Similarly, South Africa and South Korea both stressed testing, contact tracing, and communication in their response to the pandemic. However, South Africa and South Korea differ in some disparities that predate the pandemic. For example, South Africa has a large wealth disparity on racial lines due to apartheid (Devermont and Mukulu). The wealth disparities between white and black South Africans influences which groups will be more vulnerable from policy decisions. During the pandemic, the vast majority of ventilators were distributed to private hospitals that are too expensive for most South Africans, and black South Africans adults live the furthest away from clinics (Devermont and Mukulu). Therefore, the unequal distribution of resources and access to healthcare facilities disproportionally hurts the less wealthy and black South Africans. While South Korea doesn’t have prominent racial wealth disparities, South Korea does still have economic disparity with 44% of all assets being owned by the top 20% (“Korea Sees”). Despite universal health insurance coverage, the risk of contracting the virus was greater for elderly with a lower socioeconomic status (Oh, Tak Kyu, et al.).
Despite both countries having economic disparities, South Africans were hit harder financially due to policy in response to the pandemic because the government placed people under a national lockdown that brought about economic hardship and led to less people getting usual healthcare services managing HIV, Tuberculosis, etc. (“The South African”). On the other hand, South Korea was able to prevent having to put out a national stay-at-home order that would exacerbate financial hardships by focusing on testing, contact tracing, and quarantine (Dyer). Additionally, to help people and industries financially, the South Korean government gave Koreans an emergency cash transfer payment that gave citizens money that they had to spend by August 2020 (Dyer).
South Korea and South Africa stressed contact tracing in response to the pandemic. From prior experiences with Tuberculosis and HIV in South Africa, there was already infrastructure in place to conduct contact tracing and quarantine compliance monitoring in vulnerable communities through door to door visits (“The South African”). Additionally, a mobile app was administered to track symptoms, obtain household data along with location, and provide information on testing facilities (“The South African”). South Korea also used data from mobile devices to conduct contact tracing by accessing a variety of data on individuals infected in order to track who the infected individuals came into contact with quickly (Dyer). Both countries were able to conduct contact tracing relatively well but both methods have different ethical concerns. In South Africa, the use of the app was limited to the more wealthy because only around 67.91% of South Africans had mobile internet in 2020 (Galal). Additionally, conducting contact tracing door-to-door takes a long time and is human resource heavy, so the ability to reach out to possibly infected individuals in a timely manner is reduced. However, without access to mobile devices and the internet, it was likely the most effective policy in order to more fairly allocate resources to vulnerable communities. In South Korea, the main ethical concern is data privacy with the government having data from mobile devices, surveillance cameras, and banking information (Sang-hun). While the name of the patients were not revealed in contact tracing, often enough details were out that the identity could be deduced, and this resulted in public shaming, harassment, and cyberbullying (Sang-hun).
Despite both countries having economic disparities, South Africans were hit harder financially due to policy in response to the pandemic because the government placed people under a national lockdown that brought about economic hardship and led to less people getting usual healthcare services managing HIV, Tuberculosis, etc. (“The South African”). On the other hand, South Korea was able to prevent having to put out a national stay-at-home order that would exacerbate financial hardships by focusing on testing, contact tracing, and quarantine (Dyer). Additionally, to help people and industries financially, the South Korean government gave Koreans an emergency cash transfer payment that gave citizens money that they had to spend by August 2020 (Dyer).
South Korea and South Africa stressed contact tracing in response to the pandemic. From prior experiences with Tuberculosis and HIV in South Africa, there was already infrastructure in place to conduct contact tracing and quarantine compliance monitoring in vulnerable communities through door to door visits (“The South African”). Additionally, a mobile app was administered to track symptoms, obtain household data along with location, and provide information on testing facilities (“The South African”). South Korea also used data from mobile devices to conduct contact tracing by accessing a variety of data on individuals infected in order to track who the infected individuals came into contact with quickly (Dyer). Both countries were able to conduct contact tracing relatively well but both methods have different ethical concerns. In South Africa, the use of the app was limited to the more wealthy because only around 67.91% of South Africans had mobile internet in 2020 (Galal). Additionally, conducting contact tracing door-to-door takes a long time and is human resource heavy, so the ability to reach out to possibly infected individuals in a timely manner is reduced. However, without access to mobile devices and the internet, it was likely the most effective policy in order to more fairly allocate resources to vulnerable communities. In South Korea, the main ethical concern is data privacy with the government having data from mobile devices, surveillance cameras, and banking information (Sang-hun). While the name of the patients were not revealed in contact tracing, often enough details were out that the identity could be deduced, and this resulted in public shaming, harassment, and cyberbullying (Sang-hun).
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