Japan quietly pays compensation for over 1000 post-jab health harms

If you like to follow Covid-related news in Japan like I do, your reaction to the headline of this post is probably similar to my reaction yesterday when I learned of this information: “WHAT!? When the hell did this happen?”

Well, it’s been happening incrementally since December 2021. The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare’s Covid Vaccine Health Harm Adjudication Panel (新型コロナウイルス感染症予防接種健康被害審査部会) has been getting together once or twice a month to determine whether to pay medical support and other forms of compensation to people who required medical attention or whose family members died as a result of taking the Covid shots. So far, the panel has recognised causality with the vaccine and decided to pay compensation in 1096 cases and rejected only 97 cases. Another 3660 cases are awaiting adjudication at the time of writing. (All graphs below come courtesy of lawyer/blogger Hitofumi Yanai, who seems to have been the only person following this.)

Left axis: Cumulative recognised cases (orange bars) and rejected cases (green bars). Right axis: Rejection rate (green line).

Only 4 of the 1096 recognised cases have been fatal: two men in their 70s (70代) and one man and one women in their 90s (90代), highlighted in brackets in the graphs below. Most recognised cases have been working-age people in their 20s to 50s.

Number of recognised cases by age group

The jabs can’t be called equal-opportunity offenders when it comes to the sexes either: 19% of recognised cases have been male (男性) and 81% female (女性).

Recognised female (orange) and male (blue) cases.

These large age and sex imbalances may be surprising, but they’re in line with the scientific literature of adverse events after mRNA shots in Japan.

Post-vaccine adverse events in Japan: evidence of racial differences?

Now, I’m not suggesting there has been a complete media black out. Here’s an article from the healthcare news site CB News that was syndicated on Yahoo! News last week.

MHLW’s Covid Vaccine Health Harm Adjudication Panel reports results: 100 cases recognised

The article lists the various adverse reactions recognised as being caused by the jabs¹. But since it doesn't report the cumulative number up to now, readers would be forgiven for thinking only 100 cases have so far been recognised. More importantly, TV and the major national newspapers haven't touched even this partial information.

The reasons for this aren’t hard to grasp. For one thing, open reporting would probably lead to more people applying for compensation. The 1096 recognised cases are a drop in the bucket when you consider that 1854 deaths have been reported after Covid vaccines in Japan so far. But when you consider that there were only 191 recognised cases of health harm caused by influenza vaccines from 1977 to 2021, then 1096 looks a bit excessive.

But the main reason is that the media and government are doubtlessly worried that open reporting would lead to fewer people playing Russian roulette taking the shots. And that would really mess with their plans.

Government to secure vaccines for next year. Two boosters a year are envisioned.

1. In case you were interested, here’s a quick machine translation: Anaphylaxis, acute allergic reaction, anaphylactoid symptoms, fever, nausea, dehydration, headache, dizziness, lightheadedness, numbness of limbs, head discomfort, hives, vomiting, left axillary pain, chest pain, lymphadenitis, disturbance of consciousness, convulsion, dyspnea, numbness in extremities, hypertensive emergency, numbness in both upper extremities, chills, pain, hyperventilation syndrome, palpitations, numbness, poor food intake, dehydration, difficulty moving, left shoulder tendonitis, left shoulder periarthritis, hyperventilation syndrome, cough asthma, chest discomfort, malaise, left facial paralysis, transient disturbance of consciousness, acute myocarditis, acute pericardium inflammation, acute hepatitis, poor mood, numbness in the left half of the body, joint pain, left deltoid muscle pain, weakness, loss of appetite, transient lowered level of consciousness, Abdominal pain, incontinence, difficulty speaking, cough, bronchial asthma attack, transient hypertension, suspected NSAIDs duodenal ulcer, diarrhea, erythema multiforme, dizziness on standing up, right facial paralysis, drug eruption, erythema of extremities, left upper extremity peripheral neuropathy, transient unconsciousness, left lower extremity spasm, increased inflammatory reaction, left palm numbness, back pain, stiff neck, decreased blood oxygen partial pressure, left deltoid muscle inflammation, left arm cellulitis, left upper arm skin depression, liver dysfunction, suspected erythema nodosum, suspected hepatitis B virus activation, polylymphadenitis, appetite weakness, right upper extremity swelling, cough, phlegm, exacerbation of atopic dermatitis, numbness in both upper and lower extremities, decreased grip strength, migraine, scintillating scotoma.