| A police officer receives his first shot of the coronavirus vaccine from AstraZeneca at a hospital in Sejong, Monday. Yonhap |
By Lee Hyo-jin
The government will maintain its stance that individuals will not be able to choose the type of COVID-19 vaccine they receive, although Korea has secured an abundant supply of doses from five pharmaceutical companies.
Following the latest deal with Pfizer for additional doses for 20 million people announced Sunday, Korea has so far secured enough doses to inoculate 99 million people, double its entire population, and 2.75 times the 36 million, or 75 percent of the population that must be vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity.
This has raised speculation that the government may allow the public to choose the vaccine type they would like to receive to encourage more active participation in the nationwide immunization plan.
There have been calls for individuals to be allowed to choose their vaccine following concerns over the potential blood clotting side effect of the AstraZeneca vaccine. A brief pause in the inoculation of people under the age of 60, followed by a decision to restrict its use to those aged under 30 in mid-April, has made some people reluctant to receive the vaccine from AstraZeneca.
In response to such calls, however, the Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said citizens will not be offered a choice of vaccine, and they will continue to be inoculated with the product determined by the government.
“In order to achieve a more efficient and quicker vaccine rollout, it is necessary that the vaccine for each priority groups is determined by the expert committee (under the KDCA), rather than giving individuals an option,” said Kim Ki-nam, a KDCA official in charge of inoculation management, Monday.
Sohn Young-rae, a spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, also said at a briefing, Sunday, “There is no change in our vaccination policy that recipients do not have a choice of vaccine type. We will continue to vaccinate 12 million people during the first half of the year under this policy, and other options are not being reviewed for the latter half of the year.”
Meanwhile, according to Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol, Korea may approve domestically developed coronavirus vaccines within this year with the possibility of introducing them in 2022.
“Currently, five domestic pharmaceutical companies are conducting clinical trials of their candidate vaccines, among which two or three firms are expected to make it to phase two or three as early as the end of the year,” Kwon said during an interview with a local radio, Monday.
When asked if actual use of the domestic vaccines will be viable next year, Kwon said, “We hope so, and are providing support to the firms,” adding that the government will continue to support their vaccine development.