[Reporter’s View] Haste makes waste

Get vaccinated COVID-19 vaccine

The commercialization of the COVID-19 vaccine is approaching.

 

The UK has already announced that the Pfizer vaccine will be approved for emergency use for the first time in the world and will be supplied early next week.

 

Excluding vaccines from Russia and China that are not internationally recognized, this is the fastest action.

 

The British government has also secured a dose for 20 million people.

 

Other countries are in a hurry as the UK preemptively commercializes vaccines.

 

It is reported that the United States will also receive vaccines by Pfizer/Modena within this month.

 

According to CNN, the United States will go through a meeting of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) advisory committee on the 10th to decide whether to approve it, and receive Pfizer on the 15th and Modena vaccine on the 22nd.

 

It will be vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available.

 

In addition, there are many opinions in Korea asking for a vaccine.

 

Some say that in the third epidemic of COVID-19, the government must quickly approve, contract, and proceed with vaccination.

 

Currently, the Korean government has completed a purchase contract with AstraZeneca, signed an MOU with Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, and is known to be negotiating with Modena.

 

I agree with the opinion that amid the COVID-19 pandemic that continues for the first year, the situation should be pacified with rapid vaccination.

 

However, it seems that a more careful approach is needed at times like this.

 

This is because the current vaccine is not the absolute thing to end COVDI-19.

 

Rushing has no advantage in negotiations.

 

Currently, the vaccine manufacturers hold all the cards.

 

They said they demanded a 'side-effect immunity' from all countries that the manufacturer is not responsible for any side effects from those who received the vaccine.

 

It is a condition that is unthinkable under normal circumstances, but in the COVID-19 outbreak, the development period, which took more than 10 years, had to be drastically reduced, so this demand can also be raised.

 

In this situation, if the government is in a hurry, there is a possibility that negotiations will proceed on more unfavorable terms.

 

Getting the vaccine quickly doesn't mean everything The confusion is even greater if unexpected side effects occur one after another or if the vaccine's effectiveness is less than expected.

 

Rather, it is much more stable to proceed with vaccination while taking a closer look at the trends of other countries where vaccination was started.

 

Currently, there are 400~500 confirmed cases in Korea every day, but the situation is not urgent enough to urgently introduce a new substance whose efficacy and safety are not fully guaranteed.

 

In addition, there are not one or two guidelines to be established before the vaccine is introduced, such as distribution method, the institutions, and order of vaccination.

 

We already had already suffered from an urgent vaccination schedule just a few months ago, and the flu vaccines were exposed to room temperature during delivery.

 

The process of delivering about 10 million doses of the flu vaccine, which is said to be easy to manage, was also difficult.

 

Can we safely deliver tens of millions of doses of a much more difficult mRNA vaccine?

 

It is necessary to prepare the cold chain thoroughly over time.

 

What makes the confusing situation worse is the unpredictable factor.

 

We need to be able to put the new variable, the vaccine, into the most predictable range.

 

Vaccines are neither absolute nor complete solutions to COVID-19 outbreak.

 

"Vaccines are just one tool for controlling disease," said Albert Bourla, CEO of vaccine maker Pfizer.

 

"We have to be on the lookout for absolute belief in vaccines," he said.