Elderly Japanese man gets 4 Covid-19 vaccine shots, believing more jabs would be “more effective”

A Hokkaido, Japan resident in his 80s secretly got two extra doses of Covid-19 vaccines, telling authorities he thought multiple jabs would afford him more protection.

Fortunately, the man has suffered no adverse effects from the double dose of the vaccines, and the health officials of Teshikaga, the town in Hokkaido where the man lives, have said that they will be more careful in checking people’s vaccine histories.

The incident of double vaccine doses was reported by the Tokyo Shimbun Web on Jul 8, which noted that the man received four doses of Covid-19 vaccines between Apr and Jul, but that he has not suffered from any physical abnormalities.

As the elderly man still works, his job requires him to travel to a hospital outside Teshikaga, where he received his first two jabs in Apr and May.

But because he is a senior citizen, he was notified that he was eligible to receive the shots in his home town last month, and he received vouchers for them. 

And thus, he proceeded to line up for his third, and then his fourth vaccine shot.

But on Jul 6, the home town received a bill from the hospital that had administered the senior’s first vaccine jabs, and it was discovered that the man had been double vaccinated.

Since there are only 7,600 people living in Teshikaga, it did not take long for this to be found out.

When asked why he went for Covid vaccine shots twice, the elderly man said, “I thought the more times I got it, the more effective it would be.”

Japan has had 822,594 Covid-19 infections so far, with 14,905 deaths.

Over 22 million people in Japan have been fully vaccinated, or about 18 per cent of the population.

While many commenters have been disapproving of the senior citizen’s actions, others have lauded him for wanting to protect himself from Covid, as well as for allowing himself to be a “human guinea pig” that shows how a body reacts to multiple doses of the Covid vaccine.

The brand of vaccine he was given was not indicated in reports about the incident. /TISG

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