Discussion
On April 26 2022, No.263 Japan Specialist Seminar was held in person at GL Room,
SNU-GSIS. With 10 participants, Professor OH Ju han, a Clinical Professor of Medicine in
Seoul National University made a presentation about “International Comparison of Covid
Pandemic :Focusing on Korea”. The below is the summary.
In the beginning of the pandemic, respective countries of the world lacked the scientific
knowledge to rely on. There have been big differences regarding the spreading of COVID
depending on their historical experiences of infectious disease, capacities of crisis
communication and political execution of rapid decision-making. Some of the countries were
able to yield good results for the first six months and could keep going. However, the
majority of the countries failed to effectively deal with the pandemic.
However, when it came to the analysis of factors behind successful COVID response, there
was a tendency to interpret such on the structural differences of the countries rather than
scientifically. Many failed to result in new and adaptable changes in policy. The states where
failed to respond to pandemic initially could alleviate the situation by lockdown but it led to a
great damage of socioeconomic loss. However, the countries who adopted the measure of
isolation and quarantine in the first place not only suffered a small number of casualties but
also a small socioeconomic loss.
Due to the emergence of virus mutations and sub-expectations of vaccines, scientific
interpretation of the success factors of the initial response and efforts to apply them globally
have been needed. However, there has been no such international cooperation. Even the
fate of the countries who were successful in the initial response changed to a significantly
different deterioration phase as the transition to a different policy stance was taken
thereafter.
Taiwan and Japan have remained as the regions to be successful. Though South Korea
previously belonged to a country effective in the initial response, now it has fallen as the
country shows the most casualties by COVID. In order to effectively deal with the next
pandemic, now we have to refine good collaboration and division of labor between science
and politics.
A Q/A followed after the presentation. There was a question about the gap between recent
confirmed cases in Korea and Japan. The presenter said the key to a successful pandemic
response is in isolation but not the testing of the confirmed and contacted cases. Like
Slovakia, even if a state executed a full-on testing on their people, if it is not connected with
the isolation of confirmed and contacted, the testing itself is not enough.
There have been discussions about Chinese response to COVID-19,, Changes in the
COVID-19 Response Policy Advisory Team, specific suggestions on Korea's current
COVID-19 response policy.
