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With the vaccine roll-outs across the globe, fears of taking vaccines against the Covid-19 have been growing in the last few months. For instance, several deaths were reported after receiving vaccines, and the newest vaccine-related deaths are in Japan.

According to Japan’s health ministry, two people died after receiving Moderna Covid-19 vaccine shots. The country’s health ministry explained that the lots had contaminants that caused the death of the receivers.

The men who died this month within days of receiving the second Moderna shots are both in their 30’s. The ministry said in a release that they both received a shot from one of three manufacturing lots suspended on Thursday. The causes of death are still being investigated, however.

Japan halts giving Moderna shots

The country stopped the use of 1.63 million Moderna doses which were shipped to 863 vaccination centers across Japan. The decision came two weeks after Takeda Pharmaceutical – a domestic distributor in the country received reports of contaminants in some vials.

“At this time, we do not have any evidence that these deaths are caused by the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine,” Moderna and Takeda said in a statement on Saturday. “It is important to conduct a formal investigation to determine whether there is any connection.”

Nonetheless, the Japanese government has explained that there are no efficacy or safety issues with Moderna. They added that the suspension of the three Moderna shots was taken as a precaution until the investigation ends.

Fumie Sakamoto, the infection control manager at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo, cautioned against drawing a connection between the shots and the fatalities reported on Saturday.
“There may only be a temporal relationship between vaccination and death,” Sakamoto told Reuters. “There are so many things we still don’t know to make any conclusions on these two cases.”
According to a report by NHK, citing the Japanese health ministry sources, the vials which contained contaminants had metallic particles. Japan has already given 124 million Covid-19, with about 44% of the country’s population fully vaccinated.

As of August 8, more than 991 people had died in the country after receiving Pfizer’s vaccine and 11 after receiving Moderna. However, there is no direct relation between the deaths and the injections according to the Japanese health ministry. This, even though some reactions have been reported after receiving Moderna shots with a frequency of 0.01%.