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| Kim Jung-gon, a professor in the Pediatrics Department at Seoul Medical Center who heads the investigation team on damage of COVID-19 vaccine, speaks during a briefing at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) office in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, Monday. Yonhap |
By Lee Hyo-jin
The health authorities said Monday that they had found no correlation between the COVID-19 vaccine and a number of recent deaths following the administration of AstraZeneca vaccinations.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) announced the interim results of its investigation into the deaths of patients with pre-existing conditions after the inoculations, which indicated that none of the fatalities were a result of the vaccine.
An investigation team consisting of vaccine experts and forensic medical examiners reviewed the eight fatalities reported as of March 6 since the vaccination program started Feb. 26.
"None of the eight fatalities fell into the category of anaphylaxis ― a severe allergic reaction which could rapidly lead to death after inoculation. Also, there is a low possibility of abnormalities in vaccine products or mishandling during the inoculation process," said Kim Jung-gon, a professor at the Pediatrics Department of Seoul Medical Center who headed the investigation team.
"Therefore, we came to the tentative conclusion that there were no causal links between the deaths and adverse reactions to the vaccine."
He noted that as the National Forensic Service is still conducting autopsies on four of the eight cases, they will conduct further investigations based on the final results of the post mortems.
As of Sunday, 11 people with pre-existing health conditions have died after receiving the first shot of the AstraZeneca vaccine, according to the KDCA.
The authorities said they are conducting investigations into the additional deaths while closely monitoring people for severe adverse reactions.
In addition, the KDCA said at a meeting with medical experts that it had decided to allow the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 65. This had been suspended due to insufficient clinical data on its efficacy. The government will announce its final decision later this week.
Meanwhile, the family of a man who died four days after receiving a shot urged the government to conduct a thorough investigation into the cause of his death in an online petition on the Cheong Wa Dae website posted Saturday.
The petitioner, claiming to be a family member of the deceased man in his 60s who was vaccinated Feb. 27 at a nursing home in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, wrote, "My father began to show symptoms of a high fever and muscle pain in the evening, and was moved to a higher-level hospital two days later."
The man passed away due to deteriorating lung function, March 4.
According to the petitioner, the health authorities asked if the family wanted an autopsy, which the family turned down. "They told me to wait as the authorities were discussing compensation. But all I got later was a text message with a link explaining the compensation procedure in tiny text with medical jargon, which was difficult to understand. And the conclusion was we needed an autopsy result if we wanted compensation," the petitioner wrote.
"A person died suddenly but there was no single apology from the health authorities. We demand a thorough investigation, an apology from the health authorities as well as a clear explanation on compensation measures."
Since Korea began its nationwide vaccination program on Feb. 26, 316,865 people across the country have been vaccinated as of Sunday, according to the KDCA.
The agency noted that 3,915 abnormal reactions have been reported. The majority of cases ― 3,866 ― were minor symptoms such as headache, fever and vomiting. Several of them were severe ― there have been 33 cases of anaphylactic shock and five seizures, alongside the 11 deaths.
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