As I write this piece (June 11, 2021), the #G7 countries kick off their first face-to-face summit since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in Cornwall, southwestern Britain. There are several things to be taken up during the three-day meeting, but one thing that sticks like a sore thumb is that leaders are expected to agree to help vaccinate the global population by the end of next year. It is actually the moral thing to do when these countries have vaccinated more than 40% of their population and have acquired more vaccine doses they need.
Oops! Wait a minute. As of now, Japan has only administered 1 dose to 12.6 million people. That's roughly 12% of the population. Hmmm...
With Japan's government aim to push forward Tokyo Olympics, one would think that they would vaccinate people as fast as Bolt, right? But no. The timeline clearly shows how they took their sweet time:
January 2021 - start of local clinical trials before vaccine roll out
February - Japan approves Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, 1st for domestic use
- Japan starts COVID-19 vaccinations for health workers
April - Vaccine voucher distribution faced problems
- Vaccination kicked off
May - Japan formally approved the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines for local use
- still vaccinating health workers (some of our clients are doctors and they got their
first shot only on the 1st week of May
June - Japan Inc and universities to help with vaccine roll out
The urgency is not so apparent, huh? This is why almost 80% of the population don't want the Olympics to happen. As the date of the Opening Ceremony comes closer, the vaccination pace should eventually improve. If the pace gained speed from the start, maybe more people would support the Olympics.
I know that there are several logistics and systems involved in the roll out. Maybe my expectations would be lower if it weren't Japan. But the thing that irks me is that it is Japan! The land of robot waiters, dinosaur concierge and Super Mario.
Before PM Suga left Japan for the summit, he announced that the government aims to vaccinate all residents by November this year. Now let's see how they plan to achieve that. Let's move, Japan!
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