Appoint a MERS commander in chief

President Park Geun-hye visited the MERS crisis headquarters in the Seoul government complex on Monday and said, "Experts should be granted full authority in order to respond to constantly changing conditions." She emphasized, "This doesn`t mean referring to (experts` opinions) but they should be given full power and take immediate action in constantly changing situations." Her remarks is a reprimand to insufficient response by the MERS chain of command as it failed to fully reflect health experts` opinions.

The MERS chain of command has no health experts: it is consisted by acting Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan, education minister and deputy minister for social affairs, Hwang Woo-yea, health and welfare minister and MERS control headquarter chief Moon Hyung-pyo and public safety and security minister and MERS control headquarter director Park In-yong. Disease management office head Yang Byung-kuk was a medical doctor and has long been in charge of health and epidemics in the health and welfare ministry. President Park may have listened to health experts` opinions that the situation worsened because the command didn`t listen carefully to health experts. Perhaps this is why even the leading Saenuri Party`s Rep. Suh Chung-won who represents the pro-Park group said, "There seems to be no one in the Park administration who can do crisis management."

On Monday, 23 additional patients were confirmed MERS bringing the total cases to 87. Korea now has the second highest number of infections in the world after Saudi Arabia. Under this situation, people in the political sector are saying President Park should postpone her visit to the U.S. that is due for six days from June 14. However, though President Park should roll her sleeves up and get down to solve the MERS crisis, delaying an important diplomatic event like the Korea-U.S. summit could result in more losses than returns.

Before she leaves, President Park should appoint a commander in chief for the war against MERS whom the public can follow and trust. When Ebola broke out in the U.S. in October last year, President Barack Obama also ran about in confusion, but designated an expert to be "Ebola Czar" after 20 days and granted him full authority. Park should also raise the MERS crisis stage from "caution" to "alert" to elevate a sense of tension.

The government still maintains the "caution" status. This refers to a stage where a MERS infected person is identified while arriving the country from overseas. It is a problem not to raise to "alert" level even as there are domestic confirmed MERS patients. A command system is necessary that can supervise all related government agencies. This could enable health centers and local government officials manage isolated people one by one, and to get cooperation from the Science, ICT and Future Planning Ministry and police in tracking mobile phone usage locations. This could prevent local governments resisting the health ministry`s demand to secure isolation wards, and private hospitals avoiding to accept MERS patients. A MERS commander in chief should exercise control authority.