People Power Party "Difficult to Achieve COVID-19 Herd Immunity Within This Year... Budget Reallocation Needed"

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The People Power Party cited forecasts from foreign expert institutions that achieving herd immunity against COVID-19 within this year is difficult, urging the government to reallocate the budget to provide compensation support for COVID-19.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 22nd, Choi Hyung-doo, the floor spokesperson for the People Power Party, stated, "While the world is accelerating vaccine inoculation and herd immunity, there is even an expectation that the immune effect will only become visible by mid-next year, increasing public distrust and anxiety. The government and ruling party must honestly admit the disastrous results of the failure to secure vaccines early?the 'delayed vaccine'?and proceed with the reallocation of the 560 trillion won main budget."

Spokesperson Choi added, "The UK's expert forecasting institution (EIU) predicted that even advanced countries like the US and EU, which succeeded in early vaccine procurement, will only achieve herd immunity in the latter half of this year, and countries like ours will only be able to achieve herd immunity by mid-next year. Contrary to the government's claim that herd immunity will be achieved by November after completing the first dose for 70% (36.28 million) of the entire population by September this year, experts analyze that 87% (45.35 million) need to be vaccinated for 70% of the population to have antibodies."

He criticized, "As the 'COVID winter' is expected to last nearly another year, instead of accurately informing the public and devising countermeasures, the president and ruling party are blatantly showing 'vote-buying intentions' by proposing a 'nationwide consolation payment.' Calling it a 'boost to national morale'?isn't this a 'national fraud' by the government that failed in the 'vaccine procurement war,' trying to take credit with taxpayers' money?"

Regarding the possibility of prolonged COVID-19, Spokesperson Choi emphasized, "We must quickly minimize losses for self-employed people and provide prompt and accurate compensation support using unnecessary and non-urgent budgets that cannot be used immediately. By promoting long-term low-interest loans for small business owners and self-employed in traditional markets, we must first minimize the damage to the livelihood economy caused by business restrictions."

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