Why has Korea been so good, and the United States so bad?
On the Korean side, Korea was better prepared because of its experience with SARS and MERS. They had precautions set up already including detection at the airport and quarantine. Friends of mine who have gone to Korea in recent months have had to quarantine for two weeks to be sure they were safe. A two-week quarantine is better than a 40-day quarantine ― the original meaning of quarantine is "40 days" ― in Italian, quaranta giorni, literally, 40 days, a time when sailors coming ashore would be isolated to be sure they didn't have the plague. Furthermore, Korea has handled the disease scientifically ― daily briefings are presented by medical specialists, not politicians.
In the United States, the Ebola scare helped the U.S. to set up an epidemic response, but the Trump administration threw it out completely, including withdrawing epidemiologists from China who were in place to monitor diseases there. The Trump administration has tried to ignore the disease and discount its dangers. The Bob Woodward book, "Rage," disclosed recently that Trump knew how dangerous the disease is, but he has consciously "played it down." And when there were briefings on the disease, at one point daily, now only sporadically, it was the politicians, Trump and Pence, who made the statements with minimal input from the specialists, Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx. In fact, the specialists are sidelined and hardly heard from at all.
My friends in Korea seem worried about me and my colleagues in America. Every message I receive from Korea these days, notably in comments on my YouTube channel, admonishes me to be cautious and wishes me to be safe from the virus. And it is a big concern.
We are locked down tight. We order food to be delivered, and we do not go out. We "visit" with family on the phone and on the internet. We are being very careful because we are "older" and "vulnerable." Indeed, my wife is prone to pneumonia, and we could be in real trouble if we get the disease.
But we are in a college town, and school has started up and the college kids don't worry ― they go to dances and break the rules and the disease is spiking in our town. The community has cried to the school to do its part so that the disease does not spread to outside the campus, but it has already. And the two major universities in town, the two largest in the state, Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University, have issued letters signed by both university presidents, warning that if things do not improve in two weeks, they will close the campuses. BYU will host its first football game on Saturday and no students or public will be in attendance.
Why is the United States so bad? My good friend, Chad Tanner, the owner of the "Hi Chad" video channel, produced a program on this issue where he discussed the American "spirit" of independence and resistance to government in general. He is on to something ― compared to Korea where government is "respected." I know, I know, when I say this to Koreans, they often comment on how they, too, distrust the government, but still the respect level in Korea is significantly higher, IMHO (in my humble opinion).
But I think it is more than that. I think the Trump administration is simply inept. For their own selfish reasons they have chosen to play down the virus in their hopes for a re-election. And yet, ironically, if Trump had handled it differently ― more like Korea has ― he would be a hero today, and would be well on his way to re-election. At this point it's hard to imagine how the American public can re-elect someone who has allowed 200K, on its way to 300K and 400K, people to dieneedlessly.
But congratulations to Korea. You've shown the way to the whole world on how to handle a virulent pandemic like this. Chukhahamnida. Jal haesseoyo.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.