“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.
