Tag: COVID-19

I am not sure why this is such big news when it has never been claimed the COVID vaccines were 100% effective:

South Korea has confirmed 44 cases of the so-called vaccine “breakthrough” COVID-19 infections, health authorities said Monday, as the country speeds up its inoculation campaign.

As of last Thursday, a total of 44 people had tested positive for the novel coronavirus even after being fully vaccinated, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

A “breakthrough case” refers to when a person is diagnosed with COVID-19 two weeks after being administered with the full-dose regimen.

Among the 44 cases, 26 patients had received the Pfizer vaccine, while 18 were administered with the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but according to the article 4.6 million Koreans have two shots of the vaccine. 44 people getting infected with COVID out of 4.6 million is pretty good odds. Plus what is not mentioned in the article is how sick these people got. Were they asymptomatic? This seems like important information to share to further help people decide if they want to take the vaccine or not.

South Korea like many other nation’s in the world has issues with COVID vaccine hesitancy:

Contrary to health authorities’ expectations for high turnouts, there was a great deal of hesitancy about getting the shots, largely driven by safety concerns over AstraZeneca (AZ) jabs — the bulk of which the country has procured for its 51.3 million citizens.

“Rumors and unfounded arguments about AZ side effects circulated through mainstream and social media,” Chun Eun-mi, a professor at Ewha Womans University Medical Center, said. “The deaths and severe abnormal reaction cases, like the 40-something nurse who suffered quadriplegic symptoms, added to the fears,” she said. 

An April survey by Hankook Research conducted on 1,000 adults showed that 61.4 percent of the respondents said they were willing to get vaccinated, down 6.6 percentage points from its March survey. More than 84 percent of them cited the fears about abnormal reactions.

Yonhap News

You can read more at the link, but according to the article the South Korean public is beginning to become more willing to get the vaccine.

Here is some interesting data from a recent study on vaccine hesitancy in the military:

Service members’ decisions on whether or not to get vaccinated vary significantly between different demographic groupings, according to a new military study. In addition to race, ethnicity, and age, researchers found that initiation of the vaccine process varied by branch of service, occupational specialty, and level of education.

Between the four military branches, the Army had the lowest rate of vaccination. Marines were 52 percent more likely to get vaccinated than soldiers. Sailors and airmen were respectively 45 percent and 15 percent more likely.

Black service members were least likely to choose to receive the COVID-19 vaccination, as well as female service members and those with lower ranks and education levels. Research surveying the civilian population also suggests high rates of vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans.

Army Times

You can read more at the link.

The mandate for testing only foreigners continues to cause controversy in South Korea:

Several South Korea provinces and cities continued to require coronavirus testing for foreign workers, despite a request from the national government that prompted Seoul to end its mandate amid international outcry.

Last week the headquarters of the nation’s pandemic control effort asked local governments to end mandatory testing for foreigners, and improve testing policies to eliminate discrimination or rights violations. But only Seoul scrapped its controversial order.

The same day, Daegu, the fourth-largest city, with a population of 2.5 million, doubled down with a second order expanding the number of foreign workers that needed to be tested. No foreign workers among 2,553 in the first round tested positive, Daegu said in a statement.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

Her is the latest stupid online conspiracy theory in South Korea:

Daegu police on Wednesday opened an investigation into claims circulating online that President Moon Jae-in’s vaccine was secretly switched –– and he did not get the AstraZeneca jab.  
   
On Tuesday, Moon and First Lady Kim Jung-sook became the first Koreans over 65 to be vaccinated for Covid-19. The first couple got their shots at a public health center in Jongno, central Seoul, near the Blue House, ahead of the president’s trip to Britain for a Group of Seven summit in June.  
   
A video of the president and first lady being administered the AstraZeneca vaccine was part of the government’s attempt to calm public fears over the vaccine’s safety, following two local reports of blood clots arising in patients who received AstraZeneca shots. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but if the President was going to fake a vaccination couldn’t he have just had water injected into his arm? Why bother switching vials while being filmed?

How come this governor isn’t advocating for the Russian vaccine to be given to South Koreans and instead wants to ship it to North Korea first?:

Gangwon Province Governor Choi Moon-soon’s proposal of manufacturing Russian COVID-19 vaccines in South Korea and providing them to North Korea is a feasible way to help normalize inter-Korean ties, according to Pyongyang watchers, Tuesday. 

However, they added that Seoul needs to come up with a creative and bold strategy to make such “vaccine diplomacy” happen, as the North is seeking to reduce dependence on its southern neighbor for humanitarian support and economic cooperation, as evidenced by its snubbing of the government’s repeated calls for inter-Korean economic and public health cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

This study is giving hope that a vaccine may give similar results:

A Japanese research team has detected antibodies that neutralized the virus that causes COVID-19 in 98% of people who had been sick with the disease in tests performed six months after they became infected.

The team, led by Yokohama City University professor Takeharu Yamanaka, said Wednesday it plans to conduct a follow-up survey to see whether the people will still have such antibodies a year after their infections.

In the latest survey, which was the largest of its type conducted in the country, the team checked blood samples from 376 people who had already recovered from COVID-19. The samples were collected six months after they were infected.

“In general, people with neutralizing antibodies are believed to carry a low risk of reinfection,” Yamanaka told a news conference.

“This gives some hope” in relation to the vaccines set to be released, with the study showing that immunity obtained through natural infection can last at least six months, according to Yamanaka.

Japan Times

You can read more at the link.