President Moon Prepares for New Variants... Vaccine Budget Increased by 1 Trillion Won

Park Suhyun, Blue House Chief of Public Communication, Shares Behind-the-Scenes Story of Government Vaccine Budget Increase on Facebook

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min] "If a new variant emerges rendering existing vaccines useless and 'modified vaccines' become necessary, this level of budget might not be sufficient."

President Moon Jae-in mentioned the need to increase the COVID-19 vaccine budget in relation to the government's 2022 New Year budget plan, according to Park Soo-hyun, the Chief of Public Communication. On the 21st, Park shared behind-the-scenes stories on his Facebook about the process of increasing the government budget, especially the COVID-19 budget, by an additional 1 trillion won.

Earlier, during the mid-term report on the New Year budget on the 13th, President Moon said, "Looking at the current trend of the Delta variant, it is uncertain how long the COVID situation will continue," emphasizing the need for budget changes.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Furthermore, President Moon explained, "Even if vaccines remain and are swapped with other countries, preparations must now be made differently. Even if we try to secure vaccines through supplementary budgets, it is useless if other countries have already preemptively secured vaccines," adding, "Other countries invest in vaccines with the determination that even if the vaccine development they invested in fails and they lose all the money, they still try to secure vaccines."

President Moon stated, "I believe that even if vaccines remain in surplus, sufficient budget should be allocated from the beginning to secure a large quantity. Next year’s budget should still be focused on overcoming the crisis."

At the tea-time staff meeting on the 19th, President Moon emphasized, "Vaccine procurement must go beyond the existing perspective. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, and experts provide opinions based on their expertise, while the Ministry of Economy and Finance judges and supports from a budgetary perspective," adding, "Advanced countries secure vaccines several times more than their own population’s vaccination amount because they make decisions beyond the perspective of normal times."

President Moon said, "If other variants and evolved 'modified vaccines' appear, the existing vaccines carried over from this year may be relatively less effective or have limitations in administration. Securing the necessary quantity and timing of introduction are important. Early introduction contracts are needed, and if modified vaccines are developed, contracts that automatically convert existing agreements to supply modified vaccines immediately are crucial."

President Moon repeatedly mentioned the need to increase the vaccine budget, and ultimately the government budget was finalized at 2.5 trillion won, an increase of 1 trillion won from the original 1.5 trillion won.

Park Soo-hyun explained, "On the 20th, the final report on the 2022 budget was held, and the ruling party, government, and Blue House agreed to submit to the National Assembly a vaccine purchase budget of 2.5 trillion won, adding 1 trillion won to the previously discussed 1.5 trillion won during the mid-term report. Of course, the National Assembly’s review process remains, but this is a well-coordinated result of the ruling party, government, and Blue House’s recognition regarding next year’s vaccine purchase to protect the lives and safety of the people."

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