Did Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare just begin researching the effectiveness and safety of coronavirus vaccines, and did it announce it would take another three years to see the results? No, that's not true: According to the ministry, COVID-19 vaccines were approved in 2021 after rigorous evaluation of their effectiveness and safety in clinical trials.
The claim appeared in a TikTok video (archived here), where it was published on January 6, 2024. Translated from Japanese into English by Lead Stories staff, it opened:
Cut the nonsense!!
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is a killer!!
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will start researching the effectiveness and safety of coronavirus vaccines. It was announced that it would take another three years.
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jan 10 10:18:34 2024 UTC)
The source of this claim (archived here) was found on a website called http://totalnewsjp.com (archived here), which is a website that claims to be an online media that disseminates social reactions and issues through information on world politics and economics.
The claim is used as a news headline, but it does not reflect the content of the news. The news was from August 24, 2023 (archived here) and was published by NHK (Japanese public broadcaster). The correct headline is:
An organization formed by victims of drug-related illnesses requests the creation of a database on vaccine efficacy and safety.
The news says that the database on the effectiveness and safety of the COVID-19 vaccine will be compiled in the year 2026, as follows:
[...] A group formed by victims of drug-induced AIDS incidents and drug-induced hepatitis issues visited the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and handed over a written request to the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare, Kato, to eradicate drug-induced harm.
The request letter calls for the early construction of a database for researching the effectiveness and safety of COVID-19 vaccines, and on the 24th, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced plans to prepare the database by fiscal year 2026. There was an explanation that the project was in progress [...]
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (archived here,) the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines were approved after rigorous evaluation. As stated by the Ministry:
COVID-19 vaccines have been approved after rigorous evaluation of their effectiveness and safety in clinical trials (Phase III trials). In addition, some clinical trials are continuing to confirm the sustainability of the effect.
