Japanese doctors speak honestly about Covid vaccines

Last week, the weekly magazine Josei Seven published an interview by vaccine-skeptic journalist Touru Toridamari with four Japanese doctors about their experiences during the pandemic. The doctors contribute to the Twitter account/blog 勤務医団の本音 (kinmuidan no honne; working doctors’ true feelings). Because of the sensitivity of this subject, the doctors chose to remain anonymous.

“The reality of Covid vaccines that I’ve seen”

The interview can also be found on the News Postseven website. The first part deals with the doctors’ opinions about Covid (not much different from the flu) and the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines (oversold and underwhelming). Below is my translation of the second part of the interview discussing their experiences related to the adverse effects of and attitudes towards the Covid jabs.

Dr A (Kanto-based male physician specialising in rheumatism and collegen disease): What I want everyone to know is the reality of collegen disease patients increasing this past year. After elderly people were vaccinated from April through August 2021, I saw with my own eyes an increase in patients developing collegen disease. Collegen disease is caused by an abnormal immune response and affects about 1% of the population. A sudden rise in patient numbers is unthinkable.

But despite that, our hospital exceeded 120% bed occupancy last year, new collegen disease patients developed symptoms, and some had complications from interstitial pneumonia​ due to their worsened health. In my hospital from September last year to February this year, twice as many collegen disease patients died as in an average year. This situation is definitely abnormal.

Toridamari: In short, you’re saying the Covid vaccine caused autoimmune disorders?

Dr A: We can certainly say so, because similar incidents happened in the past. For example, in the 1970s in America, there was mass-vaccination against swine flu. But directly after, more people developed the autoimmune disorder Guillain–Barré syndrome​ and some people died. It’s known that after mass-vaccination, a certain number of people develop autoimmune disorders. However, I’m suspicious about the population not being actively informed of this possibility.

Toridamari: In fact, in many academic societies, there have been reports of onset or worsening of diseases suspected of being related to the Covid vaccines. These include not just collegen disease but also skin diseases, vasculitis, kidney diseases, and neurological diseases. But the academic societies aren’t proactively informing people about this.

Dr A: Criticizing the Covid vaccines in academic societies will lead to doctors criticizing each other, so the reality is most doctors pretend not to see anything.

Dr D (Kanto-based male male physician specialising in infectious diseases): But in fact, more than a few doctors suspect the immune system is being affected [by the vaccines]. Among doctors knowledgeable about autoimmune disorders, some have said that patients on immune-suppressants have had their immune system’s balance collapse after vaccination, leading to serious problems.

Autoimmune disorders come is various forms. For example, if there’s fear that collapsing the balance of the immune system could lead to loss of eyesight, there are cases where vaccination is recommended against on risk-benefit grounds. But not all doctors have such specialist knowledge.

Dr A: Moreover, we need to worry about not just the onset and worsening of autoimmune diseases but also the research results indicating immune suppression. This makes cancer a concern. Usually the immune system can suppress cancer, but that can be broken. One collegen disease patient of mine became extremely weak after being vaccinated, symptoms became worse, and he was judged to have died from stomach cancer.

I can’t assert with complete certainty that this was vaccine-related, but the speed of progression after vaccination was abnormal. I’m never going to forget him screaming from the ward, “I used to be healthy, but the vaccine did this to me. Put me back to the way I was!”

Dr B (Chubu-based female physician): In my hospital, there have been a number of comparatively young people who’ve been diagnosed with advanced cancer. It’s hard to clarify the relationship with the vaccine, but the reality is there have been cases of advanced cancer found after vaccination.

Dr A: As I thought, it’s nationwide. After vaccination, one patient of mine had a re-occurance of breast cancer from 20 years prior that spread throughout her whole body, and she developed lung cancer. Another patient suddenly developed an abscess on the lung after vaccination. Another developed meningitis after bacteria entered the brain​ and became light-headed. These types of cases were extremely rare before the Covid vaccines were rolled out, so I can’t think “no causal relationship exists”.

Dr B: I’ve seen a fair few patients develop abnormalities after the vaccines. What I hear a lot of are menstrual irregularities. One women had already reached the menopause, but then had blood gushing out like water from a bucket a few weeks after vaccination. Another woman had the number of her periods drastically increase after the third dose.

Dr C (Kanto-based male physician): Among my patients, one suddenly became very weak. She was a women in her 70s. About three weeks after the third dose, she suddenly became unable to walk. She lost her appetite. Painkillers cured the pain, and she got her appetite back, but I suspect they were late-onset symptoms from the vaccine.

Dr D: The Covid vaccines are never-before-used mRNA vaccines that transmit genetic information. Of course, there are no statistics at this point showing an increase in collegen disease or cancer, so the vaccine advocates use this as a basis for insisting the vaccines are safe. However, by the time abnormalities appear in the statistics, a huge amount of damage will already have probably occurred. So even if causality is proven, it’ll be too late.

Dr A: The one-year speed of approval to application frightens me. Previously, vaccine development took 10 years. That way, safety and effectiveness could be established. This was because healthy people were going to be vaccinated. Reflecting on how a medical process that had progressed cautiously changed to progressing rapidly will be an issue for the whole medical field.

Toridamari: You’ve pointed out various harms, but the 3rd-dose rate is approaching 70%.

Dr A: Actually, the vaccination rate among doctors isn’t particularly high. In my hospital, it’s about 80%. I’m aware that vaccines have various side-effects, so I was cautious of the Covid vaccine. In the lab when I was a post-graduate student, there was an experiment where mice were vaccinated repeatedly with the same vaccine. Regardless of the type of vaccine, the more times a mouse was vaccinated, the weaker it became. Remembering that, I was hesitant [to vaccinate].

Dr C: But if you announce “I won’t get vaccinated”, isn’t there an atmosphere of “Why not?” I got tired of being asked that so many times that I explained “I have an allergy”.

Dr D: You get peer-pressure everywhere. But I think the winds have changed with the 4th dose.

All hospitals conducted group vaccinations for almost all medical staff up to the 3rd dose, but the 4th dose group vaccination is limited to people who request it, and other hospitals have stopped doing group vaccinations. So there’s now an atmosphere of “You don’t need to get vaccinated”.

Dr C: Certainly in my hospital, there are mid-level and lower doctors saying they won’t get the 4th dose. Doctors near the managerial level want to get it though.

Dr A: I feel some have been spurred by seeing patients suffering from post-vaccine syndromes. A professor who took my reports said in surprise “Do that many people develop collegen disease after vaccination!?”

Dr D: Although many people vaccinate voluntarily, doctors have a lot of personal discretionary power and can prioritise their own opinions. The ones I feel most sorry for are nurses. They have little personal discretionary power, so they find it difficult to go against the wishes of the organisation. There are some understanding hospitals, but in many hospitals, if the head nurse says “Take the vaccine!”, it’s basically an order.

Dr B: That’s so true. One nurse came to me and say “Doctor, help me! Please write a form saying I can’t get vaccinated.” But I don’t have the authority to say “Do NOT take the jab.” In the end, the nurse didn’t go against the head nurse and got vaccinated.

Dr D: I have the option to not get vaccinated, but the atmosphere doesn’t yet let you say to people “Don’t take it.” I think it’s odd we’re still in a situation where nurses in a low position are made to get vaccinated regardless of what they think about it.