After Moderna First Dose, Japanese Woman Experienced 'Baldness'... Why She Took the Second Dose Too

Medical Staff: "Second Dose Essential for Antibody Formation"

Japanese woman A, who claims that hair loss symptoms began after the first Moderna vaccination. / Photo by A

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] A woman in her 20s from Japan, who claimed to have experienced hair loss as a side effect after receiving the first dose of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, recently announced that she has also completed the second dose. This was in accordance with medical recommendations that the second dose is essential to complete antibody formation.

Japanese media outlet New Post Seven reported on the 31st that Ms. A (28), who had complained that "all my hair fell out after receiving the Moderna vaccine," completed her second dose at the end of July.

Previously, after receiving the second dose of the Moderna vaccine on July 28, Ms. A wrote on her blog, "Many people sincerely worried and suggested that I should not get the second dose, but I decided to get it because I thought that if I didn't, I wouldn't gain antibodies and would only become bald."

Ms. A also stated, "I applied for relief regarding vaccine side effects at the local health center in July, but the authorities have not yet made a decision."

Meanwhile, when this media outlet inquired with Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, an administrative agency, about the causal relationship between the vaccine and hair loss, they reportedly responded, "As of August 4, approximately 74 million Pfizer vaccine doses have been administered," and "there have been three reports suspected of hair loss side effects, but the causal relationship between the vaccine and alopecia has not yet been established."

Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine.
Photo by Yonhap News

Earlier, Ms. A reported hair loss side effects after receiving the first Moderna dose on June 29. On the day of vaccination, she only felt pain in the arm where the shot was administered and showed no other symptoms such as fever, but she claimed that her hair began to fall out rapidly two days after the vaccination.

She explained, "On the third day after vaccination, there was a clump of hair about the size of a small mouse in the bathroom drain, and a week later, I found signs of alopecia areata that gradually increased in size." She added, "From the 14th day after vaccination, I wore a wig to work, and on the 17th day, I experienced feeling the wind on my scalp for the first time in my life."

Ms. A is known to have had no underlying health conditions. She suspected the vaccine as the cause, saying, "Even after various tests at the hospital, the cause of the hair loss could not be found." However, she expressed frustration, stating that proving a connection between the vaccine and hair loss is realistically difficult.

In fact, it is already known that hair loss can occur as a post-COVID-19 symptom, but the relationship between Moderna and other mRNA (messenger RNA) vaccines, as well as other COVID-19 vaccines, and hair loss has not yet been established through clinical trials or other studies.

Ms. A said, "Around July 21, about three weeks after vaccination, the rapid hair loss stopped," and added, "Currently, no one has reached ten years after vaccination, so it is a period of gathering information about post-vaccination conditions. I hope I can be one piece of information for everyone."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.