"More Afraid of People's Gaze Than Being Sick" COVID-19 Stigma, Is This Okay?

On the 4th, medical staff wearing white protective suits welcomed confirmed COVID-19 patients from the Daegu area at Bitgoeul Jeonnam National University Hospital, an infectious disease-dedicated hospital in Nam-gu, Gwangju. [Yonhap News file photo]

[Asia Economy Reporters Suwan Kim and Intern Yeonju Kim] # On the 22nd of last month, Employee A of Samsung Electronics' Gumi plant, who was diagnosed with COVID-19, revealed that they are suffering psychological distress due to excessive malicious comments and personal information leaks. After disclosing that their boyfriend is a member of Shincheonji Church, they were bombarded with malicious comments. A pleaded on their social network service (SNS), "Please do not spread my personal information," expressing fear that it might cause trouble for those around them.

# B, the third confirmed case in South Korea in January, faced severe criticism after their movement path was made public. It was revealed that B visited 11 locations including a hotel, plastic surgery clinic, and beauty salon until just before being quarantined, leading to a flood of malicious comments. Eventually, netizens speculated that it might be an affair, causing B great distress. In an interview with a media outlet, B confessed, "I cannot sleep because of the malicious comments."

It has been found that COVID-19 patients experience psychological anxiety during their treatment. Due to the principle of disclosing personal information including movement paths, they cannot avoid criticism from netizens. In severe cases, psychiatric treatment is also reportedly being administered.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) and local governments have decided to provide information about confirmed cases to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Movement paths are disclosed according to the principle stated in the "Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Act," which mandates that when a crisis alert above the caution level is issued, information such as the movement paths, means of transportation, medical institutions visited, and contact status of infectious disease patients, which citizens need to know for prevention, must be disclosed. KDCA and local governments provide information on confirmed patients' movement routes and visited places by date and time through media reports and website disclosures.

However, online, the criticism of confirmed patients based on the provided information is intensifying. On SNS and online cafes, confirmed patients' movement paths are shared while their movements themselves are criticized, and baseless speculation is rampant.

Comments on an online article about confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). / Screenshot of Naver News comments

Comments on articles with disclosed movement paths include remarks such as "Irresponsible for wandering around despite symptoms," "They should be severely punished," "Real name disclosure is necessary so people won't roam around," and "Selfish people wandering during this crisis," continuously criticizing the confirmed patients.

As a result, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea pointed out that excessive exposure of COVID-19 patients' private information causes human rights violations and called for the establishment of reasonable standards for information disclosure.

On the 9th, Chairperson Young-ae Choi issued a statement expressing concern over cases where intimate private information is excessively exposed beyond necessity during the government's and local governments' notification of confirmed patients' movement paths. She stated, "Because detailed private information is disclosed beyond what is necessary for each confirmed patient, cases of human rights violations where patients' intimate private lives are unintentionally exposed are occurring. On the internet, these confirmed patients become targets of criticism, ridicule, and hatred, leading to secondary damage."

Experts pointed out that such criticism can cause additional wounds to confirmed patients. Professor Kumju Kwak of Seoul National University's Department of Psychology said, "COVID-19 patients are physically struggling and, on top of that, suffer psychological wounds due to the 'stigma effect' of having caused harm to others. Psychological pressure and anxiety caused by malicious comments can lead to social phobia and depression, which is very dangerous."

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