[Viewpoint] COVID-19 and the Requirements for Advanced Healthcare Nations

The way humanity faces death is undergoing a dramatic change. In the Middle Ages, treatment was generally administered by religious figures. Illness and death were accepted as the will of God, and consolation was found only in receiving blessings for the afterlife. Within just 100 years, medical professionals and scientists have quietly transformed this acceptance into something to be overcome. Now, with the average life expectancy approaching 80 years, it could be said that from the perspective of medieval religious figures, this is almost heaven. If the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) had appeared in the Middle Ages, humanity might have been wiped out. Researching antibodies and developing vaccines against invisible viruses are essential to extending human life expectancy, but it is also true that they may cause unforeseen side effects in the future.

Recent genetic research has reached a level where almost all traits can be decoded. The genes of new viruses are prioritized for analysis. Individual human genes are also being analyzed and databased. The general public expects artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze these two genetic data sets to develop treatments. This concept connects the interaction between humans and viruses through data analysis to treatment development. Even a single genetic data set is a big data domain that cannot be analyzed without the help of AI and high-performance computing. Adding environmental data such as individual exercise habits, dietary habits, and lifestyle patterns could theoretically lead to the creation of personalized treatments.

Research is underway on the evolution of the first humans who appeared on Earth until now. Currently, various races with different skin colors and skeletal structures live together. Even newly discovered drugs cannot guarantee the same effect for all humanity because the degree of personalization may be greater than expected. From this perspective, universal success factors in public health must be found. The lesson learned from the COVID-19 crisis is that preventive measures are much more effective than treatments. The spread of mask-wearing and handwashing campaigns, initially promoted to prevent COVID-19, has also been proven by reduced hospital patient numbers to be over 20% effective in preventing common colds and influenza.

No one expected COVID-19 to spread during the hot summer. Major foreign media predicted that since the virus appeared in winter, it would naturally subside after a certain period, like past novel flu viruses. However, the current situation teaches us that seasonal factors are not significant and that healthy individuals can live as asymptomatic carriers. Therefore, while the rapid development of treatments and preventive vaccines eagerly awaited by the global population is important, maintaining a healthy body is a priority.

From a big data perspective, the sales volume of health supplements and exercise equipment by country can rank nations by their interest in health. Countries ranked high are expected to be relatively less impacted by COVID-19. Such national rankings could become an independent factor distinguishing countries, separate from traditional measures like military power or economic strength. In this context, countries with high tobacco sales are likely to have more underlying lung diseases, making them more vulnerable to the impact of the COVID-19 virus.

Richard Thaler, the 2017 Nobel laureate in Economics, cited in his book Nudge (2008) that people are willing to pay for insurance worth 100,000 won to guard against risks valued at about 10,000 won. This is a successful marketing tactic that gently nudges people. Conversely, this opportunity could be used to create a global nudge for smoking cessation. Nudges that encourage people to open their wallets for health promotion and infectious disease prevention rather than treatment are tasks that advanced countries should take the lead on.

Kim Dongcheol (Ph.D. in Engineering, Outside Director of Ubicare)

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