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| Fear and anxiety are the key driving forces behind Koreans' panic buying frenzy. / gettyimagesbank |
Korea ill-prepared to fight pandemic
By Kang Hyun-kyung
In a video posted on his YouTube channel on March 5, Korean American doctor Charles Cho demonstrated how to make a homemade face shield that can protect users from becoming infected with the coronavirus.
The L.A.-based physician and nephrologist recycled a clear file folder to invent an alternative to face masks as they are out of stock at supermarkets and drugstores in Korea.
"I know it's awkward. Some people may think this device is weird and excessive," he said. "It's the brainchild of my days of thinking about a face mask alternative that can better protect people from the virus. So please don't blame me but consider using it for your own safety."
Cho said he emulated the face shield which is on sale in U.S. online malls, touting his makeshift device as "perfect gear" when it comes to virus protection. The material is water-proof, allows air circulation as it only covers the front side of one's face and prevents users from directly touching their faces with their hands and people can use it multiple times if they clean it with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, he said.
His video was uploaded at a time when Koreans have suffered excessive emotional distress after the coronavirus outbreak. In a separate video, he gave tips on how to make non-alcohol-based disinfectant from household items.
The two homemade devices are Korean American doctor's "psychological remedy" to help panicked Koreans stay calm amid the virus outbreak.
Fear and anxiety were the key driving forces behind Koreans' panic buying frenzy.
Face masks were the highest in-demand item.
Shelves for masks were empty by mid-February when the 31st patient became a super spreader and the number of infected cases increased exponentially.
During weekday, people wait in a line to purchase "affordable masks" near pharmacies in Seoul. Due to shortages of masks, the government implemented a purchasing limit and citizens can only buy up to two masks per week.
People queuing for masks created a new snapshot of "pandemic fear" in Korea.
Hand sanitizers and other alcohol-based sanitizers were sold out as health experts encouraged the public to wash their hands frequently in order to stay safe from the virus infection. In online shopping malls, the prices of sanitizers rose much higher than before. Some people stockpiled other emergency supplies, including instant food and ramen.
"Culture is sure to play a part," John Brady, a professor of consumer science at Seoul National University, told The Korea Times. "In Korea, it seems that people believe their immediate needs will be taken care of, but that if things extend for a long period of time, problems might arise.?So Koreans buy the shelf stable items (e.g. noodle, rice, etc) trusting that more immediate needs will be available from the community they belong to."
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| People wait in a line to purchase 'affordable masks' near a pharmacy in Seoul, Tuesday. Due to shortages of masks, the government implemented a purchasing limit and citizens can only buy up to two masks per week. People queuing for masks created a new snapshot of 'pandemic fear' in Korea in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. / Yonhap |
Panic buying
In some Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Australia, panic buying created a rare phenomenon in consumer behavior. Consumers were hoarding toilet paper. Competition for the product pitted some shoppers against each other which even led to an incident of customers brawling over toilet paper at a supermarket in Australia.
Stockpiling of toilet paper has invited government intervention.
Earlier this month, retailers in Australia, such as Woolworth and Coles, introduced a new limit on toilet paper purchases and consumers were only allowed to buy a single pack.
Steven Taylor, professor of Department of Psychiatry at University of British Columbia, Canada, said panic buying is one of consumers' psychological reactions to pandemics, and in extreme cases, anxiety could lead to rioting, looting or other disruptive social behavior.
In Baltimore during the Spanish flu pandemic, he said in his book "The Psychology of Pandemics" that "customers ravaged drug stores in search of products to prevent influenza and relieve symptoms."
Taylor said people who are highly anxious about being infected become hysterical and shun people or places associated with infection.
"During the Spanish flu pandemic, there were reports of sick, bedridden people starving to death because they were avoided by others," his book reads.
"Avoidance or fearful removal of perceived sources of infection can even extend to animals. During the 2003 SARS outbreak in China there were widespread reports of household dogs and cats being abandoned, euthanized or sometimes brutally killed because of fear that the animals might be carrying the SARS virus."
Professor Brady said psychological reactions to pandemics could differ among countries because of cultural differences.
He said the United States and Australia are classified as individualistic countries where as Korea, Japan and China are collectivist societies.
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"How this might relate to a crisis is that in an individualistic country people believe that they must rely on themselves to take care of themselves and their immediate family. In collectivist societies people believe that they can rely on their community to assist them in times of trouble," he said.?"So it follows that Americans would buy goods for immediate use (e.g. hand sanitizers, toilet paper, water, etc) believing that no outside agencies will provide these goods."
Brady commented on the American agency responsible for emergency preparedness, FEMA, and its response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, in order to compare the role of government in disaster relief in Korea and the United States.
According to him, FEMA said that people should plan on being without help for several weeks as it would take that long for charities and government to respond.?
"My own observation is that Americans tend to be less trusting of institutions to come to their aid. Events like Katrina and the Puerto Rico hurricanes have left Americans with the feeling that they cannot trust or rely on institutions such as government or aid organizations in an emergency," he said.
In Japan, panic buying is a reflection of Japanese people's fear learned from previous disasters.
"Japanese people have bad memories of disasters, including the 2011 tsunami-driven nuclear crisis and the recent Kumamoto mountain eruptions," said Oh In-gyu, a professor of Kansai Gaidai University in Osaka, Japan.
As usual, he said, rumors and conspiracy theories mushroomed during the crisis.
"During the Aso volcanic eruption in 2019 in Kumamoto, people here were convinced with fake news that lions kept in the zoo had escaped. After the coronavirus outbreak, Japanese people were scared and believed that production of toilet paper may be stopped because its key ingredients are exported from China which was also hit hard by the virus and its manufacturing sector suffered the consequences."
In Japan, he said, panic buying dated back to the 1970s when the nation was hit by an oil embargo. "People were driven to buy toilet paper much more than they needed and stacked it up at home as they believed its price would surge," he said.
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| Two face masks are hung on a laundry rope in a shanty town in Seoul, Monday. / Yonhap |
Fear-mongering
In Korea, panic buying, to some degree, appears to be associated with a public policy failure.
In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, the Korean government's public health guidelines were inconsistent and their message, particularly on face masks, confused the public.
Earlier, the health ministry encouraged the public to wear masks, KF 80 or higher rated, saying such masks would filter the virus which was later found out to be untrue. Facing shortages of masks in the market, the ministry changed its position and said healthy people don't need to wear them.
Health Minister Park Neung-hoo's attitude and frequent slips of the tongue made Koreans skeptical about the role of government in the COVID-19 fight.
When asked why the government didn't impose an entry ban on Chinese tourists at the National Assembly meeting on Feb. 26, Park said the reason Korea had seen a surge of coronavirus infection cases was because of Koreans who returned to Korea from China, not because of Chinese travelers.
His remarks backfired. Some blamed Park for allegedly representing the best interest of the Chinese, not Koreans.
Park is no stranger to a controversy.
Before the parliamentary meeting, he drew the ire of fellow Koreans for his comments about the public health crisis.
When asked by a reporter if he concurs on the idea that conducting quarantine without banning Chinese travelers' entry to Korea was like spraying mosquito dispeller into the air while opening a window, Park said bluntly, "In wintertime, there are no mosquitos, whatsoever."
The health minister became a besieged enemy among doctors after another slip of the tongue at the National Assembly meeting last week.
In response to a lawmaker who blamed the health minister for the shortages of surgical masks for doctors, Park insisted such observation is not based on fact and groundless rumors circulated because doctors were trying to hoard surgical masks.
His remarks infuriated doctors and they accused the health minister of lying about the inventory of surgical masks.
Together with the zigzagging government on safety guidelines, the health minister's repeated reckless narratives and attitude to downplay the danger of the infectious disease appeared to have paved the way for a belief among Koreans that the government is not trustworthy.
When the "invisible hand" doesn't work and government intervention to stabilize the market turns out to be ineffective, it is natural that consumers conclude they need to take care of themselves.
Panic buying seems to be the result of desperate consumers' endeavors to survive tough times by themselves, without relying on "irresponsible" governments.
The virus outbreak was initially seen as unavoidable, considering Korea's reliance on China, the epicenter of the virus, as a trading partner and geographical proximity with the neighbor. The outbreak, however, ended up lifting Korea's international profile as a leading country in public health with its advanced and effective testing kits being lauded.
Despite the positive side, Korea's fight against COVID-19 was a half success at best, in that the government failed to manage the public health crisis by thrusting the public into fear and anxiety.
Much has been stated about pandemic's fallout on the economy with an outpouring of analysis and commentaries about stock and financial markets. The impact of the virus outbreak on ordinary people's daily routines also received more attention than in similar past situations.
But the psychological impact of pandemics on society has rarely drawn attention, despite its significance.
After the coronavirus outbreak, quack remedies circulated on the internet and misled some people to risk their health by trying salt water as a disinfectant or overdose on Vitamin C.
As University of British Columbia Professor Taylor warns, if not properly managed, the public's fear and anxiety could lead to social instability.
Addressing pandemic-induced fear remains a key task in Korea's fight against the virus.
