[세션2-2]팬데믹 대응과 CSO의 역할_김명희_코로나팬데믹, 한국의 대응과 과제_covid-19

(Session Ⅱ) The COVID-19 Pandemic: Responses of the Civil Society Our next guest will be Kim Myounghee, who will give the second half of the presentation. Kim is an expert in preventive medicine and is the Director of the Center for Health Equity Research at the People’s Health Institute. She has been conducting research on public healthcare long before COVID-19. Let’s hand it over to him. Nice to see you all. I’m Kim, Myounghee. I majored in preventive medicine with a specialization in epidemiology, which mainly examines the causes of disease. Rather than talking about epidemiology today, I will discuss the role of social issues and civil society in the pandemic as well as their roles in the future.

01:01 - To be honest about Infectious disease, I agree with the previous speakers in that this health crisis cannot be attributed to a single biological factor. Once a pathogen interacts with humans and the environment, it is unpredictable and impossible to control completely. So naturally, clear communication of this risk becomes a very important issue. Inequality is another huge factor in terms of freedom and qualifications, meaning that both socioeconomic and biological issues are factors of this pandemic. Something to note is that these infectious diseases are contagious, but that some people have high immunity to them.

01:46 - If people develop herd immunity, there is a certain level of protection we can receive as a whole. Therefore, I can tell you that a social approach is more important than an individual one, and that balancing personal and social benefits is crucial. WHO stresses that risk communication is a very important part in responding to these kinds of pandemics. For example, it’s written here in red that in this public health & response, one of the most important policies is to communicate exactly what you know and don’t know. Although other speakers will tell you more about risk communication.

02:41 - It’s not simply a matter doing it or even being good at it. And that is because we’re responding to a pandemic. Responding to a public health crisis is a very different matter from a biological clinical trial, because it’s a type of social intervention. We are not experimenting in the lab but, rather, are dealing with human participants. Just because I’ve arranged for outcome A in a lab, does that mean I will be able to perfectly reproduce under different circumstances? No.

03:22 - Because this is a social situation that operates in an open system. I can tell you that while the government can’t cope with infectious diseases in the same manner each time, civil society and the community must cooperate to effectively respond to infectious diseases, making governance absolutely necessary. Governance is meaningful in many ways. First, governance itself can increase efficacy. In fact, no matter how great an expert is here, we don’t know what or where something is going to happen in the first place. In that case, providing knowledge in this field can shed light into the unknown.

04:15 - Only when this kind of civil surveillance is strengthened and mutual trust is built, can the government and corporate responsibilities be strengthened, and above all, the burden of risk and the inequality in benefits be alleviated. We live in a democratic society, in which democracy is not the end goal, but rather, an ongoing process. The existence of citizens who care about the wellbeing and health of the public understand the crisis and care about successfully responding to it, which is a very important asset of democracy itself. Building such a flexible governance isn’t just about the government doing something good, it’s about civil society working together to make decisions, sharing responsibilities, and giving each other constructive feedback. In particular, the role of the CSO is very important in this process.

05:14 - The CSO is defined by the UN as a non-state, non-profit, voluntary, independent of the market, and the for-profit sector. This addresses the question about what the biggest factor is in the success of COVID-19 prevention in Korea. At the end of April I spoke to foreign media and told them that although I still hesitate to call it the “end,” I believe that civil society played a very important role in easing the crisis in Korea. If you look at a couple of real-life examples, for example, migrants, and in the case of Singapore, the pandemic seemed to be under control at first, but became a problem with mass outbreaks among migrant workers. You might not be able to read it because the letters are small, but this is what the Human Rights Advocacy Group of Migrants(in South korea) did at the end of January When the KCDC distributed information, various organizations translated it for migrant communities.

06:29 - Likewise, when COVID-19 prevention guidelines were released, there were so many languages to translate them into, which posed a difficult task for the government. Migrant groups came forward to carry out and distribute these translations. Starting in Daegu, there were a lot of mass outbreaks in group facilities such as nursing homes. In these cases, healthcare workers(in association of the handicapped) had to take care of these patients. Even though people were sending in material donations, these were difficult to be put in actual use as many people(self-quarantine) in such facilities have difficulty taking care of themselves.

07:20 - Healthcare workers risked their own safety to take care of these patients. This is more than just volunteering. Rather than blaming a region for the start of the pandemic in Korea, we should focus on creating a plan for disaster prevention at the national level and creating a manual as well as an open line of communication with the government to discuss measures that will ensure that better prevention methods by these group facilities. The workers in these centers played a huge role in helping control COVID-19 in Korea. Likewise, when there were outbreaks from Itaewon clubs recently. This was quite a precarious situation that could have led to human rights violations against sexual minorities.

07:59 - Many groups advocating for the rights of sexual minorities came forward at this time to protect both the rights of these people as well as the public health. They did so by consulting with the local governments of Seoul and the Gyeonggi Province. Creating such a framework is a great example of governance. Another example are the labor unions. If you go to the website of the Health and Medical Workers’ Union, where health and medical workers are gathered, they’ve collected and published all sorts of COVID-19 related government guidelines. They’ve also shared their experiences with overseas health and medical workers who might have experienced even worse conditions.

08:44 - In cases like call centers, other call centers probably face similar problems. The economy is also heavily affected, and in such a situation, labor unions continue to monitor how government guidelines are delivered to the actual field, and ask the government to assist in improving any problems that might come up. There are not only domestic cases and, in fact, there is a lot of international solidarity. For example, the drug remdesivir, which is getting a lot of attention as a possible cure for COVID-19. Before remdesivir was popular in the USA, it could retain high prices for seven years if granted an all-fund as a rare drug.

09:41 - To be honest, I applied for this drug when there were fewer confirmed cases. I’m worried that if this drug is actually approved as the official treatment of COVID-19, the public would have to pay a lot of money to the companies creating the drug, raising prices even more. Gilead, a company that is developing remdesivir, withdrew from this option, and two days ago President Moon stated at the World Health Assembly that the achievements of human science shouldn’t be shared with a handful of companies or the rich, but should be made available for a larger number of people in the civil society. A few days ago, the WHA held a meeting to discuss this issue, resulting in some positive outcomes. I have to rush through my presentation because we don’t have much time but I want to touch upon the world’s future needs.

10:46 - I don’t think the pandemic is going to end right away. And I think that because this is not just a threat to our health, but also to our society and economy, it is very important to establish cooperative governance with the CSO. As the previous speakers said, governance is not a step away from the government’s responsibility. The government should have a clear responsibility to build this collaborative governance, and citizens should not think that they are alone in being mobilized to serve. From the central government to the local level, government officials need to learn and train how to work with civil society, and actually figure out how to develop a relationship or else, in times of emergency, it will be impossible to communicate with one another.

11:33 - The government needs to be very transparent to the public and reassure them of their right to be informed. Above all, we need to help strengthen our civil infrastructure. For example, disability support groups played a very key role, but what would have happened if there were no such civil society organizations? No matter how much I would want to help in such a situation, I don’t think it would be possible at an individual level. In that sense, I think there should be a lot of support to strengthen the capabilities of these civil organizations, and I think civil society should play a more active role in the future as a collective entity. Since this program will be broadcasted to the public, I’d like to inform the people who are tuning in that it’s important for us as citizens to cooperate with the government’s quarantine measures, but not forget that we are members of a democratic society.

There are many actions you can take to support one another. You can actively take part in the efforts, donate money, or even just spread awareness with your voices. The last message I would like to leave is that I would like you to participate more in these actions as a member of society, not just as an individual. Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening. .