[In-Depth Look] The Politics, Medicine, and Sociology of Vaccines

After the COVID-19 crisis, there was hope that everything would end once a vaccine was developed. That hope became a reality. Nevertheless, there is no 100% safe vaccine. The global community has become a massive clinical trial site for COVID-19 vaccines. Let’s look at our situation as a clinical trial site. By the second week of June, the number of vaccinated people exceeded 13 million. The number of reported adverse reactions was about 45,000. The incidence rate of adverse reactions is around 0.3%. The number of deaths reported after vaccination slightly exceeded 300. This is a death rate of less than 0.002%. Herein lies the politics, medicine, and sociology of adverse reactions.

Vaccination always comes with side effects. Despite this, rapid vaccination is politically very important. Learning from the MERS crisis during the Park Geun-hye administration, the current government put the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (to be upgraded to a bureau) at the forefront to prevent it from becoming a government-wide issue. If it fails, the responsibility falls on one government organization; if it succeeds, it becomes an achievement of the administration.

The collateral damage from vaccination should be minimized as much as possible. So-called progressive media, as partners of the administration, avoid reporting on adverse reaction damages as much as possible. On the other hand, conservative media have used ‘adverse reactions’ as a tool to attack the administration. However, it seems they believe there is no benefit in dragging the vaccination process into the presidential election phase. They are leading a campaign saying, “Let’s get vaccinated.” If vaccination is completed quickly, everyone can win. This is the politics of adverse reactions.

Jung Eun-kyung, the commissioner and a medical doctor, instructed that if adverse reactions occur, they should be reported to local governments (public health centers). She mentioned that there is a ‘Damage Investigation Team and Damage Compensation Expert Committee’ composed of experts from various fields. However, the party responsible for reporting whether an adverse reaction occurred is the hospital doctor. If the doctor does not confirm it as an adverse reaction, the report itself is not made. The case will not even be included in the list reviewed by the investigation team or committee.

However, the doctor’s confirmation can be just ‘words,’ not documents. Doctors only need to verbally confirm an adverse reaction after vaccination. Public health center officials act ‘according to those words.’ Officials act without any documentary evidence as a basis. But doctors are treatment experts. They cannot immediately confirm the cause with 100% certainty. Even with the same symptoms, different doctors may have different opinions on whether it is an adverse reaction. As a group, doctors do not have the ability or time to responsibly prove symptoms after vaccination in writing. This is the medicine of adverse symptoms.

In daily life, ‘adverse symptoms’ mean a changed life after vaccination. Chronologically, life changes due to symptoms that appeared after vaccination. Moreover, if one is admitted to an intensive care unit or even dies, it is an adverse symptom that brings irreversible changes to the individual and their family. About 0.002% to 0.3% of the total population are social minorities experiencing such experiences. This is a level of little significance in the power strategies of either ruling or opposition parties. It is a number that public health center officials classify as present or absent based on a single word from a doctor. They are invisible to the majority. This is the sociology of adverse reactions.

It is said that one can understand the level of a society by how it treats its social minorities. What is the level of South Korea now? A society of adverse reactions, ignored by politics and neglected by doctors, is being formed in the shadows.

Jung Jae-hoon, Professor, Department of Social Welfare, Seoul Women’s University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.