There will be no vaccination disruptions like Germany and Italy… Government secures more than 32 million corona vaccines

The government announced plans to vaccinate 43.5 million people with a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19), starting the first vaccination next month. Currently, there are 76 million vaccines secured. If the vaccination proceeds according to the government’s plan, 32.4 million people will remain. How will the excess vaccine be handled?

According to the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the 29th, the government plans to first inoculate 1.3 million people, including those admitted to and working in nursing hospitals who are at high risk for Corona 19, and medical personnel at a hospital dedicated to Corona 19, within the first quarter of this year. In the second quarter, 9 million people, including the elderly over 65 years old, are targeted. In the 3rd to 4th quarter, the number of vaccinations will increase dramatically. This is because it includes adults (18 to 64 years old). A total of 33.5 million people are reached. According to the government’s plan, 43.5 million people will be vaccinated by the end of this year. All citizens are eligible for vaccination, except for children, adolescents and pregnant women whose clinical trial results are not available.

Come in sequentially according to production status

The amount of vaccines secured by the government amounted to 76 million people, including 10 million people for’Covax Facility’. This is the quantity left after hitting 51.8 million Koreans once. The Agency for Disease Control and Prevention emphasized, “As there are uncertainties such as whether or not the vaccine was successfully developed and the scope of the license, it is necessary to first consider the aspect of protecting public health by securing sufficient vaccines rather than worrying about discarding them. He added, “Every overseas country is also making efforts to secure sufficient vaccines, and the Korean government has also pushed forward to purchase sufficient quantities so that necessary vaccinations can be provided in a timely manner.”

The contracted vaccine volume does not come into Korea all at once. They are divided according to production status. This means that you can arrive later than the time specified in the contract. In fact, in Europe, where vaccination was started earlier, production of the vaccine is delayed and the supply problem is turning into a lawsuit. Pfizer informed the Italian government earlier this month that it would cut its supply by 30%, and vaccinations were suspended throughout Italy. The Italian government announced a lawsuit against Pfizer.

The UK’s AstraZeneca vaccine was also notified by one side that it was not able to meet the volume it had recently decided to provide to the European Union. On the 28th (local time), the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that AstraZeneca had been aware of this situation early and did not inform EU countries in advance. In the EU, suspicion was raised that the EU supply volume was reduced in order to wait for the supply to the UK first. Germany, faced with a thunderbolt, insisted that the export of vaccines produced in the EU should be prevented until it meets the promised quantity.

As the problem of securing global vaccines arose, a government official said, “The amount currently secured is sufficient to secure normal population immunity.” He said, “We are trying to secure a margin to do so.” First of all, it is also necessary to consider the possibility that those who have been vaccinated in the first half will need to be vaccinated again by fall. Professor Chun Byung-cheol of Korea University’s Department of Preventive Medicine said, “Corona 19 vaccine is the first type of human vaccination, so no one knows how long the antibody obtained from the vaccine will last.” said.

Vaccines that are forced to be discarded during the vaccination phase may also be available. Vaccines introduced in Korea contain 5-10 people per vial (bottle). Unlike influenza vaccines for mass production and large-scale distribution, it is made only in large doses. Therefore, the inoculation medical staff should “dispense” (dividing it into a syringe) and inoculate it. A disposable syringe must be inserted into the vaccine bottle and injected exactly as much as the inoculation amount. It is tricky compared to regular vaccines. There are also significant losses in this process abroad. Each vaccine is different, but once opened, it should be used within 2-6 hours. If the number of vaccinations is not carefully allocated by the hour, many vaccines can be discarded. A government official said, “There may be trial and error during vaccination in the first and second quarters, as it did abroad.” “As we have secured the vaccine in consideration of all these points, we will check and correct the initial problems so that the vaccination will be more smoothly performed during the mass vaccination in the second half. I will do it.”

Variant virus vaccine efficacy fell up to 49%

Meanwhile, some point out that Corona 19 vaccines face a new challenge of mutation. NovaVax in the US announced that the efficacy of its vaccine was 89.3% as a result of clinical trials conducted in the UK on the 28th. However, nearly 90% of the efficacy was confirmed in a clinical trial conducted in the UK, but the efficacy fell to 49.4% in a clinical trial in South Africa where a variant virus was found. Variant viruses recently discovered in the UK, South Africa, and Brazil have spread to 50 countries around the world, and it has been confirmed that all three types have recently been introduced to Korea.

However, experts say that it is better to do it than to not vaccinate at all, even if some of the efficacy decreases. The New York Times (NYT) quoted an expert comment, saying, “As the number of infected people decreases, so does the ability of the virus to mutate, so the best way to fight the new strain is to continue vaccination and public health measures.” . Bloomberg News also emphasized, “It is helpful to reduce the spreading power significantly simply by alleviating symptoms with vaccines.” Jeong Ki-seok, a professor of respiratory medicine at Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital, advised, “In Korea, there are generally few rejections of the vaccine, but since this is the first vaccine to be introduced, the efficacy and safety should be actively promoted.”

Reporters Esther, Minwook Kim, Eunhye Jung [email protected]