Sinopam Corona 19 vaccine approved for conditional use by China. Photo Source = Yonhap News
[아시아경제 나한아 기자] The Mainichi Newspaper reported on the 1st that managers of a representative Japanese company and some wealthy people have secretly imported and received a vaccine for a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19) from China.
The president of a major Japanese information technology (IT) company and his wife were given a COVID-19 vaccine from Sinopharm (a Chinese medicine group) at a hospital in Tokyo on the 12th of last month, and the vaccine was brought in by a Chinese broker close to a Chinese Communist Party official. The newspaper reported.
It is reported that some executives who received the Corona 19 vaccine paid 100,000 yen (about 1.05 million won) for one dose per person to a Chinese broker who arranged the vaccination.
Mainichi secured and verified the list file created by the broker, and as a result, at least 18 people have received the Chinese-made Corona 19 vaccine in Japan through this broker so far.
The names and company names of 18 men and women were recorded on the list, all of which were CEOs of 15 companies representing Japan, including financial companies, electronic product manufacturers, and IT companies, and their families and acquaintances. It is said that the name of the CEO, known as the brain of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, was also included.
A Chinese broker explained, “I was asked by a Chinese Communist Party official in September of last year to cooperate with Korean pharmaceutical companies to expand the support of Chinese vaccines in Japan.”
The vaccine was supplied by a Chinese pharmaceutical company through a broker, and it is reported that the vaccination was done at hospitals.
Why are Japanese conglomerates receiving Chinese vaccines that the government has not yet approved?
The president of a financial company who received the vaccine twice with his wife on November 22 and December 19 last year said, “If you are infected with Corona 19, you are revealing the poor self-management and you cannot be forgiven as a business manager.” I thought that there might be a violation (I decided to get the vaccine once).”
Mainichi pointed out, “The act of unlicensed bringing the Chinese-made Corona 19 vaccine into Japan for the purpose of selling or transferring it to another person may violate the’Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Act’.”
An official from the Ministry of Health and Welfare expressed concern, “Even if a vaccine is not approved, a doctor can inoculate it at the level of’free treatment’ (a treatment not covered by public health insurance), but it is dangerous to get a vaccine that the doctor does not manage and does not know whether it is real.”
Reporter Na Han-ah [email protected]