I do have to point out a couple of things you did not mention in your writing.

1. The “surveillance” measures in South Korea are not the types that many outsiders imagine them to be.

The govt. in S. Korea only used data available via one’s cell phone – the type of data that citizens are providing to GPS systems, Google, etc. The info. available for the public did not include any personal/ identifying information for an infected patient. It just notified those who may have come into contact with the infected patient. Nothing more invasive than my Google Map notifying me of an accident on Route 287 on my drive to MLHS.

2. There was also no country or statewide lock down/ shelter-in-place anywhere in South Korea (measures that many S. Koreans would be furiously opposed to), even when the infection curve was spiking upward.

Citizens themselves wore masks without the govt. prompting them to, socially distanced themselves in public, did not go out unless it was absolutely necessary, etc. Many restaurants operated as usual. It’s just that many people just chose to do only curbside takeouts because they refused to put others at risk.

3. I also noticed some fundamental differences in the ways that the govt. approached the pandemic. When masks were recommended by physicians in S. Korea early February, there was an immediate increase in the demand for masks. So the central govt. planned and aided the individual suppliers and pharmacies in selling these masks to the regular citizens without gouging the prices.

The central govt. invested significant efforts to have masks available to ALL citizens, including Korean citizens residing abroad and their families.

I and my American family via my significant other, have received benefits from this distribution of personal protective equipment. For citizens residing in nations where access to medical care was difficult, for instance Chad or Burundi in Africa, the govt. chartered airplanes to bring the citizens home if they wished. (They even brought some Japanese citizens on the same plane as a goodwill gesture to the neighboring nation.)

4. Like you mentioned in the article, there is a single-payer universal healthcare system in S. Korea. This healthcare policy extends to foreign residents in the nation as well. Foreign residents can use the medical services provided as long as they paid premium into the national insurance system while they worked in the country.

There were also efforts to test and bring medical care to those who were “undocumented” in the nation (many smaller communities have workers from southeast Asia, China, Africa, Latin America, etc. who work in smaller factories and farms) without fear of deportation. That helped in curbing infection among these workers who were often living in multi-family dwellings where social distancing was not always possible.

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I do think that the Covid-19 pandemic brought the humanity in us everywhere.

I’m sure all of us can greatly appreciate the healthcare workers and other essential workers who risk their lives every day to help us live another day during this odd period. I hope that things return to normal in the New Jersey soon.