A flight attendant receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot at a hospital in Seoul on April 19, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 4 (Korea Bizwire) — The younger generation of South Koreans who have received or are soon to be receiving the coronavirus vaccine are making donations to the World Health Organization’s COVAX Facility project.
This trend began following a recent online post by a young South Korean netizen, who said that he was “lucky to be born in South Korea to receive the vaccine quickly and for free,” and that he wanted to share his happiness by donating to the COVAX Facility, the global vaccine distribution initiative.
Another post by a different netizen soon followed, saying that he donated to the COVAX Facility in celebration of his second shot, and that he wished that “vaccines would reach those in need sooner.”
A considerable number of younger South Koreans who succeeded in making reservations for ‘no-show’ vaccines or the Janssen vaccine have demonstrated their intentions to donate as much money as they can when paying for influenza vaccines.
The COVAX Facility reported in May that an additional US$2 billion is needed to boost the vaccination rate among poor countries to 30 percent.
Individual donations begins at $5, which the COVAX Facility set as the price for a single dose of vaccine.
State governments, including France and Germany, have also donated vaccines to the COVAX Facility. The United States donated 80 million doses of vaccines to the facility.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
