After the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been discovered in China, South Korea was one of the first countries to be hit and also one of the first countries to experience a “super-spreader event” in February 2020, leading to a rapid spike in cases. Despite its speed and severity, the outbreak did not raise much alarm in Europe although it took place only a few weeks before the massive contamination happened in Northern Italy in March 2020.
This illustrates different threat perceptions, preparedness and handling of Covid19 in Europe and South Korea (and other states in Asia). Whereas European governments initially took the virus lightly and underestimated its impact until it was too late, South Korea is an example of an administration where previous experiences and strong public heath institutions led to a swift action focused on suppressing the virus at the outset. On the other hand, perhaps because of being a victim of its own success in management of the original virus, Seoul has been slow in procuring its Covid19 vaccines and, as a result, has been playing a catch-up with its European counterparts.
The paper therefore explores how Europe went about dealing with Covid19 while drawing comparisons and contrasts with South Korea’s approach as two models of health governance. The paper is split into two parts: the first section examines the initial stages of the pandemic and looks at various measures taken by Europe and South Korea until about the end of 2020, whereas the second section starts at that moment when the mass vaccinations in Europe kicked in at the turn of the year 2020/2021. The paper concludes with suggestions where the EU and Korea could collaborate further in the sector of public health in order to contribute to improvement of global governance of health.
