be much more potent in its adverse effects, once shed, shouldn’t it be subjected to at least some scrutiny? Not really. Meiji Seika Pharma Co simply resorted to threatening the detractors with law suits, “Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. has begun threatening to sue Japanese citizens” (Note, 2024.10.29):

Do people around the world know that Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd., a Japanese pharmaceutical company, has launched a self-amplifying RNA vaccine and started providing it to Japanese people?

Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. has threatened to sue Diet member Haraguchi Kazuhiro, claiming that he is spreading false information about the self-amplifying RNA vaccine, which it claims constitutes defamation.

The safety of the self-amplifying RNA vaccine sold by Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. has not been established. Emeritus Professor Yasufumi Murakami, Dr. Hiroshi Arakawa, and Diet member Kazuhiro Haraguchi have harshly criticized Meiji Seika Pharma Co., Ltd. and the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

When you look for this sa-mRNA’s pre-market safety studies, all you find is the comparison of immediate safety signals following 4 weeks after the sa-mRNA “vaccine” shot, as compared with a booster shot of Pfizer mRNA jab. Only 4 weeks, as reported in “Immunogenicity of a booster dose of a bivalent (Asp614Gly and omicron BA.4/5 variant) self-amplifying mRNA SARS-CoV-2 booster vaccine versus the BNT162b2 omicron BA.4/5 mRNA vaccine: a randomised phase 3 trial” (Lancet, 2024.10.23):

Between Sept 29 and Nov 18, 2023, we enrolled 930 participants (451 men and 479 women) to receive a booster dose of ARCT-2301 (n=465) or Comirnaty BA.4-5 (n=465). The primary immunogenicity outcome to show that the antibody response at day 29 against omicron BA.4/5 elicited by ARCT-2301 was non-inferior to that elicited with Comirnaty BA.4-5 was achieved

Both vaccines were well-tolerated with mainly mild, transient solicited adverse events and no causally related severe or serious adverse events.

The study will collect immunogenicity and safety data 6 months after vaccine administration. Here we present initial data available 28 days after vaccination.

And that is after the 12-month Phase 3 trial? So what happened to the 6-month and 12-month post-jab data? Not worth looking at, I presume.

Yet, The Lancet cries misinformation! “Misinformation targeting replicon vaccine recipients: an urgent public health ethical issue” (Lancet, 2024.11.16):

In the future, new vaccine development technologies, such as replicon vaccines, will be used to combat various infectious diseases. The spread of misinformation is influenced by the novelty of the technology, the community's maturity in handling medical information, and the approach to risk communication. Therefore, addressing misinformation as new vaccine technologies emerge becomes highly important. Not only are hard measures such as administrative guidance or legal action against misinformation-based actions needed, but also soft measures such as proactive efforts—including advance public communication to counter misinformation and promoting the community's maturity in handling medical information—are urgently required to prevent unjust restrictions and support public health efforts. If similar vaccines are introduced in other countries in the future, proactive measures against misinformation will be necessary.

Pravda couldn’t put it better!

How about doing some basic safety studies and publishing the results thereof? In the spirit of openness and gaining trust? Rhetorical.

But let us now look at the state of public health in Japan, following the successful primary “vaccination”, boosting upon boosting, and now self-amplifying mRNA boosting since Oct. 1 2024.

First off, Japan is entering 12th Covid wave, since the jabbinations commenced in 2021 “Japan's weekly COVID-19 cases rise for 1st time in 3 months” (The Mainichi,2024.11.22):

The average among some 5,000 medical institutions stood at 1.90 in the week, with newly infected patients totaling 9,406, up 29 percent from the previous week, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

Akihiro Sato, an infectious diseases expert and the head of Karada Internal Medicine Clinic, said the number of patients with high fevers and coughs is increasing.

"In addition to basic infectious measures, it is necessary for people who have risks, such as the elderly, to consider taking vaccines," he said.

The number of newly hospitalized COVID-19 patients reported by about 500 designated medical organizations nationwide was 1,175, up 37 percent from the week before.

Secondly, the mystery flash-eating bacteria are killing Japanese at unprecedented levels since 2023, and the trend is accelerating:

March 2024. In the wake of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Japan finds itself grappling with a new and mysterious viral threat. A rare and perilous bacterial infection outbreak has emerged, leaving experts scrambling for answers. In response, Japan's Health Ministry has issued advisories reminiscent of the precautions taken during the COVID era. As doctors and health experts work tirelessly to understand and contain this rapidly spreading infection, many questions remain.

Last, but not least, “Surge in ‘walking pneumonia’ cases hits Japan, sparking mask warnings” (The Telegraph, 2024.10.30):

People in Japan are being urged to wear masks, as doctors fight the worst epidemic of “walking pneumonia” seen for more than 20 years.

Nearly 6,000 cases of the condition, officially known as mycoplasma pneumonia, have been reported so far this year, a more than 10-fold increase on the previous year, and the highest number since records began in 1999.

This news from Japan comes soon after the United States’ Centers for Disease Control observed a similar increase in cases this year, with the percentage of those testing positive for the disease increasing from 0.7 to 3.3 per cent across all age groups, and from 1 to 7 per cent among children aged two to four.

When it rains, it pours…