[Column] A better post-pandemic world?

Park Seung-woo

The author is a professor at the School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, and president of Samsung Medical Center

The new year has begun, but the Covid-19 pandemic continues for the fourth year. In May 1980, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the complete eradication of smallpox, which had claimed countless lives. At that time, futurists predicted that large-scale infectious diseases would disappear in the 21st century. In this century, however, new epidemics breaks out one after another, posing many challenges.

I hope we can recognize that the transformation of high-tech hospitals was accelerated in the process of overcoming the pandemic. It may be hard to understand why new infectious diseases occur more frequently in an age of significantly longer average life expectancy.

A new infectious disease cannot be fundamentally prevented from occurring because a virus that uses animals as hosts adapt to the human body by chance. The global population surpassed 8 billion recently, quadrupling in 100 years. With the development of transportation and increase of logistics, the scope of activities has expanded, hence more contacts with animals. It is only natural that the possibility of a new virus penetrating the human body continues to increase.

One consolation is that the development of medicine and genetics has quickly found that SARS, MERS and Covid-19 are all the variations of the coronavirus. Vaccine development that took many years in the past was completed in a matter of months, drawing a swift global response. We can feel the medical advance from the fact that the fatality rate has drastically decreased compared to the medieval Black Death or the Spanish flu in the early 20th century.

Covid-19 also accelerated changes in the medical field. In terms of treatment, a non-face-to-face automated treatment process was rapidly established. The novel system allowed you to get hospitalized with a guide on your smartphone without going through an admission desk. Robots and wearable devices using AI and cutting-edge technologies are quickly introduced and employed. Hospital culture is also changing as friends and families no longer visit, so patients can have more time to rest. Seniors have become familiar with QR codes.

Even if the Covid-19 pandemic ends soon, the transformation of smart hospitals will continue. As a result, our medical environment will change. Apart from the rapid change in the medical community triggered by the response to infectious diseases, I find the reality of social chaos during every pandemic regrettable as the human mind doesn’t change much. In the wake of an epidemic, most people go through three stages of emotional change. First is the extreme anxiety that one may get infected. Next is the disgust at others and ostracization of infected people. The last is the tendency to find a scapegoat and pass on the responsibility.

The ostracization of Jews in Europe in the past is also said to have originated in the process of responding to the Black Death. In 1516, when the Black Death began to spread, Venice began enforcing restrictions on foreigners, including those residing in the city. Other European countries followed and designated separate Jewish ghettos. As the policy continued for more than 400 years after the end of the Black Death, all of society came to take Jewish discrimination for granted. This led to the horrifying tragedy of the Holocaust during World War II. History shows how vague a fear and misunderstanding of infectious diseases work as a great harm to the society.

The eradication of new infectious diseases is not a challenge exclusively for the medical community. As we have already experienced, social consensus and empathy determines the success or failure of disease control at the national level. This consensus and agreement result in tremendous changes in politics and economics worldwide.

Even after the Covid-19 pandemic ends, a new global pandemic will come someday. I am afraid there would be more social chaos at the beginning. There is no simple formula for dealing with a totally new epidemic. I hope people understand that finding the best possible solution for each pandemic is the task for humanity.

Until now, mankind has overcome numerous challenges and created a better world. The longest-running pandemic in our lifetime has already brought about significant changes in our lives. I hope this change will be recorded in history as a critical turning point that prompted a new leap for mankind.

Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.