SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — A South Korean court has ruled that the government must compensate a man in his 20s who developed a rare neurological disorder believed to be linked to a COVID-19 vaccine, marking a significant decision in ongoing disputes over vaccine-related injuries.
According to the Seoul Administrative Court on Monday, the court’s 8th division, led by Judge Yang Soon-joo, sided with the plaintiff, identified only as A, who sued the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) after it rejected his compensation request.
A received the AstraZeneca vaccine on March 4, 2021, and later experienced severe side effects, including fever, vomiting, and muscle pain. He was initially diagnosed with acute transverse myelitis and later with Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare condition in which the immune system attacks the nervous system.
Despite A’s application for compensation, the KDCA denied his claim, citing insufficient evidence to establish causality under its category 4-1 standard, which applies when “the causal link between vaccination and adverse effects is not sufficiently supported.” Instead, the agency provided only 26.5 million won (about US$19,000) in medical expense support.
The court, however, ruled that the agency’s decision was unlawful. It determined that the temporal proximity between the vaccination and symptom onset—just ten hours—supported a reasonable inference of causality. The ruling also cited academic studies showing an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome following vaccination.
The court emphasized that causation in such cases need not be conclusively proven, only that it is not medically or empirically impossible to link the injury to the vaccine and that no other plausible cause exists.
It further criticized the KDCA’s blanket rejection of cases under the 4-1 category as a “misinterpretation of Supreme Court precedent,” adding that conditions already flagged by domestic or international health authorities as potentially vaccine-related should be presumed eligible for compensation.
The judgment highlighted that A, a 25-year-old occupational therapist with no prior neurological history, received the vaccine at his workplace in good faith, following government public health guidance.
The decision may influence similar compensation claims filed by individuals who suffered severe side effects following COVID-19 vaccination, particularly in cases involving rare but recognized neurological conditions.
Jerry M. Kim (jerry_kim@koreabizwire.com)
