“North Korea’s coronavirus vaccine concessions may be due to concerns about side effects and effects”

It has been observed that North Korea's intention to yield the COVID-19 vaccine allocated by the international community to other countries may be due to concerns about the effectiveness and side effects of the vaccine.

According to the Hong Kong media South China Morning Post, Nagi Shafiq, a former World Health Organization and WHO North Korean program officer, said, "There is a possibility that North Korea may be hesitant to vaccinate because of concerns about rare complications and effects."

"I think there is a possibility that North Korea may be concerned about the potential side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, and that the SinoVacc vaccine is not effective enough," he said.

According to a report by VOA and Voice of America on the 1st, North Korea said that it could reallocate 2.97 million doses of vaccines allocated from COVAX, an international vaccine joint purchase project, to other countries severely affected by COVID-19.

Reuters reported that the vaccine that North Korea conceded this time is a Chinese-made Sinovac.

COVAX also distributed 1902,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to North Korea in March, but it has not been supplied yet.