South Korea Leads World in Compensation for COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Events

South Korea shows a higher rate in compensation provision for vaccine adverse events among OECD members, and from 2022 plans to provide retroactive compensation for unverified causal links between vaccines and adverse events.

Osong, 10^th December 2021 – The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) has announced on 10^th December 2021 that South Korea shows a higher rate in providing compensation in recognition of a causal link between vaccines and adverse events among OECD member states.

The KDCA conducted a survey of the current status of the 37 OECD members’ compensation policy for COVID-19 vaccine adverse events through the diplomatic offices overseas of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and received answers to the survey from 23 members. Thirteen among 37 countries (35.1%) have a national compensation policy currently in place, and six countries (16.2%) have provided compensation in recognition of a causal link between vaccines and adverse events.

Against the number of COVID-19 vaccine recipients, South Korea provided compensation for 67 cases in adverse events per one million population, compared with 20 cases of Finland, 19 cases of Norway, 1.4 cases of Sweden, 0.7 case of Japan, and 0.004 case of the United States (Table).

To strengthen the government’s responsibility for vaccine adverse events, the KDCA implemented a medical expense support policy that went into effect on 17th May 2021. Under this policy, in the case that a patient was excluded from eligibility for compensation for adverse events because of the lack of data needed for verification of a causal link with a vaccine, a maximum of 10 million won (approximately 8,470 US dollars) per person was provided as medical expenses to the patient.

As of 28th October 2021, the KDCA expanded the medical expenses further to a maximum of 30 million won (approximately 25,400 US dollars) from the previous 10 million won.

From the year 2022, the KDCA plans to provide retroactive compensation for condolences for the deceased in the case that a causal link between vaccines and adverse events has not been verified because of the lack of available data.

The KDCA will continue making the utmost effort to expand the scope of science-based compensation and support by investigating compensation examples of major countries and reviewing the results of research and investigation from the COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Committee.

Table: Current Status of Compensation Provision of OECD Members

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        *Date: 23^rd November 2021

                                               * Sources: Official documents from diplomatic offices overseas of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs