New Committee to Investigate Adverse Effects After COVID-19 Vaccination

People wait for COVID-19 vaccine jabs at a vaccination center in western Seoul on Sept. 9, 2021. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — A new committee will be established to investigate cases of adverse effects after COVID-19 vaccinations in South Korea.

The vaccination response team, which operates under the umbrella of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, said Thursday that it will establish a COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Committee to ease public concerns about adverse effects after COVID-19 vaccination.

The committee, led by the National Academy of Medicine of Korea, will be responsible for investigation, analysis and safety reviews with respect to vaccination and adverse effects.

In particular, the committee will carry out intensive review of domestically reported adverse effect cases in addition to foreign cases and research trends. The committee’s review will be reflected in the future causality evaluation.

At present, a COVID-19 adverse effect investigation team that consists of related professionals makes judgment on causality on the basis of adverse effects detected during the vaccine approval process or confirmed in other countries that launched vaccination programs earlier than South Korea.

There have been some cases that were excluded from compensation and support due to a shortage of preceding standards. Accordingly, there have been voices calling for the establishment of new support measure for such cases.

In the meantime, the vaccination implementation team noted that the number of damage compensation cases for adverse effects after vaccinations stood at 2,287 as of Monday.

J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)