Amid deepening concerns over the spread of the Middle East respiratory syndrome, foreign residents here have remained relatively calm, noting MERS fears have escalated due to Seoul authorities’ “clumsy” handling of it and excessive media attention.
Some expats pointed out that the Seoul government failed to effectively communicate with Koreans as well as foreigners, thus needlessly worsening health concerns related to MERS, which had killed six of the 87 confirmed cases as of Monday.
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| (Yonhap) |
“Considering how few have actually been affected, I think there is way too much unnecessary worry from the general public. If we believe what the media news portrays, the people around me joke more about this than they worry,” said Christina Wilkens, residing in Gwangju.
“From what I have seen, read and heard, the (Seoul) government is handling this rather clumsily, which causes uneasy minds. And of course, there has to be coverage of this, but it has been overhyped.”
Some criticized the Seoul authorities for their apparently insufficient efforts to ensure close communication with the public so that people would not have to be rattled by groundless rumors about MERS.
Seoul’s Foreign Ministry held a briefing on MERS for embassy staff from more than 110 nations and international organizations for the first time Monday — nearly 20 days after the first MERS case was confirmed on May 20.
“I think the Korean government‘s failure to communicate with both its own population and foreign states is a serious problem. The media started an unjustified panic and the government allowed it to continue for too long,” said Joe DeMarini from the U.S.
“And letting patients suspected of being infected or actually being infected wander around outside of quarantine is plain negligent,” he pointed out, adding that he is also not worried about MERS too much as he believes basic hygiene such as hand washing and not hanging around in hospitals should be enough.
Mentioning many Koreans wearing masks and becoming extremely reluctant to go to mass gatherings, foreign residents also expressed their surprise about the mass concerns over MERS, citing the number of casualties caused by other types of diseases.
“Flu and pneumonia kill thousands of Koreans every year, but you never see mass hysteria when flu season rolls around,” said Douglas W. Eaton Tennant from Canada.
During its briefing to foreign diplomats on MERS, Lee Key-cheol, ambassador for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs at Seoul’s Foreign Ministry, underscored Seoul’s determination to combat MERS in the near future.
“I was also worried about MERS at the initial stage of its outbreak,” he said during his opening remarks.
“However, when I came to know more about the disease with updated information about the analysis of the samples of the disease conducted by Korea, the U.S. and the Netherlands, I came to a conclusion that my worries in the past were groundless, mainly based on my misunderstandings.”
By Song Sang-ho, Paul Kerry(sshluck@heraldcorp.com) (paulkerry@heraldcorp.com)
