"If you don't restructure experiences while the memory is still alive, you will repeat the same mistakes in the next crisis."
Six years after the COVID-19 pandemic. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is shifting the center of gravity in its infectious disease crisis response. The plan is to move from focusing only on "response" to a full life cycle system that links preparedness–response–recovery along a single timeline. The agency believes now, as the recovery phase wraps up and memories in the field and organizational vigilance fade quickly, is effectively the last golden time to prepare for the next pandemic.
Im Seung-gwan, head of the agency, said at a press briefing in Cheongju, North Chungcheong, on the 19th, "COVID-19 was overcome through the united efforts of the public, but our response at the time clearly included ad hoc judgments and stopgap measures." He added that, considering the rise in vulnerable groups due to aging, limited fiscal conditions, and changes in the science and technology environment including artificial intelligence (AI), "the old approach is no longer sustainable."
To that end, the agency launched an infectious disease crisis response task force (TF) two months ago and began overhauling the entire response system.
The agency plans to enhance the response system by dividing infectious disease crises into two broad categories. Diseases such as MERS or Ebola, which have high virulence but limited transmissibility, are classified as "limited transmission type." For this type, the goal is to contain and eliminate the threat within at most several months, concentrating advanced isolation treatment facilities and specialized medical personnel over a short period.
By contrast, diseases such as the novel flu or COVID-19, which are highly transmissible but have relatively low fatality rates, are classified as "pandemic type." In such cases, the goal is not early termination but to manage risk and move society into a recovery phase.
Im said, "The essence of pandemic response is to buy time to identify the entity while controlling risk, then reduce the risk with vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostic tools, and gradually reopen society," adding, "This process must operate sequentially along a timeline."
The role of the agency will also change. Rather than merely enforcing quarantine guidelines, it aims to function as a hub that collects and analyzes infectious disease information and connects the results to medical response and social policy.
Dedicated infectious disease hospitals will serve as key hubs for full life cycle response. For limited transmission type diseases, they will handle isolation of severe patients and specialized treatment. For pandemic type diseases, they will identify the entity of risk and carry out education and training to develop vaccines and therapeutics and expand the medical system. Starting next year through 2030, a total of six such hospitals will open in phases.
Development of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines will also accelerate. The agency has set a goal to complete marketing authorization for a domestically made COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine by 2028 and internalize the vaccine platform technology. The current candidate has entered phase 1 clinical trials.
Im said, "Once the platform is complete, if a new pandemic is declared in the future, we will have a response system capable of developing a vaccine within 200 days."
It will also improve the decision-making structure. Next year, the agency plans to take over emergency treatment beds, previously under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, to improve the efficiency of bed allocation.
Trial and error seen during the early disclosure of confirmed patients' movements and stringent social distancing will serve as lessons. Going forward, the agency plans to determine social measures such as distancing by considering not just simple case counts but also social and economic impacts, and to stipulate human rights protection principles in public health and social response manuals.
Im said, "In the early stage, controlling policies may be unavoidable until we know the entity of the risk, but in the mid-stage we must adjust the intensity and methods of restrictions based on scientific evidence, and in the recovery stage a principle of minimal intervention premised on social normalization must operate," adding, "Designing in advance the measures the state can take and the level the public must endure at each response stage is the core of full life cycle response."
Building a fiscal base to support full life cycle response is a challenge. Im said, "Because speed is crucial in infectious disease response, the usual method of injecting state finances has limits," adding, "Our wish is to establish an 'infectious disease national public health crisis response fund.'"
Specifically, he mentioned reviving the Global Disease Eradication Fund that had been levied on departing travelers and setting aside part of it as an infectious disease crisis response fund. The fund, which charged 1,000 won per person on international air tickets and was used for disease prevention and eradication in developing countries, was abolished starting in 2025.
Im said, "Rather than restoring the fund and spending 100% on official development assistance (ODA), one alternative could be to reserve about 50% for domestic infectious disease crisis response to be used immediately during a crisis."
Im concluded by assessing the COVID-19 response as "K-quarantine scored 90," but added, "We cannot rest on that score," emphasizing, "The reason the state exists is to protect even one more citizen from infectious disease."
The agency plans to gather expert and public feedback and announce the final plan to enhance the infectious disease crisis response system in Jul.