"I will make it possible to complete the Korean military inoculation"... Janssen vaccine came twice as long as promised
"We'll provide full vaccinations for all 550,000 of those," Biden said at a press conference at the US-ROK summit last month. Korean forces engaging with American forces).
It wasn't clear what this vaccine meant, but it was clear that the message was a dose enough to complete the dose for 550,000 people (1.1 million doses for Pfizer, Moderna, and AZ vaccines that require two doses. One dose for Janssen is 550,000 doses). You could call it quantity).
However, when I looked at the amount of vaccine sent by the US, it was decided that the quantity of Janssen vaccine was 1.10 million doses.
White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Giants, who appeared at the coronavirus briefing, formalized the shipment by announcing that he would provide "one million doses of the vaccine, as President Biden promised."
From our point of view, it was a welcome thing to say, as the vaccines supported have almost doubled, but 'Biden didn't say that...
' I thought.
I also wondered why it suddenly increased so much.
"Millions of Janssen vaccines are at risk of end of shelf life" What is the expiration date for vaccines in Korea?
The Wall Street Journal reported in June that millions of doses of Janssen's vaccine were end-of-life.
After the decision was made to suspend vaccination due to concerns about blood clots, the consumption of Janssen vaccines did not increase, resulting in a large inventory.
We were curious about the Janssen vaccine we received, so we asked around, and out of the 110,000 vaccines, we can confirm that half of the vaccines expire on June 23rd and half end on the 2nd and 3rd of July. There was.
It is said that the expiration date is less than a month away from the vaccine, but when I heard the circumstances, the question was solved why I received twice the original announcement.
While negotiating the vaccine acquisition, the United States made a pre-inquiry to Korea saying, "If you send a vaccine that expires at the end of June, is it possible to inoculate it within the deadline?" I did.
In fact, South Korea announced that it would end the Janssen vaccination by the 20th.
It can be used up within the expiry date.
The enthusiasm for the Janssen vaccine was confirmed to the extent that the vaccination application was also completed in 18 hours.
It is not an exaggeration to say that there is little chance that a vaccine will be discarded after its expiration date.
"Considering Korea's inoculation infrastructure and preparations, the vaccine was doubled."
A Washington diplomatic source explained, "The US provided double the amount announced in consideration of South Korea's inoculation infrastructure and preparations."
The US government can avoid the accusation that it has passed the expiration date by holding on to vaccines that are not used, and the Korean government can bring in urgent vaccines and inoculate the people they want, so it is a win-win structure for both sides.
Vaccines that have an expiration date will have no problems getting them.
I could see some reactions that denigrated it to the extent of dropping the US vaccine stock, but in fact, this kind of criticism does not help in overcoming the corona virus.
There are not many countries that can take such a quantity and inoculate their citizens in an instant (some countries will have no choice but to take it and throw it away, but our situation is different).
It's hard to criticize taking even a little bit more of a vaccine that's within its expiration date and getting vaccinated.
Anyway, after a few months, the vaccines ordered will arrive in Korea one after another, and it is almost certain that there will be a surplus of vaccines like the United States.
Bringing in even a little more vaccine at an urgent time means that it can save lives.
Personally, while I was getting the corona vaccine at the US pharmacy, I got a phone call asking if I could not get it because it came only 3 hours early.
If I run out of time, I have to throw it away, but when I asked if I could come and get it, I said that I would go right away, so I gave it a shot.
A vaccine with a shelf life of several hours has no difference in efficacy.
America without vaccines... Vaccines piling up in inventory near expiry
It can be described as a situation in which those who are vaccinated in the United States are already getting it, and those who do not get the vaccine. There are various incentives to convince people to hold on. Some even give away prizes like lottery to vaccinated people, as well as alcohol, guns and marijuana. In our country, we have put forward something that is difficult to imagine, but we can even feel the desperation of the US government to get more vaccines at any cost within the legal framework. We provide the convenience of taking Uber and Lyft to the inoculation station for free. Still, there were days when the number of inoculation exceeded 3 million a day, but now it is difficult to exceed 1 million. In particular, the southern region is in such a serious situation that there are many places where the vaccination rate stays in the 30% range.
Yesterday, when I went to the county-run vaccination center for the second vaccination of the eldest child in middle school, there were hardly any adults, and most of the students came and received the vaccine. I stopped by a pharmacy near my Washington DC office today and couldn't find anyone getting vaccinated. When I asked the pharmacy staff, they were told that there were only teenagers who were vaccinated, so the stock was kept only by Pfizer (only Pfizer was approved for emergency use for youth vaccination). With Moderna expected to be approved for youth vaccination soon, the Janssen vaccine, which can only be administered to those over the age of 18, is inevitably piling up in stock. It is a pity that Janssen vaccines do not reach the countries they desperately want and are piling up in stock with an imminent expiration date, given that it has been proven to have excellent efficacy and knows how to deal with the extremely rare side effects of thrombosis.