Japan's covid vs. West
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As noted many times before you are pushing misinformation. Ivermectin is not used in Japan to prevent or treat Covid despite the head of their medical society suggesting it once in the past. This has been fact-checked multiple times -- it is odd that anyone is still pushing this nonsense which is obviously false.
Fact check: Japan did not stop its COVID-19 vaccine rollout and switch to ivermectin to treat virus
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...as-not-halted-vaccines-ivermectin/6232580001/
The claim: Japan stopped its vaccine rollout and switched to ivermectin
Daily COVID-19 cases in Japan have
dropped drastically after a wave of infections that peaked in August.
Researchers are looking
into the factors that contributed to the decline, but some users online are claiming the
anti-parasitic drug ivermectin and the removal of vaccines are the reason.
"Japan drops vax rollout, goes to Ivermectin, ENDS COVID almost overnight," reads the screenshot of a headline that was
shared to Instagram on Nov. 3 and accumulated more than 700 likes within a day.
The claim originated in an
Oct. 27 article published by the Hal Turner Radio Show, a site that promotes conspiracy theories, according to
PolitiFact, which has
debunked Turner's claim.
As evidence, Turner cites an article about Moderna COVID-19 vaccines being
removed from use in Japan due to contamination and another regarding the Tokyo Medical Association, a non-government agency,
advocating for ivermectin, which has
not been proven to treat COVID-19. He links those two topics to an
Associated Press story on Japan's sudden success in stopping the spread of new cases.
It's true that Japan suspended the use of 1.63 million Moderna shots in September after contaminants were found in a vial of vaccine,
per Reuters.
But the country never stopped administering COVID-19 vaccines, as claimed. And the government never approved ivermectin to treat the virus.
Fact check: Ivermectin is not a proven treatment for COVID-19
The Instagram user did not return a request for comment.
Japan didn't stop vaccine rollout
Japan administered 574,739 COVID-19 vaccine doses on Oct. 27, the day the article was published, according to a vaccine tracker from
Our World in Data. As of Oct. 31, Japan has distributed more than
189 million doses since launching its
vaccination drive in February.
COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna, AstraZeneca and Pfizer are all approved for use in Japan, according to The
Japan Times.
After a large portion of Moderna vaccines were suspended in Okinawa due to contamination, Japan's health minister,
Norisha Tamura, told reporters, "Whatever the reason (for the foreign matter), we have heard that there is no safety or other issues."
Daily COVID-19 case counts in Japan have likely dropped due to its vaccination campaign, mask-wearing and fewer people in downtown entertainment districts, the
Associated Press reported.
Cooler weather, COVID-19 testing and increased caution could also have contributed to the steep decline, health experts said.
Japan did not approve ivermectin for COVID-19
In response to USA TODAY's request for comment, Turner claimed "new cases plummeted" when doctors in Japan started using ivermectin.
But ivermectin is
not listed as an approved treatment for the virus by Japan's Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency, a
government organization in charge of reviewing drugs and medical devices.
Inaccurate claims that Japan authorized ivermectin for COVID-19
began circulating online after Haruo Ozaki, chairman of the Tokyo Medical Association, recommended the drug for COVID-19 patients during a
press conference on Aug. 13.
The medical group and Ozaki are not affiliated with the Japanese government, and members of the organization can only provide suggestions, according to independent
fact-check organizations.
Turner claimed the rate of COVID-19 cases dropped "to almost zero" after Ozaki's news conference, but Japan
logged more than 20,000 new cases per day during the last week of August.
COVID-19 cases in Japan began to decline in September, and the country did not
drop its state of emergency until Oct. 1.
Further, the
Tokyo Metropolitan Government says on its site that "there are currently no antiviral drugs that are known to be effective against the coronavirus disease."
Similarly, the
World Health Organization warns against using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 and says the drug should "only be used within clinical trials."