I am reading a book which just came out called Wakuchin Yori Mo Taisetsuna Koto, Things that are More Important than Vaccines, written by Dr. Shinjiro Homa, a Shizenha doctor I have introduced in my book.
In the book, he shows a lot of official data to give us an overview of the coronavirus and its vaccines. He explains both effects and side effects so that we can make informed decisions on whether to get vaccinated or not. In Japan vaccination isn’t mandatory and each individual has a choice and nobody can force or pressure a person to get a shot. It is strictly prohibited by the law.
Nevertheless, the media is promoting the vaccine shot, and there is strong peer pressure to get a shot just like in other countries.
Dr. Honma thinks that each person should decide what to do by comparing the merits and demerits of being vaccinated. If you think you have merits over demerits you can get it, but if you think you have demerits over merits you don’t need to. He also provides information on alternative measures to be resilient against the virus, such as boosting your immune system.
Basically, he isn’t for the mRNA vaccines although he doesn’t tell anyone not to get a shot. It all depends on each person since the circumstance, including the health condition, is different.
There are quite a few doctors like him in Japan, and many books which are critical of the vaccines are published. Now, YouTube has decided to delete all videos containing anti-vaccine views, but that is not the case in the publishing industry in Japan. And they are all academic books written by renowned professors and practicing physicians.
There is a division between the people who are for the coronavirus vaccines and the people who are against them, but they are not necessarily divided based on their political views. I get the impression that in the United States, liberals tend to be for the vaccines and conservatives tend to be against them, but that is not the case at all in Japan. There are people who are for and against in both sides.
Shizenha people, naturalists, are usually against them. Most people I know haven’t been vaccinated and they are not intending to anytime in the future, and many of them have liberal political views. There are liberals who support vaccinations, too, but they tend not to be into organic food and alternative medicine.
There are conspiracy theories regarding the coronavirus and its vaccines in Japan, too, but they are not the only anti-vaccine information. There are a lot of legitimate arguments on the safety of mRNA vaccines by scientists and they usually don’t stand on either side of the political spectrum. They are interested in purely scientific facts and don’t care about their political implications.
Some Shizenha people believe in the conspiracy theories, but they vary from the hardcore ones stating this is a population control plan by the Deep State, to the mild ones suggesting this is a profit-making campaign by Big Pharma. There are many Shizenha people who don’t buy conspiracy theories in general, too.
Anyhow, Shizenha people are usually anti-vaccines, because they have always been. They were anti-vaccines before the coronavirus pandemic, just like they were against GM foods and antibiotics, and even avoided taking regular medicine as much as possible. Instead, they were for organic foods, organic clothes, natural medicine, and natural lifestyles.
Whether they are right or not, it makes sense, it goes with their worldview.
What I don’t understand, though, is that what is happening in the United States. Maybe I am not getting the correct image, all I see is through the media and YouTube, and don’t hear the real voices on the street. There may be many American naturalists who are like Shizenha people. If what I see in the media is true where liberals are buying the mainstream media narratives, and Republican supporters aren’t, things have gone upside down. The liberals were the ones who were wary of big corporations such as Monsanto, and Big Pharma are categorized as the same in many ways. So why don’t they become critical of Big Pharma’s interests in the vaccines? It isn’t a “conspiracy theory”, it is the kind of thing portrayed in documentary programs like Micheal Moor’s Sicko, isn’t it? It was conservatives who would go along with the establishment, and like the idea of mandate and censorship. Liberals were the ones who demanded the freedom and right of individuals.
Maybe I am not getting the right picture. People like Barney Saunders supporters, who questioned the tie between Biden and Wall Street, are maybe acting differently.
Anyway, things are different in Japan. And yet, we are the minority just like we have always been. Conformity is very strong in Japan. Most people like to follow the crowd, and they don’t question the media.
One thing I need to mention is that the number of death and severe conditions is very low in Japan compared to that of the U.S, and nobody I know has been infected with the coronavirus. It has been a year and a half since the pandemic began, and not a single person has been infected.
Japan’s Average Lifespan Hits Record High Again Even during COVID
So, the situation is quite different in many ways.
The Ikigai Diet: The Secret Japanese Diet to Health and Longevity
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