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| People wait to receive a COVID-19 vaccine shot at a vaccination center in Seodaemun District, Seoul, Sept. 9. Yonhap |
By Lee Hae-rin
A growing number of people are claiming that their family members have died or become seriously ill after receiving COVID-19 vaccines as the nation's inoculation rate increases.
While they demand the government clarify the correlation between the vaccination and the tragic incidents and compensate for the damage, the health authorities have so far acknowledged such correlation in very limited cases.
As of Monday, over 60 petitions have been posted on the Cheong Wa Dae website during the past 30 days, in which the petitioners claimed severe vaccine-related side effects or deaths. The number is more than double the figure of the previous 30 days.
According to a petition posted on Sept. 10, a middle-aged man, the petitioner's father, died Sept. 8, two weeks after receiving the first dose of Pfizer at a hospital in Incheon.
The father allegedly started suffering chest pain four days after the shot, but was diagnosed to have no serious health problem at a local hospital. However, the chest pain continued and led to the victim's sudden death in an emergency room.
"We call for an immediate investigation into a causal link between the vaccination and his death," the petitioner wrote, adding the father did not have any existing health issues.
"The state has urged people to get vaccinated, so I thought the state would have a manual for such health problems after vaccination," the petitioner said, adding the family is waiting for the result of an autopsy.
According to another petition posted Aug. 30, a 24-year-old elementary school teacher has been hospitalized in an intensive care unit after receiving his first dose of Pfizer, July 28. The victim was diagnosed for severe swelling in the liver and recently experienced a heart attack.
"My brother is one of many with severe side effects here (at the hospital), but it's very complicated to prove their link with the vaccination and to seek compensation accordingly," the petitioner wrote.
Over 8,308 cases of severe side effects have been reported since the vaccination campaign began in late February, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Sept. 9. Only two deaths, however, were acknowledged to have causal link with the vaccines.
"The cases of death that were proven to have a connection to vaccination is extremely rare both here and abroad. There is no need to worry or feel anxious on the matter," a health ministry official said at an Aug. 31 briefing.
