By SIMON DENYER AND AKIKO KASHIWAGI | The Washington Post | Published: December 19, 2020
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. TOKYO Japanese long-distance runner Hitomi Niiya doesn t want to take a coronavirus vaccine ahead of the Summer Olympics in Tokyo. She s worried about side effects and has faith in the precautions already underway. The 32-year-old elite athlete isn t alone. Japan s government has preordered 290 million doses of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines, more than enough to cover its population of 126 million, and says it aims to vaccinate everyone by the middle of next year - in time for the pandemic-delayed Olympics in July.
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