(Strange Sounds) Nine people have died after getting flu shots in South Korea in the past week, raising concerns over the vaccine’s safety just as the seasonal inoculation programme is expanded to head off potential COVID-19 complications.
by Staff Writer, October 21st, 2020
Five new deaths were reported on Wednesday (Oct 21) alone, but authorities had no plans to suspend the vaccination programme, unless investigations, including post mortems, revealed a link, which preliminary findings had not.
“We have reviewed whether it is appropriate to continue the vaccination or better to suspend and wait for the results,” health official Kim Joong-gon told a briefing.
“We came to the conclusion that the deaths had no direct relations with the vaccination given the limited data we have now and without detailed post mortem reports.“
Kim said a preliminary investigation into six victims revealed five had underlying conditions.
“It makes it hard for us to put out a categorical statement,” Vice Health Minister Kim Gang-lip told a briefing on Wednesday about the deaths, which include a 17-year-old boy and a man in his 70s.
Just after a national vaccine suspension
Coming just weeks after the rollout of the national vaccine programme was suspended over safety worries, the deaths have dominated headlines in South Korea.
South Korean health authorities said on Wednesday they would press on with a flu vaccine programme as there was no reason to believe the scheme was linked to a number of reported deaths.
Jeong Eun-kyeong, the director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), told a briefing there would be an investigation into the deaths of the people who had received the shots, but the agency had found no reason to suspend the programme.
Officials last month announced plans to procure 20 per cent more flu vaccines for the winter than the previous year to inoculate 30 million people in a bid to prevent the health system being overloaded by patients with flu and COVID-19 exposure.
However, the start of a free jab programme for around 19 million eligible people was suspended for three weeks after it was discovered that some 5 million doses, which need to be refrigerated, had been exposed to room temperature while being transported to a medical facility.
Boosting public trust in vaccines has become a major global challenge this year, as some countries rush to approve experimental COVID-19 vaccines before full safety and efficacy studies have been completed.
South Korea’s flu vaccines are supplied by different drugmakers, including LG Chem and Boryung Biopharma, a unit of Boryung Pharm.
A Boryung official told Reuters the company was aware of the reported deaths, but had no immediate comment. LG Chem said the company would follow government advice.
Deaths and adverse reactions
A 17-year-old boy who died on Friday was the first death noted by officials to follow receipt of the vaccine. The boy died two days after receiving the flu shot in Incheon, near the capital Seoul.
A man in his 70s, who had Parkinson’s disease and arrhythmia, was the most recent case. He died in Daegu on Wednesday, a day after receiving the flu vaccine. Daegu officials said the man had received vaccines since 2015 with no prior adverse reactions.
Officials said 8.3 million people have been inoculated with the free flu vaccine since it resumed on Oct 13, with about 350 cases of adverse reactions reported. The highest number of deaths linked to the seasonal flu vaccination was six in 2005, according to Yonhap news agency.
Adverse reactions – which included fever, diarrhoea and allergies, according to Jeong – were reported in 430 people who received the jabs.
The number is higher than 132 and 177 cases of adverse reactions reported in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Since 2009, about 25 people who received a seasonal flu vaccination have died, but cause-and-effect has not been established, Jeong said.
Even before the coronavirus pandemic, trust in vaccines was a growing challenge for public health bodies.
In South Korea, a poll earlier this month found that 62 per cent of 2,548 respondents in Gyeonggi province, near Seoul, would not get vaccinated against COVID-19, even if a vaccine is approved, until all safety questions are fully answered.
Just get your damn vaccine Baal Geytz (Master Villain), Fraudci (Gates Foundation), Pedro Joe, (Mr Come On Man – Trust the “Science”), Bloodfield (CDC), Deborah Birdbrain (NIH), Deathros (WHO), Mr XiXiPee (CCP), Piglosi (Porked Stimulus), ScoMoran (PM Aust, Mr No Jab No Pay).
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https://strangesounds.org/2020/10/vaccine-death-south-korea-video.html
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