|
 About 4.8% of the population has been fully vaccinated, a Reuters
tracker shows, the lowest rate among large wealthy economies at a
time when tens of thousands of visitors are poised to arrive for the
Tokyo Olympics starting on July 23.
"If I could go back all the way to the beginning, I would have
probably scrapped the clinical trial that we did," Kono told
reporters.
"It's probably necessary for ordinary times, but in the case of
emergency, or state of emergency, like COVID-19, I think we should
have started the vaccination as early as possible."
Japan's mid-February start of vaccinations lagged most major
economies and was dependent on initially scarce doses of Pfizer
Inc's vaccine imported from overseas.
Kono, the administrative reform minister tapped to head the
programme in January, said opposition parties pushed for domestic
trials and media would have pilloried the government if accidents
had happened without them.
[to top of second column] |
 But some public health experts
have said the domestic trials, involving 200
subjects or fewer, were scientifically
meaningless.
In recent weeks, the vaccine campaign has picked
up steam and is set to accelerate now that
thousands of companies have signed up to use
government supplies to administer shots to
employees and families.
Kono said he hoped daily vaccinations would hit
one million by the end of June, up from about
700,000 now.
(Reporting by Rocky Swift; Editing by Andrew
Heavens and Clarence Fernandez)
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