The Korean Playbook for COVID-19 (Translated)

How South Korea did it, direct from the source

Like the Death Star plans, many Koreans died to produce this knowledge. Many people worked overnight to translate it. Unlike the Death Star, this information saves lives. These are the response guidelines provided to local governments in South Korea. You can call it the Korean COVID-19 Playbook.

This document has been translated by the COVID Translate Project, a group of volunteers. You can read it in its entirety here. My comments and some illustrations are below.

South Korea has done a good job of managing COVID-19, and they’ve done it within a democracy, without shutdowns and while preserving much economic activity. They had their first case the same day as the United States with dramatically different outcomes. It’s honestly too late for this pandemic, but there’s a lot we can learn.

Not Korean, but Sun Tzu did go on about planning

The Law

The Korean model is appealing because it’s a democratic one. Ten years ago elected representatives got together and passed legislation authorizing this sort of response. It’s all rooted in law.