"No Vaccine-Resistant Variant Yet"... Domestic and International Health Authorities on Alert

German Health Minister "Effective Against Vaccine Variants"
Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters "Specific Impact Requires Follow-up Research"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporters Choi Dae-yeol and Lee Hyun-woo] As news spreads that a variant of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) has appeared mainly in the UK, attention is focused on whether vaccination plans in various countries will be affected.

If the variant virus has resistance to vaccines, vaccination itself could become ineffective. However, domestic and international health authorities emphasize that among the COVID-19 variants identified so far, none have shown resistance to vaccines, and it is unlikely that vaccine effectiveness will be threatened.

On the 20th (local time), Moncef Slaoui, the chief officer leading the US government's COVID-19 vaccine development and distribution project called 'Operation Warp Speed,' appeared on CNN and stated that the vaccines currently approved by health authorities are very unlikely to be ineffective against the variant virus.

According to AFP, Jens Spahn, Germany's Minister of Health, also said in an interview with ZDF on the same day, "Based on what we know so far, the variant does not affect vaccines at all," adding, "The vaccine jointly developed by US-based Pfizer and Germany-based BioNTech is effective against the variant."

Our government is also closely monitoring the spread of the UK-origin variant virus. According to quarantine authorities, during the past week (December 13?19), a total of 24 people entered from Europe, including one foreigner from the UK who entered the country. In addition, two of our nationals who entered Korea from the UK were confirmed positive on the 19th and 20th, respectively.

The Central Disease Control Headquarters stated regarding this mutation, "It may be related to the virus's structure or function," and added, "Currently, it is believed that this mutation has little impact on the virus's characteristics or clinical symptoms, but further research is needed to determine specific effects such as transmissibility and reproduction number."

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