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'Booster shot' plan further corners vaccination program

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Citizens wait for COVID-19 vaccine inoculation at a hospital in Seoul, Monday, when AstraZeneca vaccination started for healthcare workers for the disabled and seniors, as well as airline crewmembers aged 30 or above. Yonhap
Citizens wait for COVID-19 vaccine inoculation at a hospital in Seoul, Monday, when AstraZeneca vaccination started for healthcare workers for the disabled and seniors, as well as airline crewmembers aged 30 or above. Yonhap

By Bahk Eun-ji

The country's COVID-19 vaccination program is facing another potential setback following announcements in the United States that it will consider offering potential booster shots of vaccines in order to increase their effectiveness.

Boosters are an extra dose of a vaccine given at a predetermined time after the initial injections to raise or maintain immunity against the targeted virus. The issue was recently brought up by U.S. vaccine policy chief Anthony Fauci and the CEOs of Pfizer and Modena.

The coronavirus vaccines from the two pharmaceutical giants are administered in two injections, but the U.S. government has decided to look at giving third shots for both, according to White House officials last week.

If the U.S. confirms the third round of vaccinations, it will increase demand there for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and the supply schedule for other countries, such as Korea, is likely to be pushed back, amid already fierce international competition to secure sufficient doses.

Korea has secured 13 million doses of Pfizer vaccines and decided to administer 6.29 million of them in the second quarter, but the U.S. plan for booster shots could cause a delay in this schedule.

The government has signed a contract for 20 million vaccines doses each from Modena and NovaVax, supposedly for delivery in the second quarter, but a specific supply timetable has yet to be confirmed.

An airline crewmember receives the AstraZeneca anti-COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
An airline crewmember receives the AstraZeneca anti-COVID-19 vaccine at a hospital in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

The health authorities said they were monitoring the overseas supply and demand situation for the vaccines, and would discuss with experts whether booster shots were needed. "We are reviewing plans to secure additional vaccine doses for the latter half of this year and even for 2022," Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong said in a briefing, Monday.

Amid this developing situation, the opposition parties criticized the government's vaccination plan and urged President Moon Jae-in to directly contact U.S. President Joe Biden to secure more doses of vaccines produced by U.S. companies. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga managed to secure additional Pfizer shots during his visit to the U.S.

"President Moon Jae-in reassured the people last year through a video conference with Moderna CEO, but people began to suspect that it was just a show," said main opposition People Power Party (PPP) spokesman Rep. Bae Joon-young.

Moon spoke with Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel at the end of December to discuss the supply of vaccine, resulting in the agreement to supply the doses from the second quarter of this year. However, it is still unclear when the initial amount of vaccine will arrive in Korea.

"The vaccination rate here is less than 3 percent, which is the lowest level among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries, and I would ask what the government is doing to solve this." Bae said.

About 1,517,390 people, or 2.92 percent of the population, have been given COVID-19 vaccine shots since the country started its vaccination program Feb. 26, according to the KDCA.

While AstraZeneca's vaccine has been administered to more than 1 million people, concerns over side effects have been intensifying, with the latest reported case being a woman in her 40s without any underlying disease who developed symptoms of quadriplegia due to acute encephalomyelitis after being vaccinated March 12.

According to Rep. Suh Jung-sook of the PPP, the woman, who worked as a nursing assistant at a hospital in Gyeonggi Province, first reported a headache, so she took painkillers, but the symptoms did not get any better after a week.

On March 24, she showed symptoms of binocular diplopia; but was admitted to hospital, March 31, after suffering limb paralysis following which she was diagnosed with acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.

"Before vaccination, she was healthy without underlying diseases such as high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease. She even received a no unusual findings result in a medical examination in January," Rep. Suh said.

"If a healthy woman in her 40s suddenly develops a rare disease, it can only be thought of as being related to the vaccination."


Bahk Eun-ji ejb@koreatimes.co.kr


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