The government has also said that no vaccine exists for swine flu, and indicated that there are no preventative measures available to Koreans. The Korean Center for Disease Control released the following information, which comes to us via the Korea Times:
The best method is prevention. Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it. Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
Also, try to avoid close contact with sick people. If you feel sick, the government recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
On Monday the KCDC said it may have found the first case of swine flu in a Korean, after a woman returned from a trip to Mexico.
42 comments:
"If you feel sick, the government recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them."
Yeah. Right.
A friend works for the UN in just this area. She was at a conference about planning for pandemics. The only question the Korean delegates asked (and apparently asked it three times) was "okay is this when we declare marshal law?"
Anecdotally, that may be Korea's plan.
Brian, since screening visitors is a preventative measure (and a fairly effective one when trying to curb the spread of deadly pathogens that could take advantage of modern transportation), what is up with the "no preventative measures available," in quotations no less?
There's no reliable vaccine, they said. There aren't many preventative measures, but your inflammatory headline appears to be wrong.
mindmetoo, since your comment is a relating of a statement that was told to you by a friend that is itself a relating of a past event at some other location, it has to the potential to have been distorted and/or taken out of context.
At what point did they ask this? And what was it in response to? Did they use the phrase "martial law" in English and did your friend hear them say this in English?
And if you answer these off the top of your head, then I suspect your answer is merely one more dollop of speculation.
Without context, your hearsay comment is just that. On the face of it, it looks like they're trying use an outbreak as a pretext through which to extralegally grab control of the country.
I'm curious to get to the bottom of that, but for now I'll provide some context of my own: In the public health field, there is a point at which authorities may need to sweep in and basically quarantine whole groups of people, which in normal times would be a violation of their civil rights. On a neighborhood or municipal level, this might even be called "martial law," although the history of such in South Korea (and many other neo-democracies) makes that an extremely loaded term.
When the SARS outbreak hit Hong Kong, the government tried to confine all residents of Amoy Gardens (a large housing complex) to their homes, since hundreds (?) of cases were concentrated there. But there is some suspicion that some residents may have violated government orders and snuck out anyway. Depending on the severity of a public health threat, there could be a point where a martial law-like enforcement may be necessary to prevent spread to a larger population, causing preventative measures to crash apart.
Is this what was meant?
My headline is tongue-in-cheek, and as you'll see in the block I quoted, there are preventative measures. However, because handwashing, mouth-covering, and sick days are uncommon here, I implied that it might be difficult to prevent catching the virus. That seemed like a pretty clear joke, although it's less funny now that I just explained it.
The professors at my husbands university in Gwangju in his culinary arts program told the students yesterday not to eat any pork because that is how it is spread.
Brian:
You forgot cute pictures of piglets, white-coated lab workers, and long interviews with pig farmers as preventative measures. The TV has been on for about 45 minutes and already I count at least 10 times influenza has been said - and I'm not really counting consciously.
What fattycat relates is scary, not because it's wrong, but because if Seoul continues to run a public safety campaign that gives agribusiness and scientists a free pass, people will not understand their own responsibilities for transmitting the ailment.
The US has also started to complain about adverse trade actions, another symptom of letting the agribusinesses avoid responsibility.
Thankfully it wasn't a foreigner that brought it in...imagine that scenario playing out in the press.
Myself, I am quite excited about the swine flu --it is difficult keeping a blog going without the occasional world panics to fuel content.
Worldwide, seasonal flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people in an average year, but lets keep that between ourselves. Wouldn't want to stem the panic.
"because handwashing, mouth-covering, and sick days are uncommon here"
I disagree about the handwashing. There might be a dearth of hot water in public bathhrooms but I'm often amused at how often the Koreans in my life (including my students) wash their hands and use that hygenic hand lotion stuff. I was raised in the post-bathroom/pre-meal hand washing tradition (is that not the NA norm?) but my experience is that Koreans wash their hands - and tell others to do so - much more often.
The Korea Times did not clearly cite the correct source for the recommendations, which come verbatim from the US CDC webpage on the swine flu, not from the KCDP, which has nothing in English and no recent news updates in Korean.
MKM are you serious? We had no soap in the bathroom here at work for about a month and only the foreign staff complained. I almost never see the students use it..possibly because it is nearly impossible to get to it until you push your way through the mass of them brushing their teeth 30x a day.
I just had a Korean staff member cough all over me. I asked him "Are you sick?" His response "Ya, pig flu."
MKM - None of the 7 schools I have worked at here have EVER had soap of ANY kind in the bathrooms.
I agree with MKM about the hand-washing, but I had declined to say so until I had conducted an informal survey of Caucasians washing their hands in the rest room of our local campus eatery (more on that later).
My place of business is full of frequent hand-washers. Almost obsessive. So much that it has sparked discussions about how overuse of antibacterial soaps can adversely affect immunity.
But I do have to agree somewhat with fattycat's point: If there is no soap in the rest room, a lot of people forgo hand-washing, although a lot of people I know carry around wet-ones or whatever the brand is.
Come to think of it, Korean restaurants are far more likely to give you a hand towel prior to a meal than an American restaurant would.
-- In the place where i am, soap is everywhere in all bathrooms. Primarily, its because its a hospital and a medical school :), if there's none, (like what it seems from other schools/institutions) then thats disturbing.
"possibly because it is nearly impossible to get to it until you push your way through the mass of them brushing their teeth 30x a day."
-- hehe. so true
i mean bathrooms, comfort rooms, toilets,etc.
MKM- You must live in Bizarro-Korea. Let me guess, young people also give their seats up on the bus to the elderly... Let me know what pill you took to get to this alternative universe, because the Korea I live isn't so utopian.
MKM--how long have you been in Korea? Koreans wash their hands more than we do back home? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Bullshit. Koreans never wash their hands. It sick.
Oh, and my friend in Canada put up a sign in Korean in the bathroom because the Koreans at the student agency next door would never wash their hands in the bathroom. Yeah, Koreans are sooo hygenic.
Kushibo--you are Korean apologist number one, maybe because you are ethnic Korean.
Samuel wrote:
Kushibo--you are Korean apologist number one, maybe because you are ethnic Korean.
What a convenient way to write off anything I say then. Should save you some time reading the blogs, eh?
The two common behaviors in South Korea posing some of the greatest danger, from a public health perspective, are (1) the sharing of food, which keeps hepatitis rates way too high, and (2) the tendency for people to go work — actually, be expected to go to work — when they are sick.
"(1) the sharing of food"
- for public health reasons, i really dont like this practice. But im always caught off guard in situations like this.
MKM brought the best joke ever on the handwashing thing. I'm amazed to see Kushibo endorsing it.
They may use the wet towels in restaurants, but nearly never a single drop of water after bathroom (either for #1 or #2...terrible).
Kushibo: What a convenient way to write off anything I say then. Should save you some time reading the blogs, eh?
I don't read your blog, or blogs written by Koreans, but it will save me time from reading comments you pull out of your ass.
Samuel wrote:
I don't read your blog, or blogs written by Koreans,
Echo chamber, they name is Samuel.
but it will save me time from reading comments you pull out of your ass.
That's too bad, because in addition to being incredibly insightful, I'm also frickin' hilarious.
Sorry, just found your blog by accident.
Step back, look at 2 seperate items independantly, find a link and presto we have a new theory.
A rocket launches with undetermined cargo, crashes in Pacific ocean, 5 days later the first case of swine flu, a "mutated(?)" variant of 3 types of flu.
too close for my liking
Wow.
Fattycat: yes, I was serious.
Kelsey: that sucks. I guess you brought your own soap and just didn't share?
Paul: you said: "You must live in Bizarro-Korea. Let me guess, young people also give their seats up on the bus to the elderly... Let me know what pill you took to get to this alternative universe, because the Korea I live isn't so utopian".I guess I DO live in Bizarro-Korea, if that means a land where most of the people around me wash their hands, and have access to soap - but no, I don't often see young people giving their seats up to the elderly. I don't think that I was calling Korea "Utopian" though. Not at all. And - no pill, nope.
Samuel: you said: "MKM--how long have you been in Korea? Koreans wash their hands more than we do back home? Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Bullshit. Koreans never wash their hands. It sick."
I've been here for 11 years, Samuel, and I've lived in Gwangju, Ulsan, Masan, Daejeon and Seoul. And I have, as I mentioned, noticed a lack of hot water in bathrooms - but there IS usually soap. I'm quite sure i'm not bullshitting you so let me lay out some other possibilities for you:
1) I'm female. Maybe women's bathrooms tend to have more soap?
2) I've taught at two hakwons, and the rest have been universities. Maybe the unis are more likely to have soap?
3)Maybe it's just weird coincidence that for 11 years I've been pissing in bathrooms with soap.
See? There are other options besides my "bullshit".
~ Melissa
I bring a bottle of purell with me to work.
And I'm female and teach at public schools, and yes, to answer your question, from what I have heard, Hagwons and Unis are far, far more likely to have soap than places like public schools.
Kusibo:
Echo chamber, they name is Samuel.
Look up the word echo. Poor spelling and ostentation, "thy" name is Hawaii Kushibo: tu morologus es
That's too bad, because in addition to being incredibly insightful, I'm also frickin' hilarious.
"Self-praise is no recommendation"
Y'know, Samuel, you correcting my misspelling of "thy" and saying I talk like a moron would have carried a lot more weight if (a) you had spelled my username correctly, (b) you would get in the habit of using quotation marks, bold-faced text, or italics to clearly separate your words from what you're quoting, and (c) you would learn to recognize self-parodying statements of aggrandizement.
But you're right: My statement would have carried more punch if my iPhone hadn't self-corrected "thy" as "they."
And you should look up the phrase echo chamber, oh refuser of reading blogs written by Koreans.
MKM wrote:
See? There are other options besides my "bullshit".
I think it's a case of YMMV. I see hand-washing less often in places that lack soap, but the presence of soap widely varies from locale to locale. But it varies enough that it's inaccurate to say "Koreans never wash their hands" or even "rarely."
There are generally three categories these public places fall into: (a) the management of the building has the custodians/cleaning people supply the place with soap — hopefully at a fast enough interval that there's always some there, (b) the people who use the facilities are expected to supply their own soap or handsoap, much in the same way that the local supply of cups, instant coffee mix and/or teabags, and stirrers are supplied — and often by the same people, or (c) nobody is supplying them.
I had offices in two different buildings the last time I taught at a university. In the first, each professor/lecturer's office had its own mirror and sink, while in the second they didn't. The first building often had no supply of hand soap but the second always did. I have no idea who supplied it, but if it was something where we're all supposed to put money in the kitty, nobody told me about it or asked me to contribute, so I have no idea.
Anyway, like I said, where hand soap was available, I routinely saw hand-washing. In fact, I made sure to wash my hands because I didn't want to look like the one guy in the office who didn't wash his hands.
But again, I'm comparing an office of college educated professionals with a hagwon full of kids. I've got finals coming up so I've got a lot of reading, but when I get a chance, I'll check out the hand-washing tendencies of the folks in the nearby student restaurant or the library. Or maybe head over to N----- Elementary School and see if I can observe anything.
Kushibo wrote: a)... you had spelled my username correctly,
That you are unable to see that the one time your name is spelt incorrectly, in a message dealing with correct spelling, indicates you fail to take your own advice of letter c), which is:
(c) you would learn to recognize self-parodying statements of aggrandizement.
Kushibo b) you would get in the habit of using quotation marks, bold-faced text, or italics to clearly separate your words from what you're quoting,
Why? Who died and made you king of blog-posting? Colons, paragraph indentation, ellipses and spacing worked fine before the Internet.
Kushibo: And you should look up the phrase echo chamber, oh refuser of reading blogs written by Koreans.
You should read Strunk at al. Clear writing demands clear, unambigious reference. Hence the need to explain that echo refers to echo chamber, the less common use of echo.
We write "O refuser" and not, "Oh refuser." The former is the vocative case, or the case of direct address;the latter, an exclamation. If you think the two are the same, then good luck with that Ph.d.
You have no idea why I refuse to read Korean blogs.
Hey Brian,
South Korea might want to take a page from the "swine" industry in helping them get the English speaking world to abandon calling The Sea of Japan The Sea of Japan. It doesn't hurt when you have Israel and a major religion also applying pressure.
From USAToday: "Gov't drops 'swine flu' name over pork protests"
"President Obama didn't have a single word to say about "swine flu" today. But he had a lot to say about the outbreak of the "H1N1" virus. That should make the hog industry happier.
U.S. officials, particularly the agricultural department, were under pressure from the pork lobby that fears the term "swine flu" is confusing people into thinking they can catch the virus from pork, which they can't, the AP says.
Or as Pork News explains, the government believes that the term swine flu "might be catchy, but it's not accurate."
Israeli officials have also weighed in. This week, deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman, who belongs to an ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect, suggested renaming swine flu as "Mexican flu," saying that the reference to pigs is offensive to Muslim and Jewish sensitivities over pork, The Guardian reports.
That, to no one's surprise, did not please the Mexican government, which quickly registered an official complaint, prompting Israel to back down.
Although Mexico has reported the biggest outbreak, the AP says that no one really knows where the virus began. The news agency notes that the infamous 1918 pandemic was first called the "Spanish flu," although it may well have started in Kansas.
So the U.S. government is now officially going with "H1N1" even though the bureaucracy is finding it hard to shake the old "swine flu" label.
Here's what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling its website for the latest information on the virus: http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu."
Oops, it doesn't seem to be working all that well after all when the CDC still calls it the swineflu.
It is completely accurate to say that Koreans wash their hands with soap less than westerners.
Samuel wrote:
That you are unable to see that the one time your name is spelt incorrectly, in a message dealing with correct spelling, indicates you fail to take your own advice of letter c), which is:
(c) you would learn to recognize self-parodying statements of aggrandizement.
So you're saying you misspelled it self-parody? Um, okay. But if you'd spelled it "kushebo," with an extraneous 'e,' it might have been clearer.
Why? Who died and made you king of blog-posting? Colons, paragraph indentation, ellipses and spacing worked fine before the Internet.
There are changing standards for quoting in Internet forums, and even by traditional standards, you're not as clear and consistent as you seem to think you are.
You should read Strunk at al.
I do read my copy of Strunk and White, and I would like to commend you on being one of the few people I see who uses quotation marks properly (from an American perspective).
We write "O refuser" and not, "Oh refuser." The former is the vocative case, or the case of direct address;the latter, an exclamation.
I suspect this may be the most intelligent-sounding thing you've written up to this point in your life, so I'm going to just leave it as is, in all its glory.
You are correct. I made a sloppy mistake about which I should have known better.
O Canada...
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Holy Night...
Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.
If you think the two are the same, then good luck with that Ph.d.
Fortunately I'm not getting a PhD in archaic spelling rules. No, Samuel, I do not think the two are the same, but I'm sure you'll use this sloppy mistake to add one more reason why you would feel anything I write should be discredited.
Actually, I'm getting a PhD in a health field, and I'll tell you: it's quite important that the D in PhD (or Ph.D., if you prefer) is capitalized. Much more important than getting "oh" and "O" written properly (especially since neither word is likely to appear in my dissertation, unless I'm talking about an 오씨).
You have no idea why I refuse to read Korean blogs.
No, I don't. I can only guess. But I do know you have admitted that you do refuse, and that says a lot about you, even if it is speculation. Again, the echo chamber comment was apt.
John from Daejeon wrote:
From USAToday: "Gov't drops 'swine flu' name over pork protests"
Thanks for pointing that out, John (I briefly addressed that here).
It's disgusting how much deep pocket industries like the pork industry have a hold on the government. It is not in the public's best interest.
Samuel said:
Koreans never wash their hands. It sick.
And later Samuel said:
It is completely accurate to say that Koreans wash their hands with soap less than westerners.
Nice backpedaling there.
Anyway, I think it's plausible that your new and improved non-blanket statement is accurate. But when I did my informal survey this afternoon of the men's room sink in the student restaurant near my dorm, I did not see anyone wash their hands after using the stalls or urinals. It could be that I was standing nearby, pretending to dry my hands, but I wasn't blocking the sink.
I wasn't there long, though, because my friend called me over. I'll have to check again, but the preliminary results are worse than I'd feared.
WORD VERIFICATION: corning
(c) you would learn to recognize self-parodying statements of aggrandizement.
Kushibo: So you're saying you misspelled it self-parody? Um, okay. But if you'd spelled it "kushebo," with an extraneous 'e,' it might have been clearer.
You are blind and dumb. I cut and paste this from your own entry.
Why? Who died and made you king of blog-posting? Colons, paragraph indentation, ellipses and spacing worked fine before the Internet.
Kushibo: There are changing standards for quoting in Internet forums, and even by traditional standards, you're not as clear and consistent as you seem to think you are.
What traditional standards would those be? Confer "argumentaum ad populum. Also, since you wrote "standards", it is clear that you agree there are more ways than just Kushibo's to format on blogs.
I have yet to see a one Internet style accepted world-wide.
Kushibo: it's quite important that the D in PhD (or Ph.D., if you prefer) is capitalized.
The sentence is correct according to Canadian Press Style guide: Kushibo, a doctor of philosophy wannabe, is a bad-speller.
Kushibo: You have no idea why I refuse to read Korean blogs.
No, I don't. I can only guess. But I do know you have admitted that you do refuse, and that says a lot about you, even if it is speculation.
No, it says nothing about me, but it does reflect on you. An inference based on no evidence is an inference without evidence.
Wow! Samuel and Kushibo are turning Brian in JND into Marmot's Hole Lite! Keep at it and people will stop reading the comments on Brian's blog, too!
Kushibo: Nice backpedaling there.
There is no backpedalling. You took two quotes out of context and combined them as evidence of backpedalling. This is evidence of quote-mining.
You are a Korean apologist, and therefore I take your views with a grain of salt.
Dokdo: Keep at it and people will stop reading the comments on Brian's blog, too.
So we should stop writing because you, or others, don't like it. Go back to bashing dokdo.
Dokdo Is Ours wrote:
Wow! Samuel and Kushibo are turning Brian in JND into Marmot's Hole Lite! Keep at it and people will stop reading the comments on Brian's blog, too!
Well, I think I will re-impose on myself an average one-comment-per-post rule, as I did in 2006.
Not that I'm rewarding DokdoIsOurs for saying I comment too much on Brian's blog... he seems to suggest I comment too much on my own blog! ;)
WORD VERIFICATION: test oma (시험 엄마)
Comments turned off for this post.
Comments are appreciated and encouraged, but stick to the topic at hand, not what other people are bickering about.
kushibo, there's no need to go into giant line-by-line counterarguments for each and every post. You, like many others here, have a blog of your own that you may address any misconceptions you see. I know you have a blog because you post six links to it in every reply.
Im not sure if Brian likes it or not, but in my case its perfectly fine. So +1 here.
Post a Comment