Vaccine and Death Link Said to Be Low... Why Are There So Many This Year?

On the 26th, when the government resumed free influenza vaccinations for seniors aged 62 to 69, citizens lined up in front of a hospital in Seoul to receive their flu shots. Following the resumption of free vaccinations on September 25 for children under 12 and pregnant women, on October 13 for those aged 13 to 18, and on the 19th for those aged 70 and above, this marks the final age group for the vaccination restart. Regarding the recent 48 deaths following flu vaccinations, the government announced on the 23rd that there is no correlation and that vaccinations will continue. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Cho Hyun-ui] Nearly 100 people have died after receiving this year’s influenza (flu) vaccine. Although no direct link between the cause of death and the vaccine has been confirmed, why have there been so many death cases this year?

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) on the 8th, the number of deaths after flu vaccination was 97 as of midnight the previous day. After investigating the causes of death of the 97 people, all except one who is currently under epidemiological investigation showed no confirmed connection to the vaccine.

The unusually high number of deaths after flu vaccination this year is attributed to the expansion of free vaccination eligibility and concerns about the simultaneous outbreak of COVID-19 and flu (twindemic).

First, the national free vaccination program’s target group has significantly increased. To prevent the simultaneous spread of COVID-19 and flu, the government greatly expanded the free flu vaccination target this year. As a result, about 19 million people, accounting for 37% of the entire population?including infants aged 6 months to 12 years, pregnant women, adolescents aged 13 to 18, and seniors aged 62 and older?were included in the free vaccination program.

Professor Park Sang-min of the Department of Family Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital explained, “This year, the number of people eligible for the national vaccination support program has greatly increased. Since the overall population group has grown significantly, it is difficult to compare the number of death cases after flu vaccination to previous years.”

Amid the pandemic, concerns about the vaccine have also increased due to issues such as exposure to room temperature and the discovery of white particles. Professor Kim Woo-joo of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Korea University Guro Hospital said, “With more elderly people feeling the need to get the flu vaccine during the COVID-19 situation, safety concerns related to vaccine distribution issues have become a hot topic, leading to an increase in people rushing to get vaccinated.”

Meanwhile, during the outbreaks of H1N1 influenza and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), there were also notably many death reports after flu vaccination. According to data on death reports after flu vaccination from 2009 to 2019 submitted by the KDCA and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Hyun-young of the National Assembly’s Health and Welfare Committee, there were 8 cases reported in 2009 when H1N1 was prevalent, and 12 cases in 2015 during the MERS outbreak.

This means that death reports after flu vaccination surged in years when infectious diseases were widespread. Among these, only one case was confirmed to have a causal relationship between vaccination and death and received national compensation.

Lawmaker Shin said, “The number of death reports after flu vaccination is actually higher in years when infectious diseases occur. We need to investigate whether this increase is due to heightened vaccine awareness leading to more reporting, or if there is another direct cause.”

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