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Corona Crisis An American’s Perspective
FEATURE
Written by Tom McGinn
www.gwangjunewsgic.com
March 2020
Photo by Captionery. (Unsplash)
L
et me explain COVID-19 situation from not only my point of view, but along with actual events that are ongoing here in Korea. My point of view is not just mere opinion but based on exposure to daily life here, the news and government alerts through text messages, as well as academic information gathered online. Before I go on, it should be known that this virus can be contained and its prevention rests on the basic fundamentals of personal hygiene and social distancing in terms of human contact. You are your own best line of defense. Once I came to understand that testing is the key to learning just how quickly this COVID-19 is spreading, I changed my outlook. I was not initially that concerned, as it seemed that the quarantine in China of 50 million people had shown a direct ability to control the virus, though the Chinese government is likely under-reporting
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the numbers. But failure to restrict movement and to test people opened up Pandora’s box for the rapid spread of this virus. If you are not testing, you do not know if it is spreading. Just as it is difficult to prove that exposure to nuclear radiation causes a specific cancer, in the same way, it would be just as equally difficult to prove that COVID-19 caused someone’s flu symptoms or death without the requisite testing. Many foreigners here have posted on social media that they want to leave South Korea. Not me. The reason is simple. The government here is all over this thing. The reason there are new cases reported here is due to the fact that they are testing. If you get tested and actually have the COVID-19 virus, the government pays in full for your treatment. The South Korean government has tested over 210,000 people. As of March 12, there are 7,470 active cases here.
3/27/2020 2:42:51 PM
