Misleading claim spreads online that flu vaccines administered in South Korea in 2020 were made in China

The claim was shared here on Facebook on October 25, 2020 in a public group with more than 30,000 members.

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Part of the Korean-language post translates to English as: “More than 40 South Koreans have died due to the flu vaccine. Where is this vaccine from? The evil mastermind behind the Wuhan pneumonia, Communist China.

“Over the past five years, South Korea spent more than 16.7 billion South Korean won of taxpayer money in importing more than 17 tons of the killer vaccine.”

Vaccine investigation

South Korea’s Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed at least 72 people have died after receiving shots as part of the nationwide flu vaccination programme.

According to this October 29, 2020 report by local news agency Yonhap, a KDCA investigation found that of the 72 deaths, “71 were believed to have no link to flu shots” and a further probe has been ordered on the remaining one death.

The misleading claim circulated online two days after South Korean opposition politician Koo Ja-geun published a report about imports of vaccines from China that included the same figures.

The October 23, 2020 release reads, in part: "A review into South Korean customs data shows that in the last five years (2015-2019)...South Korea has imported some 17.2 tons of vaccines from China, worth more than 16.7 billion."

He also called for the government to open a “strengthened investigation” on deaths caused by vaccines and conduct “more thorough tests” on vaccines imported from China.

A similar claim was also shared here on Facebook, and here, here, here, here and here on Twitter.

The claim, however, is misleading.

Flu shots

In response to the misleading claims, Moon Eun-hui, head of the South Korean health ministry's Biopharmaceutical Quality Management Division, told AFP that “none” of the vaccines imported from China were being used as flu vaccines in South Korea.

The ministry pointed AFP to this statement on its website, which says all of the country's flu vaccines have been manufactured domestically or imported from France or Germany.

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A screenshot of a Q&A section on flu vaccines on the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety’s website

It reads, in part: “Free flu vaccinations being administered in Korea use vaccines made in China? NO.

“There are no Chinese flu vaccines in distribution in South Korea. All flu vaccines administered in South Korea have either been manufactured domestically, or have been imported from France or Germany".

The statement lists ten companies that manufacture flu vaccines that have been distributed in South Korea.

Of these, eight are domestically-registered and two are classified as “foreign”. It adds that all eight South Korean firms use Korean ingredients, and the two others, Sanofi-aventis and GlaxoSmithKline, import vaccines from France and Germany.

It also states: “Is there a difference between domestic and internationally-produced vaccines? NO.

"All vaccine manufacturers worldwide use the same strain of virus distributed by the World Health Organization (WHO). There is no difference in quality between countries.”

Lee Jae-gap, a professor of Hallym University Kangnam Sacred Heart Hospital's Division of Infectious Diseases, said that flu vaccines distributed in South Korea did not include Chinese ingredients, to the best of his knowledge. 

“As far as I am aware, none of the ten manufacturers use Chinese ingredients," he said in a phone interview with AFP on October 27.

“All flu vaccine makers receive strains from the World Health Organization, which means that discussions on the origins of the ingredients or where they were made have no significance. Regardless [of where the drugs were made], all go through a safety test for approval from health authorities before entering the market.”