<Anchor>



Some countries have already started vaccination against Corona 19, but voices are rising recently, saying when will Korea be able to get it? Is it too late than other countries?

Regarding this issue, Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo once said this last month.



[Park Neung-hoo/Minister of Health and Welfare (Last month 17): Contrary to general expectations, the two companies are also urging us to sign a contract quickly.] It means that



vaccine companies have urged us to sign a contract

.

Results It was confirmed that it was a vaccine-related meeting in July that multinational pharmaceutical companies first proposed a contract to the Korean government.

However, for some reason, even now, five months later, the Korean government has not completed the vaccine purchase contract.

Currently, the amount of vaccine secured relative to the population in Korea is 34th out of 37 OECD countries.



The controversy surrounding the introduction of the vaccine was pointed out by medical reporter Cho Dong-chan.



<Reporter> The



health authorities said today (23rd) that the vaccine purchase is a business that is professionally managed by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.



[Song Young-rae/Spokesman of the Ministry of Health and Welfare: The Director of the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have the final decision on the purchase of this vaccine.]



We asked experts familiar with the government's vaccine purchase process.



Experts first cited the timing of the announcement of the domestic consignment production of the UK AstraZeneca vaccine in July as the decisive moment.



One expert said that the government has since begun to believe in AstraZeneca vaccine alone, as the global vaccine situation is changing day by day as a policy mistake.



Another expert explained why other vaccines could not be aggressively purchased.



He explained that it was difficult for outside experts to recommend other vaccines, as the officials in charge could be disciplined if the vaccine that was promoted to purchase fails in clinical trials.



In this process, he also confessed that the legal review took longer than the medical review time.



On the 12th of last month, external experts specifically recommended five vaccines for purchase.



However, he pointed out that it is regrettable that this contract has not been fulfilled for over a month.



Contracts for the purchase of other vaccines are still being delayed due to legal review by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and a domestic law firm.



Experts are regretting that even a month earlier, the timing and quantity of vaccine introduction in Korea could have been more detailed.



(Video editing: Park Ji-in)