Not sure if this potentially affects Japan, but I'm seeing a lot of reports coming from multiple states here in the U.S. that massive stockpiles of unused vaccines are building up, particularly in states with large populations that expanded eligibility early on. Some states are reporting in excess of 500k doses just sitting in storage; others are reporting hundreds of daily missed vaccination appointments. I was at my local pharmacy today and the line at the special vaccination counter was completely empty.
What that's basically indicating is that to a growing extent, those in America who actually want to be vaccinated already have been, or will be shortly. Even in my current state, which is an ass-backwards blue state that just expanded general eligibility (16+) from today and had one of the slowest roll-outs in the country, just about everyone I know who wanted to get vaccinated has been vaccinated. To the Biden Admin's credit, they really did push to secure far more vaccine than anyone projected six months ago, and now it appears we may be approaching the point where supply is outpacing demand.
The question is, if this trend continues in America, will the Biden Admin share/redistribute our excess supply with other countries, like Japan? My guess is no. Federal agencies here are now aggressively ramping up campaigns encouraging people to get their vaccines, of course targeting the very demographic which is the reason we have so many unused doses--the anti-vaxxers and young idiots who can't be bothered. Also the very same demographic accounting for the majority of new infections. My approach would be to say FUCK'EM and let them get sick, but obviously the government won't let that happen.
But even if the U.S. started shipping excess doses to Japan, would the Japanese government even be in the position to effectively and dramatically expand vaccination efforts? Because from what I can tell, by the time the general population in Japan has access, Pfizer and the others will probably be on the second or third or fourth version of the booster shot to deal with all the variants and the shots we're giving now will be obsolete.
Oh well. I was hoping for a Japan trip in November/December but something tells me it'll be well into 2022 before I step off a plane at Haneda again.