It is false that former Japanese prime minister rejected vaccines and favored ivermectin

There are false posts on Twitter and Facebook claiming that the former Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, assassinated on July 8, did not bet on vaccines against Covid-19 — having returned 1.6 million doses — and opted for the distribution of ivermectin, a drug with no proven effectiveness in the fight against coronavirus, for the population. The publications suggest that he was killed for having preferred the antiparasitic drug in the fight against the pandemic.

However, the politician no longer held the position of Japanese prime minister when vaccination began in the country, on February 17, 2021. He announced that he would resign in August 2020, due to health problems – he officially left the position in September of that year. year.

About the country having returned vaccines, what happened was that, in August 2021, the Japanese government suspended the application of 1.6 million doses of Moderna because it found impurities in the vials. At the time, the Japanese government’s chief of staff, Katsunobu Kato, stated that “no case has been reported where there have been any side effects related to this”.

The politician was assassinated on July 8 after being shot during an election campaign speech. Police said the gunman blamed Abe for alleged links to an organization to which his mother made financial donations, causing problems for the family.

THE Sheet, the Japanese Embassy in Brazil stated that the country recommends that the population be vaccinated and that it has not determined the use of ivermectin as a treatment for Covid-19. The agency also pointed out that there is, so far, no approval process for the drug against the virus.

The website of the Ministry of Health of the Asian country emphasizes that the approved vaccines, Astrazeneca, Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer, are effective in combating the pandemic.