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| Health Minister Park Neung-hoo speaks during a press briefing on the government's plan to secure COVID-19 vaccines at the government complex in Seoul, Dec. 8. Yonhap |
By Bahk Eun-ji
Korea seems to be lagging behind other nations not only in the development of a vaccine for COVID-19 but also in the procurement of a sufficient number of vaccine doses from abroad, experts said Wednesday.
As the country faces the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and the spread of the virus is rapidly increasing, the experts stated that both the procurement and development of COVID-19 vaccines should be accelerated.
Following the first COVID-19 vaccination in the United Kingdom on Dec, 8, the United States and Canada have also begun vaccinating people, but Korea has yet to map out a specific plan to provide the same protection for people living here.
Early this month, the health ministry announced a plan to secure vaccines for a total of 44 million people ― 10 million through COVAX Facilities, an international project for the joint purchase and distribution of vaccines, and supplies for another 34 million people through individual negotiations with global pharmaceutical companies.
Among them, the pharmaceutical companies that have already agreed to Korea pre-purchasing are AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson's Jansen, and Modena.
However, as of Wednesday, the government has still been unable to provide a detailed explanation the introduction and delivery of vaccinations, other than saying that it has certainly secured enough for 44 million people.
For this reason, concerns are mounting that the government's response to the vaccination has been too slow.
Furthermore, the vaccine from AstraZeneca, the company with which the Korean government has signed a pre-purchase contract for supplies for 10 million people, has seen a delay in its approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and Pfizer's vaccine, which has already been used outside of Korea, may not be available in Korea until the second half of next year.
The matter of safety, is the most frequently mentioned point by the government when it comes to purchasing coronavirus vaccines.
Because the vaccine was developed so quickly in response to the global pandemic, there are great concerns over its efficacy and safety.
The development of vaccines by foreign pharmaceutical companies began in March, and competition for pre-purchase intensified from June. The Korean government has been criticized for not beginning purchase negotiations until July.
"The countries that are commencing vaccinations now are those that signed pre-purchase agreements when vaccine development began in March. Of course, safety is important, but we overlooked the importance of securing as much of the vaccine as possible," Chon Eun-mi, director of the respiratory center at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital was quoted as saying by Hankook Ilbo.
Kim Woo-joo, a professor at Korea University Guro Hospital also said it was only an excuse that we did not make a pre-purchase due to safety.
"Although the government's quarantine work was somewhat successful, the government has ignored a series of warnings from experts to prepare for the winter season when the virus can be more active, and the solution to the fight with the virus is a vaccine," Kim said.
On Dec. 8, the government said it would purchase 20 million doses each from AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna, which requires two shots per person, and buy 4 million doses from Johnson & Johnson's Janssen, which requires a single shot. The ministry said it has already signed a deal with AstraZeneca and will complete contracts with the three other companies later this month, adding it has set aside 1.3 trillion won ($1.2 billion) of its budget for the vaccine purchase.
