Superwoman in a Yellow Jacket (a.k.a Virus Hunter)

My story

#1. Freedom is overwhelming

I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, but my parents would do anything for my brother and me to give us a comfortable and convenient life that they wish for us to have. So I ended up 'playing along'. That was easy. I did everything that I was told to do without thinking profoundly. I was an honor student at school, a good daughter at home, and a best friend to everyone. I became addicted to the comfort of meeting the expectations of the people around me.

As I decided to go to a university which is about 3 hours away from the city where my parents and I lived, I had to move into my very own place. And that changed everything. It was the beginning of total freedom and wandering. I had shaped my identity by meeting the way others expected me to be, but when I was in a new environment where no one knew me, I didn't know what to do. I was lost.

It was not long after helplessness crept in and filled up the emptiness in my mind, and I kept it alive for so long. Helplessness can never be a charming guest. It just shows up in the middle of the night, when we're the most vulnerable, even without knocking the door. It is like a virus. It will attack you in every way it can and pollutes your mind as a pandemic does to our world right now.

I managed to finish school without ever feeling a sense of accomplishment. The complete freedom that I've given as a grown-up, to make goals on my own and lead my life to get closer to them ironically put me in a self-imposed prison. It was such an overwhelming concept to me. The only thing that seemed like I could do was burying my head in the sand like an ostrich.

This story is about me learning how to deal with a crisis in my world from the way a political figure, that I didn't know about until three months ago, copes with a national crisis from 10,000 km away.

Her story

The First Female Head of South Korea's Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Jung Eun-Kyeong was born in Gwangju, South Korea, in 1965. She received a Ph.D. in preventive medicine from Seoul National University, which is one of the most prestigious universities in Korea. When she was 30, she became a health official at the National Institutes of Health, the predecessor of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention(KCDC).

In 2015, when MERS(Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), which sickened more than 12,000 people in Korea broke out, she was in charge of crisis management. She had to face disciplinary action by taking a pay cut, citing the failure to prevent the spread.

However, in recognition of the current president Moon Jae-in, she was appointed head to KCDC in 2017. She is the first female chief in 13 years since the expanded and reorganized KCDC. Her reputation is known for her quiet and meticulous work.

The first of many more to come

Korea's stance on COVID-19 had to take a new turn on January 20, 2020. A Chinese woman who arrived from Wuhan, China, turned out to be the first confirmed case in Korea. Jung held a briefing immediately at 2 pm that very day and delivered the current situation and matters of note to the people in a calm voice. It was the beginning of the daily briefing, which has continued every single day so far.

Taking advantage of the fact that the first case came from abroad, the media instigated resentment against the government and distrust of administrative procedures. They could have focused on the immediate testing coverage of KCDC and their ability to identify and isolate positive cases.

Besides, the fact that Seollal (Korean New Year's Day), the most significant national holiday was only a week away, didn't help.

#2. confession

I moved to a faraway country and started traveling after graduation. And it has been almost three years since I left home.

A month passed by since the first case confirmed in Korea. My daily life during that period was not too different from how it used to be. I went to my work to do the same thing that I had always been doing. I didn't run around looking for a mask or toilet paper. I called my parents and friends just as much as I usually did. What I saw on the news seemed so unreal.

I am not proud to say this, but it's been a long time since I've shut my ears from all the 'disturbing' information. Even if it was about my home country, and that is where the people I love the most are. My ignorance and indifference didn't seem to anyone anyway. But this time things seemed to get worse and worse all over the world. So I started stumbling upon the news about this frigging virus.

It said there had been only 30 cases in Korea until mid-February. KCDC communicated with the people on twitter. Also, everyone got to be updated with the routes and timelines of any new cases via text, thanks to contact tracing. Most of all, Jung showed up on TV at 2 pm, every single day. I thought it was going to pass by like that.

-Do you believe in God? DO YOU?

There is a secretive group called 'Shincheonji' in Korea, which was already controversial even before the crisis. Mainly because they idolize the founder (Lee Man-hee) as a messianic figure who is Jesus' spokesperson, and they also believe that he is immortal. Why do I bring them up?

Yep, I am going to talk about the legendary 31st case now. The 31 st patient, who confirmed to be positive on February 18, is a member of a 'Shincheonji' church in Daegu (The third-largest city in Korea with over 2.5 million residents). This picture below might help you to understand how this woman from the mysterious religious sect has become a public target. This is how they pray.

" They sing and clap hands instead of quiet prayer. They speak it out. Their service time can be 2 or sometimes 3 hours. So, it's a very limited space and also a long service. If one person is a confirmed patient there, it is just like a bomb dropping in that place".

- David W Kim/New religious movement expert

The 31st patient happened to get into a car accident and visited a hospital. The medical team, judging by fever and pneumonia symptoms, advised her to move to a specialized hospital for examination. Still, she refused to do so, and caused an uncontrollable number of infections due to her irresponsible behavior, such as attending a wedding or services.

#3 Reality Check

For someone who's traveling from place to place like me, the options of available jobs are not that various. Most of the jobs that I've been doing required repetitive and dull physical tasks. And I moved from here to there, depending on seasonal jobs that I could find. It kept me busy and stopped me from worrying about too distant future. If I did what I got told to do right, I would be able to work there the whole season, and then I would leave to a new place and do the same thing. Easy, right? I thought I would live like this forever, just day by day.

But then I got fired. In the middle of the day, my boss came to me saying they wouldn't be able to keep everyone in this situation. Okay, I understand. At least I tried to understand, for none of this was anyone's fault. And the very same day, the country I live in went into lock-down.

I was left in my place alone, only me and my thoughts. The world turned upside down, and so did my world. I got locked up in a self-imposed prison again on the charge of being shortsighted for so long.

This time must be different, though. Thinking about 21-year-old me lying in bed all day, not knowing what to do, makes me sad. I can't make her turn into a 27-year-old me lying in bed, still not knowing what to do, being suddenly unemployed in a lock-downed foreign town.

-The yellow jacket

Whenever I checked any news regarding Korea, this familiar woman in a yellow jacket caught my eye. It seemed like no one can discuss COVID-19 without talking about her.

It was Jung Eun-Kyeong. I saw her briefing on Youtube when the first case broke out in Korea. Compared to a month ago, she looked very haggard and even got some gray hair. According to an article, she cut her hair short, saying she should save time to wash it. In the past month, she has never slept more than an hour and moved the briefing venue inside KCDC to save travel time.

She always appeared in a briefing in a yellow jacket, unlike her first briefing when she was in a suit. This yellow jacket is a civil defense suit. Civil defense refers to civilians who help the government and the military in the event of a national emergency such as war or disaster. Whenever she throws her yellow jacket on for briefings, She may have calmly warned us and sought our cooperation in her way.

Also, I could easily find some rave reviews about how effectively she is handling this situation as the head of KCDC.

I have no intention of saying that she is a single hero in this matter, or the cooperation and efforts of everyone involved, are less important than what she has done. But what she taught me is far more than washing my hands properly and how to cough right.

When faced with a crisis, some people are bound to try to be a little more rational and calm, and some people are somewhat bound to worry about it more than they should be. Not everyone may agree with the way she leads this tough time. Nevertheless, to me, her way of coping with the unexpected national crisis has given me a good idea of how to deal with my internal problems. It changed my lifestyle. And, I got the brightest idea about my future, although in this time of considerable uncertainty.

Strategies

Step 1. Acknowledge; You are not your mistakes.

Back in 2015, South Korea suffered from the most massive breakout from MERS outside of the Middle East. Jung, as the director of Disease Prevention Center, had to have her pay to cut down for failing to prevent the spread. It seems there were two significant mistakes to lead her to face such disciplinary action.

First, the officials missed the golden time to prevent the spread in the early stage due to the lack of information to diagnose the confirmed cases. Korean authorities had not updated the World Health Organization’s news about the causes and the areas that MERS is likely to be a problem, including Bahrain.

On May 4, 2015, a 68-year-old businessman came back from a business trip to Bahrain and other countries in the Middle East. About a week later, he felt flu-like symptoms and visited a hospital. Still, he only diagnosed with pneumonia and got transferred to three other hospitals. It led to uncontrollable infection, especially in the hospitals that he had visited, to other patients, health care workers, and visiting families as well.

Jung learned lessons from the previous outbreak. Right after the COVID-19 began to emerge from Wuhan, China, the Korean government activated a 24/7 emergency response system. And the network made it possible to identify the first case at Incheon national airport on January 20. 2020 by screening all travelers entering the country.

And her following response to COVID-19 directly went to a robust public approach. She learned from the second mistake she made, which was insufficient interaction between the government and the people. As I remember, during the MERS outbreak, the people didn’t get informed who were infected and which hospitals they were in because the government did not release the details of confirmed cases. They concerned too much about the misuse of patients’ private information and economic fallout for hospitals and other businesses that might have to shut down.

This time, however, from day one, she shows up on TV every single day, delivering transparent information the people would demand. And she decided to share the routes and timelines of confirmed cases besides their age and residence to the public, for it is indispensable to handle with the infectious disease between individuals.

We can't let our past or mistakes decide how our future is going to be. Because we never knew what was coming to us, and most of the time, that would be something we've never seen before. I didn't expect my weaknesses would show up in my early twenties when I expected them to be the most brilliant and bright time in my life. However, just a few years of wandering cannot define me as an incompetent person without a dream or ambition.

I do have a lot of big dreams and the ideas of how I want my future to shape my future. I was just too overwhelmed by uncontrollable things and stuck in the current environment and couldn't see what I can do to take the first small step. I've always wanted to be a writer, but I didn't write anything for so long. The thing about helplessness is that it paralyzes you. It makes me feel trapped and too useless to try anything new.

What she taught me is sometimes we should boldly take the route we didn't choose before. That is how we go forward. Whenever I saw her on TV, all I could hear was 'Do something. Just do what you can. Because that is what I am doing now !'

Step 2. Faith; Know what you can, Know what you can't

“This job can’t be done just with knowledge. She has experience with past outbreaks. She knows what can be done and what can’t.”

Jung Ki-Seok / former KCDC director

I should have focused on knowing what I can control and what I can't, and on my actions, one step at a time, not my goals. And all I need is the unshakable faith in me; the confidence in what I am doing is leading me towards my goal eventually. If you start seeking for any reassurance from outside not from within, you won't be able to take even one step . Because what you're looking for shows up on the way, not at the starting line.

Jung must have known she doesn't have a magic wand to end this endless-looking fight. However, she was not hesitant to take a step. She believed in herself and had faith in the people who rely on her. Because that's the only thing that she can control, she made me realize how important to start doing what I can do right here, right now.

I started writing something, just anything that I could think. I started my day by writing a journal about my mood and thoughts. During the day, I tried to write as much as I could on any subject that my knowledge and experience can cover. I didn't think about what those writings would bring to me, or even one person would think they were worth reading because I have no control over them.

It is so freeing to fill every moment of my day with what I can take a grip of and let other things go with the flow. Opportunities will show up, and I will get to know people who can help me. That is my faith and motto in life now. I am so grateful and happy to go to sleep with satisfaction after a well-spent day, even if I have no idea what tomorrow holds for me.

It is hard to think that Jung did everything she led to happen for global attention or political propaganda. She has been gaining many qualities that make a good leader, such as excellent communication based on honesty and accountability. Also, she has a strong faith, built on expertise and lessons learned from previous experiences, in making the right decisions. When these values meet with the understanding and cooperation of people involved, amazing things can happen like when we finally flatten the curve.

Step 3. Consistency; Do it again

Let's say Jung shows up for one day announcing that Korea is not safe from the COVID-19 crisis anymore, and no one could see her in public again. Of course, I do not doubt that she would have done the same things behind the curtain, but the sense of security and hope that she gives us now could have gone missing.

Growth for the better isn't always linear, whether it is for individuals, countries, or the whole world. Sometimes we have to take one step back to take two steps forward. Even when all the efforts we've made to stop the spread seemed to go in vain, she did not give up.

I know there will be some rainy days and bumpy roads, or I might have to start all over again. But the movies with only highlight scenes are not right. The catharsis comes when the hero finally fights the villain and saves the world no matter what has happened. I can't even count how many times I struggle with writing in a day. Whenever it happens, I go back to step 2. Knowing that I hold a grip on the steps that I'm taking gives me huge relief, and it keeps me going.

Epilogue

Just for a small break from writing, I went out to the terrace.

I've seen this view thousands of times, but ironically enough, it looked more peaceful than ever, and the breeze smelt fresher. I thought of cars and people always passing by. They must be going through this sticky situation in their own ways. One thing we should know is this will end one day even if not everything is guaranteed to be the same as before. And I thought of Jung Eun-kyeong. I thought of her uprightness, integrity, and yellow jacket.

I'd like to say a big thank you to her for making me realize how dark my days have been, I was not digging a hole, I've been going through a tunnel which always has an end. And I'm okay with no one telling me how long it's going to take for me to get it through because I will never look back, just following the light, taking one step at a time. If I fell or another tunnel came up after, I would just get up and do it again, and again.