Brain Disease After AZ Vaccine... Court Rules "Government Must Compensate for Damage"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] A court ruling has been made that the government must compensate a victim diagnosed with a brain disease after receiving the AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine. This is the first known case of a victim winning a lawsuit related to COVID-19 vaccine side effect compensation.

According to the court on the 20th, the Seoul Administrative Court Administrative Division 6 (Chief Judge Lee Jooyoung) recently ruled in favor of plaintiff A, a man in his 30s, in the first trial of the lawsuit against the Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) for rejecting his vaccination injury compensation claim.

Earlier, after receiving the AZ vaccine at the end of April last year, A experienced symptoms such as fever, dizziness, and leg numbness, and visited a university hospital emergency room. The hospital diagnosed him with intracerebral hemorrhage, cerebral cavernous malformation, and mononeuropathy. Subsequently, A applied for compensation for medical expenses of 3.37 million KRW and nursing care costs of 250,000 KRW.

However, the KDCA, after review by the Vaccination Injury Compensation Expert Committee, rejected the claim stating, "No causal relationship between the disease and the vaccination is recognized."

A filed an administrative lawsuit, and the first trial ruled in his favor, stating, "It is reasonable to consider a causal relationship between the disease and the vaccination." The court stated, "The plaintiff was very healthy before vaccination and had no neurological symptoms or medical history," and "Symptoms such as headache and fever appeared the day after vaccination, which are among the symptoms mentioned by the defendant as vaccine adverse reactions."

Furthermore, the court explained, "Although the presence of cavernous vascular malformation was confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) results, it is unknown exactly when the vascular malformation occurred," and "No related symptoms had manifested before vaccination." The KDCA has appealed the first trial ruling.