Japan Olympic adviser urges COVID-19 vaccine option for athletes
13/04/2021 06:26
By Rocky Swift
TOKYO, April 13 (Reuters) - A health adviser to Japan's
Olympic committee said on Tuesday athletes should have the
option of getting COVID-19 vaccines, days after public outcry
led the government to deny it was making them a priority.
Japan on Thursday had dismissed a media report that it was
considering vaccinating all its Olympians by the end of June
after the idea sparked a social media uproar amid a slow vaccine
rollout for the rest of the population. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2M10LA
But on Tuesday, the adviser, Nobuhiko Okabe, told Reuters
that although vaccines should not be an obligation, they should
be available to the athletes who want them. Okabe is an
infectious disease expert who helped guide Japan's response to
the H1N1 outbreak in 2009 and advises on its COVID-19 response.
"I think the recommendation should be to be immunized,
particularly for the athletes," said Okabe, who has held
leadership roles in the World Health Organisation.
He said choices by individual athletes to refuse the vaccine
for health or religious reasons "should be respected."
About 1.1 million health care workers in Japan have received
at least their first dose of Pfizer Inc PFE.N -BioNTech's
BNTX.O vaccine.
Inoculations of the country's sizable elderly population
began on Monday, but some experts caution that shots for the
general populace may not be available until late summer or even
winter because of constrained supplies. urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2M50AY
Okabe, who heads the Kawasaki City Institute for Public
Health, also said Japan's commercialisation and licensing
hurdles involving drugs and medical products remain a "big
problem," as they could slow its response to health crisis such
as pandemics.
Japan has approved only one COVID-19 vaccine so far and
about 0.9% of its population of 126 million has gotten at least
one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 2.2% in South Korea
or 36% in the United States, according to a Reuters tracker.
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(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Gerry
Doyle)