13 people in South Korea die after getting vaccination against seasonal influenza

Governments and pharmaceutical companies are on full alert as 13 people in South Korea have died after getting vaccination against seasonal influenza. This has also sparked vaccine fears around the work as countries across the world are pushing for quick development of COVID-19 vaccine.

South Korean authorities have described the deaths as ‘mysterious’. The deaths occurred over the past week, including five on Wednesday and four others overnight Thursday. Officials said two of the deaths might have resulted from anaphylactic shock, which is a serious allergic reaction. Officials have been quick to rule out the vaccines. They said the vaccines were from local drugmakers and not from exports. However, this hasn’t deterred the government from pushing ahead for the COVID-19 vaccine. Jeong Eun-kyeong, the director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), told a media briefing that the country would be pushing ahead with its nationwide vaccine programme. “We have not found a direct connection between these deaths and vaccines, or a relationship between the deaths and adverse effects reported after flu shots,” he said. “We don’t think that the situation calls for suspending of the inoculation program.” Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the deaths could just be coincidental. “There is good surveillance in South Korea and there will be careful investigation to see whether there is a casual link. We cannot absolutely rule it out until such an investigation has been completed,” Evans said.

Fears have been raised that vaccine hesitancy could hamper attempts to inoculate populations and reduce the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, thereby prolonging the pandemic. Concerns about vaccine storage have also been raised. Reports stated that it was discovered that some five million vaccine doses supplied by a local company, which needed to be refrigerated, had ben exposed to room temperature while being transported. This put a halt to a free jab programme for about 19 million eligible people. But the programme was resumed on October 13. About 8.3 million people have received the shot since then, and 350 cases of adverse reactions have been reported.