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KMID : 0904520210560010005
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Health and Medical Sociology
2021 Volume.56 No. 1 p.5 ~ p.30
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Only Balanced can be Sustainable: South Korea s Response to the (Post-)COVID-19 Crisis and Challenges for Health Care Reform
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Jung Ung-Ki
Kim Sang-June
Lee Hee-Young
Choi Se-Jin
Kim Tae-Young
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Abstract
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This article argues that, nearly a year into the pandemic, what is at stake is to make South Korea s response to it more balanced and thus sustainable. What we mean by balanced here is twofold. On the one hand, for a strategy of infectious disease prevention and control to be self-reinforcing, it should not be continued supression nor sudden mitigation; instead, it simultaneously requires one to ramp up ICU capacity and to protect vulnerable population: younger generation in schools and senior citizens living in long-term care facilities in particular. Which consequently indicates where the health care system is consolidated, mitigation also works. On the other, when policymakers feel too much constrained to put a limit on individual freedom and rights, as in the United States or Europe, a sustainable strategy seems not promising. The same holds when these issues are not extensively taken into account nor under deliberation, as in Korea. In this regard, the balanced response matters again. We especially highlight two points. For a more effective strategy of communicating with the general public, we urge policymakers to be active in considering cognitive characteristics of the people as well as the role of their emotion. Furthermore, two specific recommendations, in the form of institutionalized measures, are proposed to ensure that people engage in policy-making relevant to infectious disease prevention and control. Which consequently indicates where democratic legitimacy of the policy is established, its sustainability also works.
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KEYWORD
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balanced (infectious disease) prevention and control, ICU capacity, right to physically attend school, long-term care, risk communication, democratic legitimacy
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