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
I have been living in Tokyo for 2 weeks now and I just feel so disheartened by all the people here who incessantly wear the masks. When alone in their car, when in restaurants, when walking down wide empty streets. Will Japan ever be able to relinquish mask mania, or is it here to stay indefinitely? Are the Japanese people so conditioned and so mentally scarred at this late stage that there is no going back? Every now and then I do see a glimmer of hope, one young person in a sea of hundreds on the trains who refuses to toe the line and give in to this admittedly pathetic societal pressure. Are Japanese people simply so willing to accept only what their mainstream authoritative sources tell them rather than think critically, divergently and conduct their own individual research? Are they unable to listen to the myriad of learned individuals, scientists and real experts who have repeatedly proven the total inefficacy of face masks?
Next, we have to start up a compensation for people that have been damaged--physically, psychologically, and financially--by the facepants. These include schools who force their students to wear the facepants and those who do not let their employees to go facepantsless at their places of employment because they refuse to contribute to the dumbing down of society. This group includes me. I have taken a pay cut so I expect to be compensated. Not by the people of Japan but by the politicians and media from their paychecks. Taxes should not in any way cover these costs. The hokey pokey and facepants connoisseurs should. My finally thoughts: How dare my operating system tell me that facepants is not a real word! Just check with Kitamura, the Facepants Master himself. Enjoy the pay cut, Master Facepants!
Is there a possibility that you and I can chat. I write about vax compensation programs in the US and now working on a book about comp schemes from around the world. Love to speak with someone about Japan's system pre-COVID and today's program.
I have been living in Tokyo for 2 weeks now and I just feel so disheartened by all the people here who incessantly wear the masks. When alone in their car, when in restaurants, when walking down wide empty streets. Will Japan ever be able to relinquish mask mania, or is it here to stay indefinitely? Are the Japanese people so conditioned and so mentally scarred at this late stage that there is no going back? Every now and then I do see a glimmer of hope, one young person in a sea of hundreds on the trains who refuses to toe the line and give in to this admittedly pathetic societal pressure. Are Japanese people simply so willing to accept only what their mainstream authoritative sources tell them rather than think critically, divergently and conduct their own individual research? Are they unable to listen to the myriad of learned individuals, scientists and real experts who have repeatedly proven the total inefficacy of face masks?
Next, we have to start up a compensation for people that have been damaged--physically, psychologically, and financially--by the facepants. These include schools who force their students to wear the facepants and those who do not let their employees to go facepantsless at their places of employment because they refuse to contribute to the dumbing down of society. This group includes me. I have taken a pay cut so I expect to be compensated. Not by the people of Japan but by the politicians and media from their paychecks. Taxes should not in any way cover these costs. The hokey pokey and facepants connoisseurs should. My finally thoughts: How dare my operating system tell me that facepants is not a real word! Just check with Kitamura, the Facepants Master himself. Enjoy the pay cut, Master Facepants!
Is there a possibility that you and I can chat. I write about vax compensation programs in the US and now working on a book about comp schemes from around the world. Love to speak with someone about Japan's system pre-COVID and today's program.