WORLD No.2 K-Quarantine

Ili: Hi, everyone. My name is Illia, and I come from Russia and I have been living in Korea for 17 years now.

Jo: I’m Joseph from the States. I’ve been here for six years.

Ch: Hi everyone, I’m Chamber from Australia. Today we have a very exciting event world wide view. Normally we do these events in Korean, but just for you, we are going to speak English exclusively.

Ch: Yes!

Ili: Absolutely Yes!

Jo: Of course!

Jo: Korean has done great policy. Korean has good policy. When I came back if you been on different country for last two weeks, everyone gets the test for free. It turns out OK. It was really impressive.

Ili: What about you?
Ch: I was just unfortunate victim of corona circumstance, by the second time I had my ID, I think that was part of why I was able to get free test which was great.

Ch: Why is it \520,000? Foreigner, no health insurance. I was really lucky because one week left my travel insurance bless up everybody. Get travel insurance. Don’t ever go without it. So that was \520,000 out of pocket. And the second time was bit more fortunate, was completely free.

Ili: In South Korean system, we have covered the whole population. Everyone has medical insurance, everyone is covered. And pretty much everything is covered with that health insurance plan.
Ili: I have a lot of Russian friends living in the United States right now. I hear this horror stories about going to emergency rooms waiting hours, hours there just to get treatment.
Ili: While actually physically bleeding. That sounds unimaginable here in Korea. You can get the C/T or MRI the same day you go to the doctor. All the procedure you need to do on the same day.
Ili: That’s just fantastic.
Jo: Even my mom said, she said if you going to be sick, sick in Korea. Don’t come back to America to get sick, because it’s too expensive.

Ch: One time I had hurt my back deadly Oh, my back, and I went to oriental medical clinic in Korea. get the all test done in \8,000. It’s beautiful.

Jo: I always have been impressed with Korean health care. The reason I know this because in 2016 I had called pneumothorax. Your lung collapses and explode.

Ch: Did you go to the hospital?

Jo: When I was in hospital for one week in America, it coasted me 10,000$. But when I had it in Korea, with national health care, for two weeks, it coasted me \2,300,000? So since then I think Korea health care system do a good job and corona proved it again. Korean insurance has done beyond incredible job. Making sure that every person gets opportunity to get treated. Every person is going to be taken care of. Really impressive.

Ch: So being the son that I am, I frequently, infrequently call my mom and video call, she is like “How’s everything in Korea?” How’s everything going in Australia, you guys have lock down. You guys have sold out toilet paper, rice and pasta. You literally couldn’t find food easily in Australia.

Ch: How was it Russia and America in terms of lock down?

Ili: We did have lock down Russia as well. There was huge one in Moscow which was in April. There was stay home orders. They went even further. In order to leave your home, you need do get QR cord on your smart phone.

Ili: You are allowed only twice a week. You need to go to internet, website, apply for the QR cord. With only that you could go outside.

Ch: In Korea, people still going out, there is no lock down. They are wearing masks, completely packed subways, going drinking, eating. Life is almost normal. But with some reason, it hasn’t grown up. I think masks are such an important part of that.

Jo: Yes, I think that’s why it’s safe in Korea. I look around people, people taking it seriously. More seriously than America. So when I’m here, people keep asking me, “Aren’t you worried?” I said “No.” Because people here at least understood seriousness of the issue can become worse.

Ili: Actually interesting thing you mentioned about wearing masks, probably it’s the same problem with Russia right now. People just don’t care enough about wearing masks. They don’t believe that masks actually work.

Ili: They went to streets, didn’t wear masks. Everyone was like “Well, It’s a flu. Flu can do.” That a stunning comparison with what we see in Korea.

Ili: The government did a lot of job conveying this information to the people. Pretty much everyone uses masks, sanitize their hand. There was huge social distance campaign as well. You can see all the banners in the parks and Han Gang as well.

Jo: Even when I go to McDonald, Starbucks. there is a line.

Ch: One thing that’s fascinating to me in my previous life, hands sanitizer was something like only selected people has. You kind of see them hiding, overnight in Korea, it popped up everywhere. You see them in buses, trains, café, food places…. you just see hands sanitizes everywhere. What’s been your experience with.

Jo: So convenient. Wherever I go, it’s not like Oh I need to sanitize on my hands, and it’s always in front of me. I do it just because it’s there. It’s kind of so easy. When I was in America, I can’t find at all.

Ili: Yeh, even if you go to public places like parks, you can see the hands sanitizers attached to the trees. People actually use on them. I actually saw the people walk to them and do sanitize their hands.

Ili: In Russia, it’s unimaginable. If I attached a sanitizer to a tree, probably it would last ten minute.

Jo: Someone steal it? Oh my god.

Ili: In Korea, social responsibility, people know that it is actually for their best.

Ch: What have you guys noticed has been unique about Korean response to corona virus?

Ili: Probably one of the biggest issues on the news was the drive through? Because that was the very first time that any country in the world. I actually saw we might, I didn’t go through, I didn’t get tested like that. But I saw the stations where the cars actually go through, where the guys with the masks and stuffs.

Ili: They do the tests. It looks like you were in SF movies.

Jo: That’s kind of the first thing in America. Even Trump, when they started talking about what should we do now, Trump was like Oh my gosh, that was an issue. They brought drive through.

Jo: I remember watching the head of CDC and other doctors in America saying Korean drive through the way we should go. How can we take the Korean drive through in America.

Jo: So what they did was like they went to business center to make the drive center. America took the Korean idea and turned into the way help America.

Ili: And in Russia as well. They are proved to be very effective, you can test a lot of people same time. The natural environment you being in your car, the person with suit, helps to prevent spreading the virus. That was the most biggest issues and one of the most permanent Korea is on the spot.

Ili: We are still in the pandemic. The virus has not demolished completely. It’s still around us. That’s exactly why international new agency got so much attention to South Korea. Because it’s been doing so well.

Ili: But still right now we are fiftieth at the bottom of the ranking. Because there are much more countries moving up the ranking then. There were a lot of reasons for that, total open information from the government? Because the government has been honest about what’s happening.

Ili: There is this lady general Manager Jung Eun-kyung. She is literally briefing every day. And she was talking about how much, what exactly they are doing, what’s exact situation

Ili: That was quite amazing and I guess whole transparency and information disclosure from Korean government was really important part containing the situation with corona virus.

Jo: Look at Korea. It can be done. But every person can do lttle things to take care of it. Pleas wear mask when you go out. Wash your hands. Do all the little things you can do. This is not only overcomable but something we need to overcome together. It will happen.

Ili: To all the people out there I would like to say that look at the best example from the first we got corona. We need to that in order to prevent that, even if there will be a second wave in fall or winter time, still if we keep our social distance, wash our hands as ridiculous as it sounds, actually they help, there will be no second wave.

Ch: I want to give special message to my friends down in the southern hemisphere winter’s about to finish. It’s going to be great weather, and summer is coming as well. Please stay at home. Summer is going to come again, you always get tanned next year.