The country’s government has launched a flu vaccine campaign, concerned about the possible simultaneous spread of coronavirus and influenza.
At least 36 people, including a 17-year-old, have died since being vaccinated against the flu last Friday. The average age of the dead was 74, according to the South Korean Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
As of Friday, more than 14 million people had been vaccinated against the flu, including 9.4 million children, the elderly and pregnant women, according to the KDC.
The flu vaccine is known to cause serious side effects in one in 10 million people, said Professor Ki Moore of the National Cancer Center in South Korea.
In 2019, 227,000 people over the age of 65 died in South Korea, he added. To put the latest figures in perspective, that’s an average of 621 deaths a day.
The KDCA on Friday decided not to suspend flu vaccinations. A KDCA statement said the vaccination expert committee would meet on Saturday morning to review additional data.
Rare side effects
Friday’s meeting of the KDCA came after increasing scrutiny of experts and politicians.
On Friday, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Si-kyun called for a full investigation into the deaths, citing public unrest in a health ministry press release. He did not call for a halt to the vaccination campaign.
The Korean Medical Association, an association of 130,000 doctors, has urged the government to suspend the vaccination program for a week until they determine the cause of death.
In a statement, the Korean Vaccine Society stressed the importance of the flu vaccine, especially for “children, the elderly and patients with chronic diseases and low immunity.” The organization cited concerns about the possible spread of the flu during the Covid-19 epidemic.
Experts are preparing for a flu season globally in the midst of an epidemic. In an interview with AMA’s JAMA Network, the U.S. Department of Disease Control and Prevention The director of the centers, Dr. “It’s been such a complicated year for us to try to get as much flu from the table,” said Robert Redfield.
One reason is to reduce stress on public health services and hospitals, which is a nuisance for the winter wave. Experts say it is possible for Covid-19 and the flu to occur together – and, because flu symptoms look similar to Covid-19, a coronavirus diagnosis cannot be ruled out without testing. This means that a flu case can cause significant disruption to work and school.
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