4．Vaccine in Crisis Management and National Defense / 薬剤疫学

ABSTRACT

Cases of Pneumonia of unknown etiology detected in Wuhan City, China, at the end of 2019, was diagnosed as pneumonia caused by a new-type coronavirus （SARS-CoV-2） in a subsequent study and was named COVID-19. The infection epidemic expanded to the whole world in a moment, and the number of infected cases exceeded 90 million, and the number of deaths exceeded 2 million as of January, 2021. While Humans are in an unprecedented crisis since plague and the Spanish cold, and are trying to end COVID-19 pandemic by accelerating the development of vaccines and therapeutics at an unprecedented speed, there has been a movement toward reluctance to get vaccinated called Vaccine Hesitancy, and the hurdle to acquire herd immunity may be heightened by delayed vaccine rollout. For the future, it is also an important issue to establish a system that allows the vaccine industries to develop and produce vaccines in Japan without relying solely on imported vaccines when emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases spread in Japan. This article provides recommendations for solutions against these issues from the perspective of the vaccine industry and the private sector.