3rd person dies in Japan after receiving contaminated Moderna vaccine
A third person has died in Japan after receiving a dose from one of three batches of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine that have since been recalled due to contamination, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The 49-year-old man died on Aug. 12, one day after getting his second shot of the two-dose vaccine. His only known health issue was an allergy to buckwheat, the Japanese health ministry said in a statement Monday.
Two other men, aged 30 and 38, also died in August within days of getting their second Moderna shot. In all three cases, the men received doses from a batch manufactured in the same production line as another lot from which some unused vials were reported to contain foreign substances at multiple inoculation sites in Japan.
The deaths remain under investigation, and the Japanese health ministry said it has yet to establish any causal relationship with the vaccine.
The contaminated lot and two adjacent batches were suspended from use by the Japanese health ministry last month, pending an investigation. American drugmaker Moderna and its Japanese distribution partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. ultimately recalled the three lots, containing about 1.63 million doses, after an investigation confirmed the foreign matter to be high-grade stainless steel from manufacturing equipment.
The Japanese health ministry said that, based on the companies' analysis, it is unlikely the stainless steel contaminants pose any additional health risk.
Moderna and Takeda have yet to release statements on the third fatality, but the companies have previously said there is currently no evidence that the other two deaths were caused by the vaccine.
