To Mayor Tashiro, September 26, 2020
Thank you for reading the open letter of inquiry and the opinion that I sent to you the other day. In addition, we received responses to public questionnaires. Thank you.
I think that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare or Osaka Prefectural Government has already sent a notification to Misaki Town regarding the vaccination of children aged 6 months to 4 years old.
I understand that the mayor may be placed in a difficult position regarding this matter.
According to the website of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the impact of covid-19 decreases with age. Although I am not an expert, I am worried that imposing an obligation to make efforts to vaccinate such young people would be a difficult task for your government.
Now, in the Diet, there is a movement to raise a debate about vaccines, mainly by members of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. In addition, associations of volunteer doctors who oppose vaccines have been established across the country and have started their activities.
There may be a movement among local government councils or governors/mayors to question vaccinations. Under such circumstances, if Mayor Tashiro faithfully fulfills the country’s obligation to make efforts, if an accident happens to the children of the townspeople, I am concerned about how the townspeople will feel.
So, I wonder if there is some kind of measure to make the townspeople understand about vaccination while complying with the government’s request.
In other words, I think it would be possible for the townspeople to have a sufficient understanding of the pros and cons of vaccines, and to take the form of “making their own decisions” regardless of whether their kids are vaccinated or not. It seems that it would be difficult to deal with problems if they were to obtain only formal consent without understanding enough..
For example, apart from the mayor’s personal judgment, the town council resolved to distribute a document for the townspeople to correctly understand vaccination to the townspeople with the agreement of the mayor.
Or, if you can get an understanding of each doctor in the town or the medical association, you can ask the doctor to distribute the document created by the town to the person (guardian) who wants to be vaccinated.
It is necessary to gain the understanding of doctors who earn money from the work of administering vaccines, and it may be difficult for doctors to carefully explain the document to vaccinees and parents.
However, if the town, including the mayor, and the doctors in the town gain mutual understanding and become known to the townspeople as they work together, should a medical accident occur, the responsibility of the town and the doctors will not be questioned. .
In other words, I think it is necessary to cooperate with those involved in vaccination in the town.
I don’t know if it will be helpful or not, but I will send it to you.
Yoichi Tsuji
