Gov't struggles to tackle distrust over COVID-19 vaccines

A medical worker guides people waiting to go through COVID-19 testing at a public health center in Seoul's Gangdong District, Friday. Yonhap

Authorities extend toughest social distancing measures for 2 more weeks

By Jun Ji-hye

Public distrust has been growing over the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines amid increasing breakthrough infections involving people who tested positive for the virus even after being fully vaccinated.

Some skeptics are raising concerns that the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has led the ongoing fourth wave of infections here, may be limiting the vaccines' effectiveness.

Health authorities are going all-out to assuage such distrust, based on the belief that vaccinations are the only way to combat the virus for now, saying there is no evidence showing that the Delta variant has actually increased breakthrough cases.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Friday, of the more than 6.3 million people who have been fully vaccinated, 1,132 were breakthrough cases as of July 29, up sharply from the 779 cases tallied a week earlier.

The KDCA carried out genetic analyses of 243 out of the 1,132 breakthrough cases, and confirmed variants of the coronavirus had caused 150 cases. Of them, 83 percent were caused by the Delta variant.

As the results have raised concerns that the Delta variant has increased the number of breakthrough cases, Park Young-joon, the head of the epidemiological investigation team at the KDCA, said, “There have been reports that the Delta variant is more infectious, but there have been no reports that the Delta variant increases breakthrough cases or the death toll.”

He noted that the Delta variant accounted for a large percentage of the breakthrough cases, as the variant has already become the dominant strain in the country.

Regarding concerns that those who received Johnson & Johnson shots appear to be especially vulnerable to breakthrough infections, Park also said, “It is difficult to tell if there is a correlation between breakthrough infections and the efficacy of each vaccine.”

He explained that the reason why breakthrough infections have involved more people who received Johnson & Johnson shots, compared to people who received other vaccines, may have been because the Johnson & Johnson shots were administered mostly to young people under the age of 50 who are more socially active.

The authorities, as well as medical experts, are calling on people to participate actively in the government's vaccination program, rather than being swayed by distrust.

“The rate of breakthrough infections was 0.018 percent, meaning that only 17 people per 100,000 were involved with such cases,” Park said. “On the other hand, vaccines have been reported to show 80- to 90-percent efficacy, compared to those who have yet to be vaccinated.”

Kim Woo-joo, a professor of infectious medicine at Korea University Guro Hospital, also said, “Once vaccinated, vaccines are effective in preventing their recipients from becoming critically ill or dying in more than 90 percent of cases.”

The country added 1,704 COVID-19 cases for Thursday, including 1,640 local infections, raising the total caseload to 207,406. The daily infection caseload has remained in the 1,700s for the third straight day, according to the KDCA.

Minister Kim Boo-kyum speaks during a government meeting about its response to the COVID-19 pandemic at the Government Complex in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap

Amid few signs of a slowdown, the government extended its toughest Level 4 measures of the nation's four-tier social distancing regulations for two more weeks in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon through Aug. 22, and Level 3 in other parts of the country, Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum announced Friday.

In a bid to speed up the vaccination of young people, the government will administer vaccines to about 17 million people aged between 18 and 49 between Aug. 26 and Sept. 30. The advance reservation system will be open Aug. 9 through 18, with reservations being made based on the last digit of a person's date of birth.