Planning to Check out Progress of Vaccination

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine

The Wall Street Journal reported on Nov. 18 that the South Korean government is maintaining a prudent approach unlike most other governments concerning COVID-19 vaccine procurement.

The South Korean government recently announced that it would procure 10 million doses from the COVAX Facility and 20 million from global pharmaceutical companies. This is much less than what the United States, Japan and the European Union have already secured.

According to the Wall Street Journal, this is because the South Korean government is planning to check out the progress of the vaccination and the coronavirus in South Korea has been successfully controlled to the extent of hardly affecting daily living.

Efficacy and safety are also reasons why the South Korean government is not in a hurry to sign contracts with companies such as Pfizer and Moderna. Their vaccines are mRNA vaccines and no mRNA vaccine has been commercially used in history. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca and Novavax are respectively working on virus vector and synthetic antigen vaccines and these are expected to be supplied more smoothly and at lower prices. The current price of the Pfizer vaccine is US$19.5 and that of the Moderna vaccine is US$32 to US$37.

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