South Korea has acquired more than 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines since 2020, but 28.8 percent of them were discarded after reaching their expiration dates, data from the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency showed Monday.
A total of 229.64 million doses had been acquired as of March since the pandemic began in 2020, of which 66.2 million were discarded, according to KDCA data released by Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the main opposition People Power Party.
The number of discarded doses increased every year, from 1.7 million in 2021 to 10 million in 2022, 18.75 million in 2023 and 33.3 million in 2024.
Exactly how much public money was spent on the discarded vaccines remains unclear, as the KDCA said it is contractually barred from disclosing vaccine prices.
“It is a grave matter that many vaccines acquired with taxpayers’ money were discarded,” Kim said, calling for a review of supply adjustments and stock management. She also urged an overhaul of the infectious disease response system to prevent similar cases from recurring.
The KDCA said disposing of large amounts of COVID-19 vaccines was inevitable as part of the country’s active response to the global pandemic, adding that several other countries discarded more vaccine doses than Korea did.
Korea had one of the highest vaccination rates in the world during the COVID-19 pandemic, with well over 80 percent of the population receiving both shots as of 2022.
As in many countries, the government carried out a nationwide campaign to provide free vaccinations to the public.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
