State not responsible for death of child who followed school vaccine mandate: court

A disposable syringe with a needle (GettyImages)

The South Korean government is not responsible for compensation for a child who was inoculated following a boarding school's vaccination requirement, a court ruling showed Monday.

The mother of the deceased son, whose identity was not disclosed, claimed in a lawsuit that the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency had unlawfully rejected the mother's request to review whether the case was subject to state compensation or not. She demanded the case be at least discussed at a committee under the KDCA.

But the Seoul Administration Court gave the state the upper hand and dismissed the mother's complaint, according to a December 2022 ruling seen by The Korea Herald. The court said it is legitimate for the state to reject the request without a committee review, given the child was not under a state mandate to be vaccinated. The plaintiff appealed to a higher court.

The case concerns a child who was admitted to an undisclosed boarding school for gifted students in 2019 and received vaccinations for hepatitis A, hepatitis B and typhoid fever within a week in January 2019 at a community health center in Seoul, abiding by the school's instruction.

The child was found dead in bed in July 2019. An autopsy result showed the cause of the child's death could not be identified.

His mother applied for state compensation for bereaved families in November 2021, which was rejected by the state two months later. The mother argued that the school compelled students to be vaccinated because students there were living and dining together in the dormitory and were often sent to foreign countries that at risk of typhoid fever for volunteer activities.

According to the court, the situation could not sufficiently deem the deceased child to be the subject of a vaccine mandate.

By Son Ji-hyoung(consnow@heraldcorp.com)