Lee Jae-jung's Slip: "260 MERS Deaths" Likely Confused with Swine Flu Numbers

Lee Jae-jung, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea, is measuring his temperature before attending a closed Supreme Council meeting held at the National Assembly on the morning of the 26th. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Ga-yeon] Lee Jae-jung, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Korea, is facing public backlash for incorrectly citing the number of deaths during the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak.

On the 9th, Lee appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' to discuss the COVID-19 situation with former United Future Party lawmaker Kim Yong-nam.

Responding to Kim's statement that "there were about 180 confirmed cases during MERS before it ended," Lee countered, "You keep referring to confirmed cases, but in the case of MERS, there were 260 deaths. It would be good to verify this accurately."

Kim rebutted again, saying, "You are completely mistaken. You have it backwards."

Lee added, "This is not a situation where we can say the Moon Jae-in administration did well," but emphasized, "The difference from Japan is that we have the capability to accurately track the number of confirmed cases. During the MERS outbreak, the Park Geun-hye administration was only focused on covering things up."

Later, Lee's office corrected the statement through CBS. CBS reported in the radio interview script that "Lee Jae-jung's office clarified that 'there were 260 deaths from H1N1, 36 deaths from MERS, and the reference was to H1N1 deaths.'"

Meanwhile, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of confirmed H1N1 cases in South Korea at the time was approximately 750,000, with 263 deaths recorded. The number of MERS confirmed cases was 186, with a total of 39 deaths confirmed.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.