South Korea's top health official has said the free flu vaccination program will continue, stressing no links have been found between vaccines and deaths among those who received shots.
Health Minister Park Neunghoo reiterated the stance on the issue Sunday, as expressed earlier by other national health authorities.
At least 48 people have died after receiving flu vaccines, with the majority of them in their 70s and 80s.
Park said a team of experts who reviewed more than half of those cases found "very little causality," adding that that it is "unscientific to simply halt vaccination when there is no link between flu shots and deaths."
"Benefits of taking flu shots far outweigh any side effects," Park said, while citing seasonal flu has claimed some 3,000 lives a year in the country.
The government has also expressed concerns about a potential "twindemic" of COVID-19 and flu during winter.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency has also said the flu vaccination program should continue.
According to the KDCA, 6.68 million people who were 65 or older received vaccines between July 2019 and April 2020, and 1,531 of them, less than 1 percent, died within seven days because of pre-existing health conditions, not because of any issue with their flu shots.
<Photo: Yonhap News>
