[Corona Behind] What families of vaccine victims want from the new government

※ 'Corona Behind' is a report by Park Soo-jin, a reporter from the Life and Culture Department of SBS Press Headquarters, who is running at the forefront of the Corona 19 coverage.

Once a week, reporters Park's articles and thoughts that were not included in the article are released to readers.

[Editor's Note]

"Maybe you won't be visiting again soon? I've heard that you're looking for places you promised during the election period. Maybe next week or so... maybe?"

Two white tents have been placed in Cheonggye Plaza in Gwanghwamun, Seoul, for the second month in a row.

One is an incense burner with pictures of the deceased of various ages, and the other is a temporary residence for the bereaved.

This is the 'Corona Vaccine Victims Joint Incense Office' installed on January 11th by the Corona 19 Vaccine Victims' Families Council.

This is an 'illegal installation' that was installed by surprise without the permission of the local government.

In the past two months, I have received two notices from the Jung-gu Office in Seoul asking for the voluntary removal, but the bereaved families say they have no plans to demolish the incense house for the time being.

Major candidates and party officials during the last presidential election, including President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol as well as Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, came to this place to fight.

Now that the election is over, there are occasional mournings from the citizens, but there are no noisy visits.

Bereaved families take turns taking turns guarding the incense burner.

Kim Doo-kyung, president of the Corona 19 Vaccine Victims' Families Association, spends most of the day at the incense burner.

The presidential election is over and the new government is preparing to take office, and the family is waiting for the re-visit of the elected president.

And I expect that President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol will accept the demands of his family, including the 'National Responsibility System for Vaccine Damage', which he promised during the presidential election.

Through an interview with Kim Doo-kyung, president of the Corona Vaccine Victims' Families Association, we summarized what the victims' families want from the new government.

Requirement 1: ‘Prepayment – ​​Settlement after treatment’ for side effects of vaccines

“Some of the victims who got vaccinated and developed myocarditis have so far had to pay 125 million won for treatment alone. So far, the causality has not been recognized due to insufficient evidence. There are times when you need all the money. After crying and screaming and hanging on for 7-8 months, and the family is all broken, you only now admit it and apply it retroactively? The family is already in ruins."

One of the demands of the families of victims of vaccine side effects is to pay the treatment cost first for patients suspected of having an adverse reaction after vaccination so that they do not miss the right time for treatment, and then settle or refund after determining causality.

It is argued that in a situation where it takes several months to wait for a causality decision, it is too much burden for ordinary families to spend tens of millions of won or hundreds of millions of won without knowing why they are sick.

Although the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) has announced that it will support medical expenses of up to 30 million won per person for patients with severe adverse reactions excluded from compensation due to insufficient causal evidence, it will take a long time for this 'insufficient evidence' to be judged, and it is considered an underlying disease. treatment is excluded from compensation.

In addition, it is a negative position for the victims' families to pay for treatment before determining causality.

(The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) on January 10th, at the 2nd Bill Review Subcommittee of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly, said,

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However, victims' families complain that this situation sometimes leads to the collapse of a family.

It is said that when the head of the household, who was responsible for the family's livelihood, was treated for suspected side effects, it was difficult to pay the cost of the treatment, so in some cases, the house had to be sold or the whole family had to be scattered.

CEO Kim Doo-kyung said it was also necessary to pay the victim's family's minimum cost of living or death compensation.

“There was a case where my wife died from a side effect of the vaccine, so I had to move to my in-laws with my three children. I owed money here and there and used it for medical expenses, but eventually died, and the rest of my family had a hard time paying off the debt. In some cases, it does not stop with the problem of receiving and not receiving treatment, but a phenomenon such as the collapse of a family is becoming a reality. There is no such thing as a minimum living wage or death benefit.”

Requirement 2: Designation of a dedicated hospital for treatment of side effects of vaccines

There are many cases where an adverse reaction occurred after vaccination and they stomp their feet because they did not know which hospital to go to.

There are many consigned medical institutions that inoculate vaccines regardless of fields such as internal medicine, otolaryngology, and pediatrics, but not all of the medical staff at these inoculation institutions are experts on vaccine adverse reactions.

In addition, since it is difficult to clearly distinguish whether the symptoms appearing after vaccination are due to the inoculation or the underlying disease, "there are not many hospitals that accept such sensitive patients," said side effects victims.

(Related article▶ [Corona Behind] Nursing assistant for 'tetraplegia after vaccination, 9 months after that )

"From the hospital's point of view, if there is no other way to treat it, it has to be sent out. Even if the symptoms persist, if the patient needs to go out, they have to leave. So they are transferred to a nursing home or home, but eventually they die."

This is why there is a demand to designate a dedicated hospital that specializes in treating patients who have been vaccinated.

The designation of this dedicated hospital has been continuously requested by the current government, but no progress has been made so far.

Demand 3: Enactment of 'Special Act on Vaccine Victims' by the opposition parties

Families are demanding that the ruling and opposition parties together enact a 'Special Act on Vaccine Victim Support' for the purpose of pre-payment and post-settlement of medical expenses, as well as support for living expenses and consolation funds for victims, as well as designation of a hospital exclusively for treatment of side effects of vaccines.

It is necessary to create the basis for the establishment of the system.

The enactment of a special law cannot be done by the president alone, so the opposition and opposition parties are demanding that it be shown as “the first result of the cooperative government between the ruling and opposition parties after the new government took office.”

In response to a reporter's question, 'It may not be an easy task in the post-election period, it may not be easy,' Kim Doo-kyung said.

"Not only President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol, but also candidate Lee Jae-myung visited the incense burner during the election period. What the two of them said was not much different. They said that the government and the state should be held responsible for the damage caused by the vaccine. These are the people who have been harmed by following a national project called . There is no reason for this to become a problem in the struggle between the ruling and opposition parties. I hope that the first object of cooperation should be for vaccine victims, and the result will be a special law enacted."

Currently, there is a 'Corona 19 Vaccine Damage Compensation Special Act' proposed by Representative Hong Seok-jun of the People's Power in the National Assembly, but it has not been discussed since it was referred to the Health and Welfare Committee on January 10.

Although it is not a special law, there is also the 'Partial Amendment to the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act', which was introduced by Rep. Chung Chun-suk of the Democratic Party of Korea in August last year, which provides support for treatment and nursing expenses to victims of vaccination regardless of causality.

After being referred to the Standing Committee in November of last year, three months after it was introduced, it went through a plenary meeting and a subcommittee for bill review, but this also has not been finalized yet.

Requirement 4: Transparent disclosure of the contents of the adverse reaction damage investigation deliberation

The demand for transparent disclosure of vaccination and causality investigations of adverse events is an area that victims' families are particularly vocal about.

This is because the damage investigation committee, which examines the causality itself, and the damage compensation committee, which decides whether to compensate based on this, do not disclose the process of which experts participated, shared what opinions, and why these results were obtained.

I don't know what caused my family to die, what if it wasn't a vaccine, or what the basis for that judgment was.

This issue has been pointed out since the early days of vaccination, but the government's position has not changed.

(Related article▶ “Because of the underlying disease, not the vaccine”…To get this word to be trusted )

“Even if the person affected by the side effects requests to disclose information, they say that they cannot tell them. They cannot see the minutes of the meeting, nor can they know who deliberated. ."

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) established a vaccine safety evaluation committee together with the National Academy of Medicine to increase the reliability of adverse reaction investigations and to create a Korean-style causality evaluation standard.

However, for victims and their families, the wall of information is still high and solid.

Victims' families are demanding that the victims and their families be present in the damage compensation deliberation process, including experts recommended by the victim's family council among the deliberation members, and all the details of the review of adverse reactions are requested.

They are also arguing that the results of the deliberation so far, which have low credibility, should be completely nullified and reviewed.

President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol made the 'National Responsibility System for the Recovery of Damages from Side Effects of Vaccines' as his representative promise during the presidential election.

Specifically, ▲the government is responsible for proving the causal relationship between inoculation side effects ▲pre-payment and post-settlement of medical expenses and funeral expenses for the deceased after vaccination ▲pre-payment and post-settlement of treatment costs for side effects victims ▲Installation of the Vaccination Side Effects National Report Center ▲government budget, health promotion fund, etc. and the establishment of a damage relief fund.

There are a number of areas that are closely aligned with the needs of victims' families, but it remains to be seen how far this promise will be kept.

The Vaccine Victims and Families Council held a memorial meeting every Saturday and marched to the Blue House, but since yesterday it has changed its destination to the Transition Committee.

To raise a voice towards the new government and to appeal for its demands to be met.

The family says they will keep the incense burner in Gwanghwamun until the request is granted.

Last week, a new portrait of a 13-year-old deceased was placed here.

"The number of people who say they died after being vaccinated continues to increase. Regardless of age, there are many young people. More and more people are knocking on the door of the family council. will."

(Reporter: Park Soo-jin, PD: Kim Do-kyun, Illustration: Kim Jeong-yeon, Producer: D Content Planning Department)