It is certainly necessary to take all effective measures to contain the Middle East respiratory syndrome from spreading further in the country. But Koreans may now need to ask themselves whether they are overreacting to the outbreak of the disease, and letting it escalate into social disruption and an economic crisis.
Unconfirmed stories about the potentially deadly virus, which have gone viral on the Internet, have sparked public scares and spawned distrust in the MERS-related information provided by health authorities.
Frightened citizens stay at home, with public events canceled and thousands of schools shut down.
Early indications are that the Korean virus is similar to the one found in Saudi Arabia, which reported the world’s first case in 2012, and has not mutated to become more contagious. So far, nearly all infections in the country have occurred at hospitals where at least one person diagnosed with MERS had visited or stayed for treatment.
It may help Koreans judge whether their response to the disease is excessive or not, if they see it from the eyes of some sensitive foreign institutions and visitors.
The travel notice issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday put Korea in the “Level 1” or “Watch” category, the lowest of its three-step advisory system, which calls for usual precautions and does not advise against traveling to the country.
A group of 20 teachers from a U.S. high school is to make a 12-day trip to Korea starting Thursday to study the country’s history and culture. A school official was quoted by a Korean daily as saying they were told by medical experts that they did not need to cancel the trip as the possibility of catching the virus was “very slim” without coming into direct contact with a patient. During the visit, they are scheduled to hold an event with Korean alumni.
Hundreds of foreign journalists covering science and medicine are attending a conference in Seoul this week. One of them wrote on Facebook that he and his wife were enjoying their stay in Seoul by taking the subway, and wondered why Koreans were so worried about being infected with the MERS virus on the streets.
In a recent interview with a local news agency, Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said that Koreans needed to act on “factual information, not rumors.”
As she advised, a sense of shared responsibility and mutual trust between the public and the government were needed to contain the spread of the illness and reduce social and economic losses.
The government is certainly to blame for having failed to handle the outbreak of the disease in a quick and transparent manner in its initial stages. To our regret, however, irresponsible individual behavior ― such as people concealing the fact they had come in contact with a patient or defying quarantine at home ― has amplified fears among Korean citizens.
