FP | South Korea initially seemed to have the COVID-19 epidemic under
control, armed with efficient bureaucracy and state-of-the-art
technology. However, since Feb. 18, the number of coronavirus cases in
South Korea has exploded to more than 1,700 as of Thursday. The battle
plan against the epidemic was derailed by the oldest of problems:
religion and politics.
When it came to preparation, it helped that South Korea had one hell
of a practice run: the MERS outbreak in 2015 that caused 38 deaths. At
the time, the incompetent response by the conservative administration of
then President Park Geun-hye put South Korea in the ignominious
position of having the greatest number of cases outside of the Middle
East. The fallout, which contributed to the public distrust of
government that culminated in Park’s impeachment and removal, pushed the
South Korean government to significantly revamp its preparation for the
next viral event.
South Korea has been preparing for
a potential new strain of coronavirus since as early as November 2019.
Without knowing what virus would hit the country next, the Korea Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) devised an ingenious method
of testing for any type of coronavirus and eliminating known
strains of coronavirus such as SARS or MERS to isolate the new variant
of coronavirus.
For the first four weeks of the outbreak, South Korea marshaled
high-tech resources to respond aggressively while promoting
transparency. The government tracked the movements of travelers arriving
from China, for example by tracking the use of credit cards, checking CCTV footage, or mandating
they download an app to report their health status every day. For those
infected, the government published an extremely detailed list of their
whereabouts, down to which seat they sat in at a movie theater.
The info was also presented (with names removed) in an interactive website
that allows the public to trace the movement of every single individual
with coronavirus. To be sure, there were real privacy concerns—as when one unfortunate patient
in Daejeon had news of their visit to a risqué lingerie store blasted
to every smartphone in their city. Yet on balance, these disclosures did
much to calm the nerves and prevent unnecessary panic in the
population. By Feb. 17, South Korea’s tally of COVID-19 patients stood at 30, with zero deaths. Ten patients were fully cured and discharged, with some of the discharged patients declaring the disease was “not something as serious as one might think.” The government seemed ready to declare victory.
That all came to a crashing halt last week thanks to the 31st case.
Patient No. 31, discovered on Feb. 18, was a member of a quasi-Christian
cult called Shincheonji, one of the many new religious movements in the country. Founded in 1984, Shincheonji (whose official name
is Shincheonji, Church of Jesus, the Temple of the Tabernacle of the
Testimony) means “new heaven and earth,” a reference to the Book of
Revelation. Its founder Lee Man-hee claims to be the second coming of
Jesus who is to establish the “new spiritual Israel” at the end of days. The cult is estimated to have approximately 240,000 followers, and claims to have outposts in 29 countries in addition to South Korea.
Shincheonji’s bad theology makes for worse public health. Shincheonji teaches
illness is a sin, encouraging its followers to suffer through diseases
to attend services in which they sit closely together, breathing in
spittle as they repeatedly amen in unison. If they were off on their
own, that might be one thing—but according to Shin Hyeon-uk, a pastor
who formerly belonged to the cult, Shincheonji believes in
“deceptive proselytizing,” approaching potential converts without
disclosing their denomination. Shincheonji convinces its members to
cover their tracks, providing a prearranged set of answers to give when
anyone asks if they belong to the cult. Often, even family members are
in the dark about whether someone is a Shincheonji follower. The net
effect is that Shincheonji followers infect each other easily, then go
onto infect the community at large.
It is not yet clear exactly how Shincheonji cultists were infected
with COVID-19 in the first instance. (KCDC said Patient No. 31 is likely not
the first Shincheonji follower to be infected, given the timeline of
her symptoms.) Although investigations are still pending, South Korean
authorities have been focusing on the funeral of the brother of Shincheonji’s founder held in early February. Shincheonji has 19 churches in China, including in Wuhan, and it may be possible that followers from around the world attended the funeral.
0 comments:
Post a Comment