Photo/Illutration Top officials of the Nishio city government in Aichi Prefecture apologize at a news conference on May 11 for prioritizing a pharmacy company chief and his wife for COVID-19 vaccines. (Keizo Fukatsu)

It came to light in February that former Peruvian President Martín Vizcarra was still in office when he and his wife were vaccinated against COVID-19 in secret last autumn.

Vizcarra gave the lame excuse that he and the first lady had received the shots as "clinical trial volunteers."

They had allegedly simply jumped the line.

Also accused of the same offense were Peru's foreign minister and health minister.

The Peruvian Congress found Vizcarra guilty of violating the Peruvian Constitution, which provides for equal opportunity in vaccination for all citizens, and passed a resolution to ban him from public office for 10 years.

And just days after his fall from grace, Vizcarra revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19.

This "vaccinegate" scandal was not just a South American phenomenon. It happened in Japan, too.

The offenders here were a high-profile couple in Nishio, Aichi Prefecture: Hirokazu Sugiura, the founder and chairman of pharmacy giant Sugi Holdings Co., and his wife.

According to reports, Sugiura's secretary repeatedly pressured the city to give the couple priority in receiving the shots.

The city's department in charge of the vaccination program kept resisting, but the deputy mayor finally caved.

Though the couple's appointment was canceled at the last moment, the integrity and impartiality of government was compromised.

People across the nation, who have been trying desperately to make their appointments by phone, must have been utterly disgusted.

But even in the United States where considerable headway has been made in mass inoculation, there is still no end to line jumping.

Cases have been reported of vaccine administrators turning away seniors who have been waiting for hours by lying to them that the day's supply was all used up, so they could give the shots thus "saved" to their families and acquaintances.

And in a town where eligible recipients had to be 65 and older, women in their 30s and 40s were found to have disguised themselves as seniors, and each got her first shot. It was only when they came for their second shots that their ruse was exposed.

A cacophonous "vaccine rhapsody" is reverberating on the world's five continents.

With people plotting and conniving out of self-love all at once, it's as if the Earth's axis could be thrown out of alignment. 

--The Asahi Shimbun, May 13

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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