[2020 National Audit] Welfare Committee Audit Day 2... 'Room Temperature Exposure' Shinseong Pharmaceuticals Chairman on the Stand

Kim Min-seok, Chairman of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee, is presiding over the audit of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and others at the Health and Welfare Committee held at the National Assembly on the 7th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] On the second day of the National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee’s audit on the 8th, the controversy over 'room temperature exposure' and issues related to influenza (flu) vaccine management are expected to remain key topics for the second consecutive day.

The Health and Welfare Committee will begin the audit of the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) from 10 a.m. on this day.

Kim Jin-moon, chairman of Sinseong Pharmaceutical, will appear as a witness at the audit. Sharp questioning between ruling and opposition parties is expected regarding the circumstances under which the 'cold chain' principle was not followed during the distribution process.

Questions are also expected regarding the background of KDCA’s selection of Sinseong Pharmaceutical as the company responsible for distributing the government-procured flu vaccine this year, as well as management and accountability issues.

Earlier, on the 6th, KDCA announced that although vaccines exposed to room temperature showed no safety issues, a total of 480,000 doses?including those that deviated from the appropriate temperature and 270,000 doses exposed to below 0 degrees Celsius?would be recalled, and free vaccinations would resume from the 12th with the remaining doses.

Accordingly, concerns about those who have already been vaccinated and distrust in the national vaccine program in the future are expected to be raised.

Meanwhile, this day’s Health and Welfare Committee audit is the first-ever three-way video audit in the National Assembly, connecting the National Assembly, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Sejong), and KDCA (Osong) to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. This was considered because many public officials from the Ministry and KDCA are concurrently performing quarantine duties at the Central Disease Control Headquarters and the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.

Committee Chairman Kim Min-seok explained, "The first three-way video conference is a digital political response to overcome the COVID-19 national crisis and aims to reduce the burden on frontline public officials engaged in quarantine work so they can focus on quarantine."

The National Assembly Health and Welfare Committee will also conduct the comprehensive audit scheduled for the 22nd with 16 out of 22 institutions participating via non-face-to-face video conferencing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.