Japan’s Health Ministry on Monday awarded a compensation payment to the family of a woman who died after suffering an allergic reaction and heart attack deemed linked to an unknown vaccine product against the Chinese coronavirus, Kyodo News reported on Tuesday, noting that the transaction was the first of its kind in Japan.
“The woman, who was 91 when she received the vaccination, had pre-existing conditions including transient ischemic [reduced blood flow] attacks, according to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. It has not released details on when she was inoculated nor how many shots she received,” Kyodo News reported on July 26.
A panel of Japan’s Health Ministry determined on July 25 that “a causal relationship between subsequent health problems and the vaccine could not be denied in the case.”
A spokesman for the panel said that “a scientifically rigorous causal relationship is not necessary” in this particular case when “determining eligibility for damages.”
Ischemia refers to instances of restricted blood flow in a certain body part, such as the heart. Japan’s government has yet to specify what type of Chinese coronavirus vaccine the woman received shortly before her death, nor when she died.
The same Japanese government health panel that approved a compensation payment for the elderly woman’s alleged vaccine-related death on Monday also evaluated an additional 11 cases of people in Japan aged between about 20 and 90 years old “who suffered adverse reactions [to Chinese coronavirus vaccines], but suspended judgment,” according to Kyodo News.
As of Monday, 3,680 people in Japan had successfully submitted applications to the Japanese health ministry for compensation in alleged cases of adverse health reactions to Chinese coronavirus vaccines. Of this figure, Tokyo approved 850 people for lump sum compensation payments as of July 25 and denied such payments to 62 others. Decisions for an additional 16 applicants, “with some cases involving deaths, were postponed” as of July 26 pending further investigation, Kyodo News reported.
Japan’s vaccination law considers Chinese coronavirus vaccines to be “ad hoc.” According to this designation, the families of people whose deaths may be causally linked to a Chinese coronavirus vaccine are eligible to receive a lump sum compensation payment of 44.2 million yen ($324,000 USD) in addition to a 212,000 yen ($1,548 USD) reimbursement for funeral expenses.
Japan’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program is a no-fault system. This means that one who has suffered negative health effects due to vaccination, or his or her family, is owed a minimum lump sum compensation, regardless of who is determined to be at fault for the incident.
“Japan’s fault-free compensation system […] requires proof of causality, and the side effects of vaccination vary depending on the type of vaccination, and it is often virtually impossible to require complete medical proof of the causal relationship with the inoculation,” the Korean Society of Global Health noted in a December 2021 article titled, “COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation programs.”
“So the judgment of causality is that it is sufficient to prove the probability of predicting the outcome of a particular fact, and the extent of the proof is enough for ordinary people to not doubt it. In other words, the principle of compensation is established that the burden of proof is on the victim,” the article stated.