The government’s coronavirus response was the subject of scrutiny at the Lower House Budget Committee session Monday, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga yet again making a case for vaccines being “the decisive factor” in fighting the virus.
In response to Komeito lawmaker Keigo Masuya’s question on the delay in vaccine approval in Japan compared with other countries, Suga explained that the country’s number of COVID-19 patients, which is significantly lower than the United States and many European countries, made it difficult to collect data through clinical trials.
“In addition, differences among races are expected regarding (the effectiveness of) the vaccines, so there need to be certain clinical trials targeting Japanese people and not just a reliance solely on clinical trial data from the U.S. and European countries,” Suga said.