Majority of Japanese Youths in Favor of COVID-19 Vaccination with 22% Undecided (2)
Asked who should be given priority in receiving vaccinations, the highest mark was given to people working at hospitals and other medical facilities (7.84 on a scale of 1 to 10), followed by those with underlying medical conditions (6.88) and caregivers working at nursing facilities (6.83). On the other hand, lower points were given to company employees aged 16 to 49 (5.35), students (5.57) and company employees aged 50 to 64 (5.62).
Japan started its vaccination campaign in mid-February by prioritizing about 4.8 million front-line medical personnel, followed by approximately 36 million people aged 65 or older. But the rest of the population had to wait, among them about 8.2 million people with underlying health conditions and some 2 million care workers at nursing facilities.
On August 27, the Tokyo metropolitan government opened a vaccination center in the capital's Shibuya Ward for people aged between 16 and 39 to get a jab without an appointment.
But on the first day, the center was forced to close its reception desk at 7:30 a.m. after the number of applicants quickly reached the daily limit of 300. As a result, many of those who had lined up could not get inoculations.
Then, on the second day, the center began distributing lottery tickets between 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. and announced the winning numbers via social media at 11:30 a.m.
But this backfired because applicants still had to show up to get a lottery ticket at a time when residents of Tokyo were being asked to restrict their outdoor activities as much as possible due to the state of emergency in place in response to the pandemic. More than 2,000 people queued up－the line stretched for about one kilometer－for lottery tickets for just 350 doses. This prompted the metropolitan government authorities to switch to an online lottery for doses to be administered from September 4.
In The Nippon Foundation’s survey taken in mid-July, 36.6% of young Japanese said they wanted to get vaccinated but had been unable to make an appointment. As the episode in Tokyo showed, there were still many people eager and waiting to be vaccinated as of the end of August.
The population of Tokyo’s 23 wards stands at more than 9 million. Even the most conservative estimate puts the number of people who want to get vaccinated in the tens or hundreds of thousands. It was quite clear that if the Tokyo government opened a vaccination center with only 300 to 350 doses at hand per day, the result would likely be a shambles.
Tokyo’s actions have been hard to fathom and this seems another example of the metropolitan government’s muddled response to COVID-19.
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