The couple together… Vaccination of President Moon, which was different from the G7 leaders

President Moon Jae-in and his wife, Kim Jeong-suk, were vaccinated against Corona 19 side by side. President Moon and his wife visited the Jongno-gu Health Center in Seoul on the morning of the 23rd to get an AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine.

President Moon, who finished the interview procedure privately on that day, was injected into his left forearm wearing a short-sleeved shirt in front of the reporters. After finishing the vaccination with a calm expression, President Moon, who pressed the vaccination site, said, “(The medical staff) is very good at injecting injections,” as if to reassure Mrs. Kim waiting for the next turn. The public release of the vaccination of the president and the outside of the country was intended to reduce public anxiety over the safety of the vaccine.

President Moon’s vaccination was carried out in preparation for the G7 Summit held in London, England on June 11th. Since the first and second vaccination intervals of the AZ vaccine are 10 weeks, departure is possible after June 1, when the second vaccination is completed. President Moon is expected to attend the G7 Summit with the leaders of Australia and India as the invited state leaders.

Most of the G7 leaders who had already been vaccinated against Corona 19 did not accompany their spouses and vaccinated them alone. U.S. President Joe Biden, who received the vaccine first among the G7 leaders, accompanied his wife Jill Biden to the vaccination site in December of last year, when he was elected, but Jill, who completed a closed vaccination half a day before that, held only the hand of her husband who received the injection. Gave. President Biden’s vaccination, which had a strong event to increase public confidence in the vaccine, was broadcast live on TV and the Internet.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga was vaccinated for the second time among the G7 leaders at the National Center for International Medical Research in Shinjuku, Tokyo on the 16th. Prime Minister Suga, who was vaccinated by Pfizer in short sleeves alone, asked reporters to participate in the vaccination, saying, “I thought it would hurt, but I was able to end it comfortably without getting sick”. Prime Minister Suga seems to have hurried to vaccination for the US-Japan summit to be held on the 9th of next month prior to the G7 summit. The 1-2 dose interval of Pfizer vaccine is known to be typically 3 weeks.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was also given an AZ vaccine alone on the 19th without his fiancée Carrie Simmons. Prime Minister Johnson completed public vaccination for the third time among G7 leaders at St.Thomas Hospital in London, where he was hospitalized during the corona19 infection last year. European leaders, who have been hesitant to vaccination for a while, are also actively promoting vaccinations with the G7 Summit. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have already declared AZ vaccine, and French Prime Minister Jean Castex received the AZ vaccine at a hospital near Paris on the 19th, when Prime Minister Johnson was vaccinated. However, President Macron, who declared AZ vaccination last month, is expected to delay the vaccination time as it is estimated that antibodies were generated when infected with Corona 19 three months ago.

Prime Minister Morrison of Australia, invited to the G7 summit together with President Moon, gave Pfizer vaccine on February 21, and Indian Prime Minister Modi also inoculated a native vaccine developed in their country on the 1st without a spouse.

On the other hand, unlike the G7 leaders, the Chinese and Russian leaders postponed vaccination even after developing a native vaccine, causing public resentment. Chinese President Xi Jinping is known to have entered Django amid public opinion that the supreme leadership should be vaccinated first as an example, as the vaccine developed by his country’Sinopharm’ was engulfed in a’fake vaccine controversy’. Russian President Putin, who had not mentioned anything about vaccination until recently, announced on the 23rd that he would be vaccinated with one of three domestic vaccines, including Sputnik V, but decided not to disclose the vaccination scene.

Wang Tae-seok Senior Reporter [email protected]

News directly edited by the Hankook Ilbo can also be viewed on Naver.