TOKYO (Guardian) -- A third man has died in Japan after receiving an injection from one of three batches of Moderna vaccines since identified as contaminated.
The 49-year-old man had his second shot on 11 August and died the following day. His only known health issue was an allergy to buckwheat, the health ministry said on Monday. As with the previous two deaths, the ministry said it had yet to establish if the latest fatality was linked to the vaccine.
The shot came from the same batches that were found to have fragments of stainless steel in them, leading to a recall of 1.63 million doses of the Moderna vaccine on 26 August. The three batches were manufactured in Spain under contract by Moderna.
The company has yet to comment on the most recent fatality, but last week issued a joint statement with local distributor Takeda Pharmaceutical, saying: “The rare presence of stainless steel particles in the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine does not pose an undue risk to patient safety and it does not adversely affect the benefit/risk profile of the product.”
Early last month, two men in their 30s with no underlying health conditions died within days of getting their second dose of the Moderna vaccine.
Contaminants believed to be pieces of rubber fragments from vial stoppers that entered the vaccine liquid due to incorrectly inserted needles were found in Okinawa, Gunma and Kanagawa in late August and early September. No problems were reported among those injected with the contaminated vaccines, which came from different batches to the previously recalled ones.
More than 500,000 people have been injected with vaccines from the three faulty batches, according to the minister in charge of the vaccine program, Taro Kono.
Most of the vaccines used in Japan are made by Pfizer, though at least 12.2 million doses of Moderna have been administered. Nearly 136 million coronavirus doses in total have been given in Japan, where 48% of the population is full vaccinated and more than 59% have received at least one shot.