학내 언론사

Kicker: OPINION (VACCINE)

Are You Really Satisfied with Your Vaccine?

The Process of Returning Back to Our Daily Routine

By Dong-Wook Kim, Editor

smartpodo@kakao.com

  In Korea, as the first vaccination rate exceeds 77% and the vaccination completion rate exceeds 50 percent. Moreover, the first vaccination rate is about to reach 80%. However, according to a survey of unvaccinated people, the biggest reason for not getting vaccinated is the fear of side effects from the vaccine. Even 0.6% of the people are giving up to get the second round even though they got their first vaccines. What are the public opinions of the vaccine? Are the side effects really that serious? What are the things we need to check before we go back to our normal lives? 

Public Opinion on Vaccines

  Before discussing about the effectiveness of vaccines, it is helpful to know the public opinion on vaccines. According to the public opinion survey held by the Seoul National University research team at the graduate school of health, nearly 90 percent of the respondents said that they were stressed or tired from COVID-19. The most suffering side were self-employers who experienced a significant economic loss. Next was production workers and housewives who increased the burden of raising children as daycare centers and schools were closed due to online lectures. 

  What thoughts do these people have about vaccines? The prevailing perception was that vaccination will be beneficial, but more than half of the respondents answered that it is dangerous and felt anxiety about the vaccine. According to the research in July about asking whether they would get vaccinated when their turn came, 65.4 percent gave a positive answer. The ratio is slightly below the government’s collective immunity target of 70 percent. One in five people said they had no intention of getting vaccinated especially respondents of a young age. Those in their 40s and older showed less than 15 percent negative opinions but those in their 20s and 30s were much higher.

  Most of the negative opinions said that they could not believe the safety of the vaccine. Some said that they were dissatisfied because they could not choose the vaccine they wanted. Interestingly, more than half of the respondents said they were optimistic about achieving collective immunity, but only 46 percent responded that they expected to be recover their daily lives to pre-COVID19 routine within this year. What factors influenced people about these various opinions about vaccines and collective immunity?

Side Effects & Poor Clinical Trials

  Nationally, vaccine made to occur a series of reports. There were side effects or deaths of people diagnosed with leukemia after being vaccinated in Daejeon. A healthy person with no sign of serious illness died after getting vaccinated in Daejeon. The bereaved family wanted a close investigation about the death because they thought the vaccine is the only cause of death. As such, citizens’ anxiety is growing due to a series of side effects from vaccination. Therefore, even though there is a fatality rate of less than 1 percent due to COVID19, people are more interested in reports of adverse reactions after vaccination.

What exactly did the media broadcast about vaccine side effects? To find out about how social discourse was formed and changed, news articles about the vaccine were collected and divided to three parts. The divided data went into the topic modeling analysis to check the connectivity of the keyword ‘vaccine’. During the analysis, some interesting words came out from July to September.

Topic Modeling with the Keyword ‘Vaccine’ During 2021.07 ~2021.09

  According to the result of topic modeling analysis, topic number 3 consisted of side effects of the vaccines. Myocarditis, pericarditis, thrombosis is the side effect that has commonly happened. Inferring that the vaccination campaign started in July, it can be seen that the media is making a lot of comments on the side effects of the vaccine. Topic number one is about advance booking of vaccines online. However, as a lot of people gather during a short period, the site was disabled and people who were about to reserve a vaccine had a huge interference. It seems that the government did not expect this many people gathering for the vaccine assuming that they miscalculated the people who wanted to get vaccinated.

Meme about COVID19 Vaccine’s Side Effects

  Furthermore, there were also reports of internal revelations that clinical trials for vaccines were poorly conducted. Ventavia research group, in charge of clinical trials, fired an employee who pointed out the poor conduct several times. The person who reveled the clinical trial was Brooke Jackson, who worked as a clinical monitor in the company. Recognizing that the vaccine clinical trial process is poor in data management, integrity issues and patient safety issues, she repeatedly informed her superiors but nothing has changed. 

  As negative reports about vaccines continue in the media and the government’s passive announcement after the medical accident, it is hard to believe whether the vaccine is safe or not. Although public opinion about vaccines is not very bad and the mortality rate is low, people will distrust the vaccine until they feel confident about the medicine. However, as the vaccination rate increases, the government is implementing a new policy to get back to our lives before the pandemic. Of course, everyone wants to go back to when there were no people wearing masks outside but poor response to various problems can slow down this hope. There might be side effects or a late supply of vaccines, and hiding the fact will cause worse disasters. Vaccine companies should also be careful about clinical trials and side effects for not only the profit but also for a better world with no pandemic.

Sources:

https://www.joongang.co.kr/article/25004320#home

https://health.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2021/09/09/2021090900869.html

https://www.dongascience.com/news.php?idx=50453