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| ▲ On the afternoon of the afternoon of the 15th, Eun-kyung Chung, head of the Central Defense Agency, who was in charge of the COVID-19 vaccination response promotion team, announced “Corona 19 February-March vaccination plan” at a regular briefing on Corona 19 response held at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Cheongju, Chungcheongbuk-do. have. | |
| Ⓒ Yonhap News |
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As the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it would postpone AstraZeneca corona 19 vaccination to the elderly over the age of 65, there is growing concern that the vaccination plan may be disrupted in the future.
In a briefing on the COVID-19 vaccination plan on the 15th, Eun-kyung Chung, head of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Corona 19 Vaccination Response Promotion), said, “There is a lack of statistical significance for the efficacy of the vaccine in the age group over 65 years old. It was announced that the vaccination for the elderly was postponed based on the fact that a caution that the use of the elderly should be decided carefully is stated. For those over 65 years old, the vaccination plan will be confirmed after additional clinical information on the efficacy of the vaccine expected at the end of March is confirmed.
However, what was considered more important than the statistical significance or the KFDA’s precautions was that the public’s overall confidence in AstraZeneca was low. Compared to Pfizer 95% and Modena 94.1%, the preventive effect of AstraZeneca vaccine is relatively low to 62%, and the so-called’water vaccine’ is even coming out. In addition, some European countries, such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands, recommend vaccination only to those under the age of 65, and there has been much controversy over the effect of the elderly.
“As it is important to increase the vaccination rate in order to achieve the Corona 19 vaccination goal, we judged that the controversy about the efficacy of the vaccine against the elderly may lower the vaccination rate by lowering the acceptance of the vaccine by the public and medical personnel.”
It can be seen that the above remarks by Commissioner Chung are actually the reason for the’postponement of vaccination for the elderly’. It seems to mean that the vaccination will be stably avoided as much as possible. However, the fact that the vaccine cannot be vaccinated in the elderly, the highest risk group, and 58,000 Pfizer vaccines that will be available through Cobax Facility from February to March and 500,000 Pfizer vaccines that will come in late March are frozen vaccines. There are criticisms that even the disease authorities are too’noticeful’ for the fact that it is difficult to go to a hospital or nursing facility to inoculate.
Government criticism also voices… “Vaccination postponement, vaccines less trust”
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| ▲ On the 9th, participants are vaccinating against the Corona 19 vaccination mock training held at the Central Vaccination Center of the National Medical Center in Jung-gu, Seoul. | |
| Ⓒ Photo Cooperative Foundation |
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Jeong Jae-hoon, a professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine at Gachon University School of Medicine, said on his Facebook page on the 15th that postponing vaccinations over the age of 65 would rather lower confidence in the vaccine.
Professor Jeong said, “I am very worried about the basis for recommending vaccination of a vaccine that has already been delayed once to the elderly.” “Anyway, the current vaccine needs an update or additional vaccination to respond to variations. “It’s safe and effective, but it feels contradictory to postpone vaccination because of lack of evidence.”
“The government’s announcement is not about making a decision, but rather delaying the decision and avoiding the problem.” “The government’s decision is the reason for the lack of data on the effectiveness of the vaccine, but it is highly likely to be accepted by the public as a safety issue. This’mirum’ could have a greater impact on the trust of the vaccine.”
The decision to postpone vaccination for the elderly in AstraZeneca is not because the number of participants in clinical trials is too small to prove its effectiveness, as the government said, but it may be considered as if there is a problem with efficacy or safety. In fact, the power of the people made a comment saying, “Is there any basis for vaccination under the age of 65?”
In particular, Professor Chung was concerned about the upcoming 4th outbreak without a vaccine. The vaccine not only has an infection prevention effect, but also shows an effect in preventing seriousness. However, if a pandemic occurs in March without vaccination, the number of severely ill patients over 65 years of age may rapidly increase, leading to an emergency situation in which the medical system is shaken.
Professor Hong Yoon-cheol of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Seoul National University also said, “In situations where the vaccine is not sufficiently secured, I think it is advantageous to vaccinate the AstraZeneca vaccine even at the age of 65 or older to prevent COVID-19,” he said. “Because the government continues to secure the vaccine. I’ll have to see the situation a little bit.
Part of a design to build’trust’ for vaccination?
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| ▲ The government has signed a vaccine contract with AstraZeneca, a vaccine developer for novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). | |
| Ⓒ Yonhap News |
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However, on the other hand, there is also a story that the disease administration made’one step back for two steps forward’. Since public opinion is negative to push only trusting in the effectiveness and safety of AstraZeneca, we chose a method of building “trust” by showing people under the age of 65 to familiarize the vaccine with the vaccine, and then showing clear clinical trial results. It is an interpretation that I did it.
In particular, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC)’s confidence in the vaccine declined after some mistakes were revealed in the cold chain management of the last influenza vaccine. This atmosphere has led to controversy over’vaccine side effects’, with news that he died after influenza vaccinations followed by real-time news. In the end, no vaccine relevance was proven, but it was an incident that taught us that a single mistake could threaten the entire vaccination business.
However, it seems to have also taken into account that under the current situation, if elderly people die from getting AstraZeneca vaccine, public opinion may worsen even if there is no vaccine connection.
Professor Dong-Hyun Kim of the Department of Social Medicine at Hallym University Medical School (Chairman of the Korean Epidemiology Association) said, “Vaccination is a social process, so it is necessary to increase the inoculation rate and increase the receptivity.” “That’s right,” he said.
Professor Kim said, “I think the quarantine authorities have carefully approached the controversy in consideration of the acceptability of the vaccine.” “Even a little later, it will be a way to increase the inoculation rate.”
Seoul National University’s Graduate School of Public Health Professor Yu Myung-soon’s team conducted a survey on vaccination (±3% points at 95% confidence level of sampling error) on 1068 adult men and women on February 5-7 together with Casestat Research, a public opinion research institute. . In this survey, 26.8% answered’I want to postpone vaccination timing or order to the next’ and 4.9% answered’I will refuse vaccination’ when asked about the’government vaccination schedule’. This means that about 30% of them either don’t want to get the vaccine right away or they will refuse it.
Jae-wook Choi, a professor at the Department of Preventive Medicine, Korea University Medical School, said, “It is rather inappropriate to make policy decisions based on insufficient scientific grounds, and that is the politicization of quarantine.” It is also a part to talk about through research.”
Professor Choi said, “Vaccination is like a’gunpowder.’ In Europe, if you see that there are many people who will not get vaccination, you have to design well how to persuade the people.” It is a situation where vaccination can be given, so I think we should go carefully.”
An official of the Agency for Disease Control and Prevention said, “The data for AstraZeneca vaccines over the age of 65 are insufficient. So, we will be vaccinated after data is accumulated and scientific verification is done,” he said.