Medical/Health : Society : News : Hankyoreh

K (K) – Prevention was unfair. The government handed over the responsibility for quarantine to the people, and instead of reducing the responsibility of the established elite in our society, the socially underprivileged such as the self-employed and institutions that had no choice but to follow the government’s instructions, such as public hospitals, took on the heavy responsibility. So, although K-Quarantine has succeeded in curbing the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, it can only be evaluated as a half success. Unfortunately, the unfair K – quarantine is likely to be repeated. This is because the government’s step-by-step recovery plan for daily life does not include measures to strengthen the government’s responsibility for quarantine and to evenly share the pain of quarantine among the established and socially disadvantaged in our society. First, there is no plan to increase the number of epidemiological investigation personnel at public health centers. In a country where there are not many confirmed cases of COVID-19 like Korea, strengthening the epidemiological investigation is more effective than social distancing that restricts business and private gatherings of the self-employed. This is because, through rapid epidemiological investigation, finding and isolating people who have come into contact with the confirmed person can prevent further spread of the infection. According to a recent study, epidemiological investigations can reduce the number of confirmed cases by up to 60%. However, if the number of confirmed cases increases, the government has raised the level of distancing instead of increasing the number of epidemiological investigation personnel at public health centers. The number of epidemiological investigation personnel at public health centers is similar to last year, when the number of daily confirmed cases was only a few dozen, and this year, when the number exceeded 2,000. The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention actively persuaded the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security to make the easy choice of restricting private gatherings of the public and the business of the self-employed instead of increasing the number of health centers. The government has been doing what should be done by increasing the number of health centers by investing 200 to 300 billion won, while maintaining a distance that causes damage to the self-employed amounting to 20 to 30 trillion won. If the number of epidemiological investigation personnel at public health centers is increased by 2,000 to 3,000, rapid epidemiological investigation is possible even if there are 5,000 to 7,000 confirmed cases per day. If the government eases social distancing without increasing the number of health centers, it is highly likely that they will either return to social distancing or significantly strengthen the vaccine pass to control the growing number of confirmed cases. Second, there are no plans to increase the number of medical personnel and beds and to systematically operate them. Although the number of hospital beds in Korea is more than twice that of the United States and Europe, even if there are only a few dozen confirmed cases of COVID-19 compared to these, strong distance had to be maintained to prevent the collapse of the medical system. The real reason why the self-employed had to close their doors without seeing family and friends despite the small number of confirmed patients is because the government made an easy choice to avoid conflicts with private hospitals. The intensive care unit for COVID-19 patients should be increased by 1.5 times, and the general ward should be doubled. Even if it is increased to this level, emergency and intensive care care will not be significantly affected. Until now, when the number of confirmed cases increases, the government has requested hospital beds to treat COVID-19 patients. However, hospitals only offer beds and do not expand manpower, so there are a number of cases where there are beds but no patients are accepted. After the 3rd pandemic, the government has given subsidies amounting to 3 trillion won in addition to patient treatment costs to hospitals that treat COVID-19 patients, but this is still happening. It is correct to ask hospitals to take responsibility for treating COVID-19 patients in accordance with the government’s financial support. It is necessary to designate a COVID-19 infectious disease center and arrange not only hospital beds, but also personnel, equipment, and treatment system. Even if the number of confirmed cases in the US and Europe is only a few tens of minutes, the return to distancing should not happen because the medical system cannot handle it. Third, there are no measures to solve the problem of excess death, in which more socially disadvantaged people such as the elderly and low-income class die during the COVID-19 quarantine process. Excess death refers to the number of deaths compared to the number of deaths in the past three to five years. Last year, in Korea, the number of excess deaths due to causes other than COVID-19 was four times the number of deaths from COVID-19. Most of them were elderly and low-income. It has been 21 months since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but public hospitals are still treating most patients. Public hospitals, which account for only 10% of all beds, treat 75% of patients, and private hospitals, which account for 90%, only see 25% of patients. Low-income and elderly patients who have been evicted from public hospitals are not receiving adequate treatment, and some of them are presumed to have died. This is the result of the government’s easy choice of handing over the treatment of COVID-19 patients to public hospitals instead of creating conflicts when trying to mobilize private hospitals that are reluctant to treat COVID-19 patients. Now, it is necessary to reduce the treatment of COVID-19 patients in public hospitals little by little and restore the treatment function of public hospitals. Measures are also needed to address the gap in care for the elderly and disabled. Fourth, adequate compensation and support for the self-employed and small business owners are insufficient. In Korea, while social distancing is at a level similar to that of the United States or Europe, compensation for the self-employed is only half that of these countries. If only damages incurred after the enactment of the Loss Compensation Act are compensated, during the 21-month period of the COVID-19 pandemic one-thirdThis means that compensation is only paid for 7 months. The loss must be compensated retrospectively. It is also inappropriate to compensate only for losses due to restrictions on business hours and not to compensate for losses due to restrictions on private gatherings among the damages caused by social distancing. We must not forget that the fact that large corporations have been able to maintain high economic growth and increase their exports during the COVID-19 outbreak is the result of the Korean people and the self-employed following the government’s guidelines for social distancing.

Yun Kim Professor, Seoul National University College of Medicine (Medical Management)