6 Severe Adverse Reactions After Vaccination with Medical Expenses Covered...Including 3 People in Their 20s Among AZ Vaccine Recipients (Comprehensive)

Two Cases of Vaccine Causality Recognition at the 12th Damage Investigation Team Meeting

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] The government has decided to provide medical expenses support for six severe patients who were excluded from compensation due to insufficient evidence of causality after COVID-19 vaccination.

The COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team announced on the 17th that, after reviewing whether there were any retroactive application cases among those vaccinated before the project implementation date at the 12th Vaccination Damage Investigation Team meeting on the 14th, a total of six people, including those from the 1st to 11th meetings, were found to be eligible for the medical expense support project.

These six individuals experienced adverse reactions after vaccination with a temporal plausibility, but there was insufficient data on the vaccine and the adverse reactions.

The estimated diagnoses of these six people, as determined so far, include Guillain-Barr? syndrome (2 people), acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (1 person), systemic inflammatory response syndrome (1 person), deep vein thrombosis (1 person), and acute myocarditis (1 person).

Park Young-jun, head of the Adverse Reaction Investigation Support Team at the COVID-19 Vaccination Response Promotion Team, said, "All six people receiving medical expense support were vaccinated with AstraZeneca," adding, "Four are female and two are male."

By age group, three were in their 20s, the largest group, and one each in their 40s, 50s, and 80s. Symptoms reported at the time included nausea, headache, generalized muscle pain, and fever.

Park explained, "These cases involve adverse reactions occurring after vaccination where underlying diseases or other genetic disorders that could cause such reactions before vaccination are unclear, and although the time required to induce adverse reactions is plausible, there is little or insufficient related literature or evidence to recognize causality with vaccine adverse reactions."

Additionally, at the 12th Damage Investigation Team meeting, 43 new cases (18 deaths, 25 severe cases) were reviewed. The 18 death cases were evaluated as likely caused by underlying diseases or systemic conditions, making it difficult to recognize causality between COVID-19 vaccination and death.

The estimated causes of death included myocardial infarction in eight cases, cerebral hemorrhage and aortic dissection in two cases each, and acute myocarditis, cardiomyopathy, cerebral infarction, sepsis, pneumonia, and pulmonary embolism in one case each.

For the 25 severe cases, considering the timing of major symptom onset after COVID-19 vaccination, underlying diseases, systemic conditions, and risk factors for disease occurrence, it was evaluated that adverse reactions were more likely caused by factors other than COVID-19 vaccination, making causality difficult to recognize.

The estimated diagnoses for severe cases included cerebral infarction in eight cases, neurological disorders, myocardial infarction, deep vein thrombosis, and pulmonary embolism in two cases each, and sepsis, intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, heart failure and pulmonary edema, pneumonia, fluctuating symptoms, Bell's palsy, idiopathic aplastic anemia, and heart failure in one case each.

As of midnight on the same day, a total of 198 adverse reaction cases after vaccination have been reviewed through 12 Damage Investigation Team meetings, including 97 deaths and 101 severe cases. Cases where causality between adverse reactions and vaccination was recognized include two suspected severe cases: one cerebral venous sinus thrombosis and one with hypotension after fever-induced seizure.

The remaining 193 cases were concluded to have no clear causality or were difficult to recognize as causal, and three cases are pending judgment.