AstraZeneca vaccine… 65 years old from this month, will it be okay?

The government decides to get AZ vaccination from this month for the elderly
7648 reports of suspected adverse reactions to vaccines in Korea
Expert “Severe adverse reactions, cause of death must be transparently disclosed”

[아시아경제 강주희 기자] Starting this month, the government has decided to inoculate the AstraZeneca (AZ) Corona 19 vaccine to the elderly over the age of 65 as well. However, as the AZ vaccine frequently complains of side effects, voices of concern about vaccination are rising.

Experts suggested that social trust should be established by responding to adverse reactions and creating a damage compensation system to relieve anxiety about vaccination.

The Corona 19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team (Promotion Team) announced on the 11th that it will be vaccinating AZ for people 65 years of age or older in accordance with the deliberation of the Vaccination Specialized Committee held on the 10th.

The promotion team said, “The Vaccination Specialized Committee It was recommended to use the AZ vaccine over the age of 65 because the AZ vaccine was proven effective in hospitalization and serious prevention in the evaluation of the elderly by reviewing the results of studies in the UK and Scotland,” he said.

According to this, in the UK recently, Pfizer and AZ vaccines showed about 70% of disease prevention and hospitalization prevention effects in the elderly in their 70s or older. In Scotland, a study found that Pfizer and AZ vaccines showed up to 85% and 94% of hospitalization prevention effects, respectively.

The promotion team is planning to immunize people who are hospitalized, residents, and workers (about 376,000 people) aged 65 or older in nursing hospitals and nursing facilities during this month.

Citizens are still anxious to get the vaccine. This is because there are frequent cases of complaining of abnormal symptoms, such as from relatively mild symptoms such as high fever and headache after receiving the AZ vaccine, to severe body aches and muscle pain.

According to the promotion team on the 12th, 789 cases were reported as adverse reactions after vaccination as of 0 o’clock on that day. Since vaccination started on the 26th of last month, all of 7648 reports of suspected adverse reactions in Korea amounted to 1.4% of the 540,6277 domestic cumulative vaccinations.

When looking at reports of adverse reactions by vaccine type, AZ vaccine-related cases accounted for 7567 cases, accounting for 98.9% of all reports. There were 81 reports (1.1%) related to Pfizer’s vaccine.

Meanwhile, on the 9th, an incumbent doctor said after vaccination with AZ “I thought there would be no side effects, but I felt a lot of side effects.”

In the video titled’AstraZeneca vaccination honest side effects review’, a rehabilitation medicine specialist Kim Gyeong-ryul, who runs the YouTube channel’Busan doctor Kim Won-jang’, said in a video titled’AstraZeneca vaccination honest side effects review’, “Fever of 38 degrees or more, chills from about 10 hours after getting AZ vaccine injection on the last 4 days. , Sore throat, flu-like symptoms appeared,” he said, “it’s not a side effect, but it’s a general immune response symptom, but it came very badly.”

According to Kim, 70% of the 30 other employees had side effects, and 60% of them suffered severe symptoms similar to those of Kim.

As such, some are concerned that the vaccine could harm the lives of elderly people with underlying diseases due to adverse reactions. In particular, most of the 15 deaths after vaccination in Korea were found to be patients with underlying diseases in nursing hospitals. The causality between death and vaccination has not been identified.

The expert stressed that it is necessary to relieve public anxiety about vaccination by establishing a system for responding to adverse reactions and compensation for damage.

In an interview with YTN Radio’Hwang Bo-seon’s starting new morning’, Lee Cheol-woo, a researcher at the International Vaccine Research Institute, said, “Based on the data on immunity activation (by the government), and in fact, even over 65 years of age, (the vaccine’s) sufficient safety was verified, so it is believed that vaccination for the elderly would have been determined. “In the end, one of the most important parts in achieving the 70% vaccination rate necessary for the formation of group immunity is building social trust in vaccination,” he suggested.

“It is relatively rare to refuse to inoculate the vaccine unconditionally,” Lee said. “To lead the vaccination in the right direction, we have built up a system for dealing with adverse reactions and compensation for damage, so that we can reduce anxiety about the vaccine and increase the vaccination rate. I have to do it,” he stressed.

Reporter Kang Joo-hee [email protected]