Experts discuss steps to cope with future pandemics more effectively

Medical workers transfer a COVID-19 patient to an emergency room at a hospital in Seoul, March 17. Yonhap

By Lee Hae-rin

• Published Oct 31, 2022 6:00 PM KST
• Updated Nov 6, 2022 9:20 AM KST

By Lee Hae-rin

There is a 50 percent chance that humanity will face another pandemic within 20 years, according to Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The unprecedented COVID-19 crisis that has devastated the world may be beginning to ease. However, humanity still lives close to wildlife that could host pathogens of future pandemics helped along by climate change, population growth and deforestation.

The coronavirus was not the first viral outbreak seen in recent years. The country was hit by Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2015, as well as by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and 2003. COVID-19, however, was exceptional in scale and duration worldwide, due to its particular fatality and infection rate along with the continuous emergence of new variants, medical experts said.

As of Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 625.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including over 6.5 million deaths since the pandemic started over two years ago. Korea saw over 17.2 million confirmed cases since January 2020 and nearly 30,000 deaths.

However, the past two years of the pandemic are “just a taste of things to come,” Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said during a keynote speech at the Global Bio Summit in Seoul, Tuesday. “The possibility of another pandemic with the same kind of impact is increasing by 2 percent each year,” he said.

To better cope with future pandemics, experts highlighted the following four points.

Costs of health restrictions

To better cope with future pandemics, the social impact of the government's quarantine policies on people's livelihoods should be assessed, according to Jung Jae-hun, a professor of preventive medicine at Gachon University College of Medicine.

In March 2020, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters (CDSCH) first introduced the term “social distancing” as part of a campaign to prevent the spread of the disease. As the infection rate grew in June of that year, the government body announced multi-tier regulations for different ranges of daily new cases and accordingly restricted group sizes and business operation hours thus controlling indoor and outdoor gatherings.

Until the restriction was abolished at the end of this April, the social distancing measures were toughened through countless revisions to deal with the sometimes unpredictable developments of the pandemic and turned people's conventional lifestyles upside down. It also reduced economic activities and devastated over 5.11 million small and medium-sized businesses across the country, which suffered immense economic losses amounting to 54 trillion won ($38 million), according to the presidential transition committee in April.

“The collision of personal freedom, community safety and individual rights was one of the greatest challenges the country faced during the coronavirus pandemic,” Jung told The Korea Times during a recent phone interview. The pandemic created room for debate on which conditions the government's administrative order on social distancing regulations, vaccinations and mask mandates can be justified at the cost of social consequences and how to compensate economic losses and social damage on the most vulnerable, he said.

In response, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced last month that it would grant a total of 890 billion won ($621 million) in relief to about 650,000 small and medium-sized businesses that experienced losses due to the government's quarantine measures when the infection rate peaked.

Epidemic governance

Experts agree that Korea dealt relatively quickly and systematically based on lessons learned from MERS in 2015, including conducting epidemiological investigations to actively engage in risk communication with the public through daily briefings. However, the government's epidemic management system still needs improvement.

Chung Ki-seok, the incumbent head of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's (KDCA) COVID-19 Special Response Team, said that more medical specialists are needed in the field and decision-making positions in local governments to effectively control future pandemics.

Chung, also a professor of pulmonary and allergy medicine at Hallym University, explained that disease control should be based on decisions made by medical specialists, although it may sometimes require political interventions when necessary. Also, the shortage of staff to trace and treat the epidemic, especially in the outer-Seoul regions, hindered the country from preventing the spread more effectively at the peak of previous waves.

Chung called for a centralized system where the KDCA, consisting of over 400 scientists and medical professionals, works directly with local governments on the country's future countermeasures to infectious diseases with its own comprehensive information delivery system ― expected to be established within two years ― to effectively manage pandemic data. The central government should pass on accumulated know-how and support the agency, the senior health official said.

More specialized medical facilities needed

Experts also called for more specialized infrastructure such as medical clinics designated to study and treat new infectious diseases.

Chun Eun-mi, a pulmonologist at Ewha Womans University Mokdong Hospital, stated that the country needs state-run hospitals equipped with intensive care units for critically ill patients with infectious diseases, which could help manage the next pandemic immediately at its outbreak. The initial high death tolls of the Delta variant, for example, were largely due to a lack of wards and emergency rooms, she said.

Chung and Jung agreed that the country needs to upgrade its medical infrastructure to be better prepared for future pandemics.

Setting up special clinics for infectious diseases has been on the government's national agenda since the MERS pandemic with little progress, the experts unanimously pointed out. In response to growing concerns, the KDCA announced again this year it would expand public medical infrastructure by establishing special clinics for infectious diseases in five regions, including Incheon, the Jeolla provinces and the Gyeongsang provinces. However, the construction for some of these sites has barely begun.

Korea could have prevented many deaths from COVID-19 during the initial phase of the pandemic if there had been special clinics in each region, Chung said. “Nobody knows how soon the next pandemic could strike us,” the expert said, emphasizing the need for progress.

Bio development and fighting health inequities

To prepare for future pandemics, the key is mitigating the five inequities ― diagnostics, R&D funding, manufacturing, vaccine supply and vaccination ― according to Jerome Kim, director general at the International Vaccine Institute (IVI). Kim emphasized during his keynote speech at the World Bio Summit on Oct. 25 in Seoul that health security is a global security and global cooperation is essential in preventing future health disasters.

President Yoon Suk-yeol promised during his speech at the World Bio Summit that Korea will provide vaccines it produces to other countries in need and thereby contribute to the world's efforts in strengthening health security. Korea was selected by the WHO to serve as a global biomanufacturing training hub in February.

On the second and final day of the event on Wednesday, the WHO and global leaders pronounced the Seoul Declaration, calling for global cooperation in tracking viruses and fighting future pandemics.