Yomiuri: "Jeong Eun-kyung Gains Trust with Calm Tone... Continual Praise as a Hero of Korea"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun introduced on the 11th that Jeong Eun-kyung, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (Central Disease Control Headquarters), is gaining the trust of the public with her calm tone and is being recognized as Korea's 'hero' leading the response to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19).

Yomiuri, in a Seoul dispatch titled "Hero of Korea's COVID-19 Response," noted that Director Jeong, who leads the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the command center for infectious disease control, is receiving attention, and that her calm briefings at daily press conferences are earning public trust.

As an example, Yomiuri referred to the press conference held the previous day. At the event, Director Jeong briefed on the COVID-19 cluster infections linked to clubs in the Itaewon area, saying, "If you do not get tested promptly, please keep in mind that you cannot protect not only your own health but also the safety of your family, colleagues, and society, and I earnestly ask you to voluntarily get tested." Yomiuri explained this as an appeal to club visitors.

Yomiuri reported that the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency is a permanent infectious disease response organization in Korea, responsible for investigating transmission routes and leading countermeasures when an infectious disease outbreak occurs, and that it was also active during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2015, which resulted in 38 deaths in Korea.

Additionally, the article introduced that Director Jeong, a Seoul National University graduate with a master's degree in public health and a doctorate in preventive medicine, joined the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 1998, and was recognized for her experience as head of the Disease Prevention Center during the MERS outbreak, leading to her appointment in July 2017 as the first female director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.

The newspaper introduced that since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in Korea in January, Director Jeong has held press conferences almost daily at 2 p.m. to explain the domestic infection situation. Yomiuri noted that during the explosive increase in cases following the cluster infection at the Shincheonji Daegu Church in mid-February, her gray hair began to become noticeable.

It also mentioned an anecdote from a press conference where a question about her sleeping hours was raised, and Director Jeong replied, "I sleep more than an hour." It added that she wears a short hairstyle to save time washing her hair.

Yomiuri reported that Korean media highly regard Director Jeong as the "true hero" of Korea's COVID-19 response, and that a petition to nominate her as the next Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) was even posted on the Blue House website. However, Yomiuri conveyed that Director Jeong humbly responds to praise by saying, "I am always grateful to those around me" at press conferences and other occasions.

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