MERS Update

So it looks like things are a bit more serious than they seemed in my last post, but still not 1/10th as serious as the major news outlets would have you believe. Apparently one doctor who was quarantined decided he didn't need to be quarantined. Citing old male privilege (a valid excuse here in the ROK) he decided to leave and attend conferences etc.

The good news is that it doesn't appear he did that much damage. However, the disease does continue to spread in hospitals where patients are being treated and has now moved outside of the greater Seoul area with cases in Daejeon and Busan. So far there are under 100 cases and the only deaths have been people with compromised lungs or immune systems already (five people over 70, and one in their early 60s who apparently was a heavy smoker). Not that precautions aren't needed, but many patients quarantined have also been released after recovering just fine. Certainly a great deal of extra care needs to be taken with the elderly and infants, but the simply truth is that this is not the Spanish influenza (the first recorded H1N1 virus, which I didn't know until quite recently).

I've also seen far less masks (at least here in west Daegu) than the BBC claims are being worn. Being that it isn't an airborne disease I am not sure what value masks have. Common habits such as spitting and littering cigarette butts are far more likely to spread MERS than simply breathing on someone. In fact, every case in Korea has been transmitted within hospitals where patients are being treated for MERS, after sustained contact.

It is certainly something health officials here need to be dealing with, and patients should be quarantined, but for the average person here life hasn't changed. I went hiking this weekend, hundreds of mask less Koreans joined me. No one died.