Name: Angelica Cania Widjaja

Student ID: 2101654472

Non-Conventional Issues in International Relations – Assignment 2

The United States, South Korea, and New Zealand in Mitigating the COVID-19 Pandemic

Currently, the world is experiencing COVID-19 pandemic. What started as an outbreak in

Wuhan, China, has escalated into a pandemic with almost more than 83.7 million people infected
and 1.8 million deaths worldwide as of January 4, 2021 (World Health Organization, 2021). It is
expected of states, as sovereign authorities, to mitigate the current public health crisis, and the
economic crises that came with it. As a matter of fact, this pandemic highlighted the importance
of state’s role, which are: (1) to create policies and regulations to prevent further spread of the
outbreak; (2) enforce policies while upholding other policies that are threatened due to the
pandemic, such as the increase of domestic abuse due to mandatory quarantine; (3) treating those
who are infected, by strengthening healthcare system, procure medicines, and assist in vaccine
development; (4) conduct international cooperation, especially to safeguard global trade, reduce
human mobility, information sharing regarding the pandemic, etc.; and (5) keeping their citizens
informed, as states have more legitimacy than other entities in the country (Young, 2020).
Basing on these, I am going to see on how the US, South Korea, and New Zealand fulfils their
role, and what are the results of their efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Firstly, we are going to see the role of the US. The US is currently the country with most
infected cases and death tolls with more than, respectively, 36.6 million and 876,000 people
(World Health Organization, 2021). One could argue that the US, despite being a powerful
country, has failed to mitigate against the pandemic. In this perspective, we can see that both
central and federal government has failed to increase testing capacities to conduct mass testing
(Lopez, 2021). On November 2020, the US managed to conduct the highest number of testing at
2.1 million tests daily. However, experts suggested that the US need to conduct at least 10
million tests daily (Bonislawski, 2020). On top of that, the government only started the travel ban
from China on February 2. Meanwhile, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
already warned government officials since January 6, and the first case was recorded on January
21 (Al Jazeera, 2020). This shows the sluggish action from the government on addressing the
pandemic. Moreover, communications from the government shows denial towards the severity of
the outbreak itself, which created divided understanding within the people, as well as fuelling
social media propagandas and hoaxes regarding the pandemic (Yong, 2020). Recently, Trump
tweeted that the high death toll has been ‘far exaggerated’ and that the CDC’s ‘ridiculous
methods of determination’ is ‘inaccurate’ (Temple-West, 2021). Furthermore, the lack of
economic aids has forced people to go out and work instead of quarantining (Lopez, 2021).
Hence, the high number of infected cases and deaths is expected.

On the contrary, New Zealand is considered one of the success stories in containing the outbreak.
In June, New Zealand managed to maintain zero new daily cases for 15 days with only one
active case (Cheng & Leahy, 2020). Despite a new outbreak in August, New Zealand is still
relatively keeping the outbreak under control. It is important to note that the government
implemented travel bans from or via China on February 3, despite there were no reported cases
yet. The travel bans then being extended to people coming from Iran, South Korea, Italy, and
those that shows COVID-19 symptoms. On March 16, the government stipulated that every non-
citizens and residents must undergo self-isolation upon entering the country. In parallel, the
government created a 4-level alert system. On late March, New Zealand underwent level 4 social
distancing, which induces national-level lockdown. Swift responses from the government has
proven to be successful in containing the outbreak. More importantly, as the government assert
their legitimacy and power in addressing the pandemic, New Zealanders has almost 100% trust
towards their government and experts, which makes it easier for them to comply with health
protocols (Roy, 2020). Moreover, the government manage a clear communication in informing
its people on the outbreak. Researchers mentioned that 8 out of 10 people have adopted
necessary hygiene steps on preventing the disease, while 9 out of 10 people practice social
distancing. Furthermore, 9 out of 10 people know about the symptoms of COVID-19 and the
possibility of asymptomatic transmission. Due to the high knowledge of the disease, New
Zealanders can dispel myths and hoaxes regarding the outbreak (Roy, 2020). From New Zealand,
we can see that their swift and assertive response towards the COVID-19 outbreak has granted
their people’s trust hence makes COVID-19 prevention and mitigation to be very effective.

Lastly, we are going to see South Korea. South Korea is one of the countries that faced COVID-
19 earlier, it confirmed its first case on January 20, 2020. By early March 2020, South Korea
recorded the second highest number of cases after China due to the emerging cluster in Daegu
city (Cha & Kim, 2020). However, the South Korean government’s efforts were swift in
suppressing the outbreak due to several reasons. Firstly, South Korea is more prepared in
responding outbreaks, noting that it already faced the SARS and MERS outbreak in,
respectively, 2002-03 and 2015. In this case, they focused on preparing to conduct mass testing.
The government collaborated with private sector to develop testing kits as soon as it detected the
first confirmed case (Huzar, 2020). Moreover, the government established 600 screening centres
and created new systems for testing, such as the drive-through tests and phone booth tests. Both
systems can gather more specimens with minimal human interaction (Ariadne Labs, 2020).
Aside from mass testing, the government has changed their law which enables them to fully trace
and track confirmed cases through gathering private data such as interviews with patients, credit
card transactions, CCTV footages, cellular GPS data from phone and visits to medical facilities
(Huzar, 2020). By releasing these data to the public enables people to avoid getting in contact
with confirmed cases. Second, the government reinforce their healthcare system, such as
ensuring the availability of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for medical staffs and the
people, covering all COVID-19 treatment costs, as well as creating emergency hospitals and
isolation centres to relief overloaded hospitals (Ariadne Labs, 2020; Ahn, 2020). Thirdly, the
government conducted clear communication with the public, which help them to gain trust from
the people and minimize hoaxes and misconceptions (Ariadne Labs, 2020).

Indeed, these efforts have managed to ‘flatten the curve’ with no lockdowns being imposed and
by April 2020 the number of cases has dropped significantly to approximately 10-20 cases daily
(Ariadne Labs, 2020). However, in August, the country faces the second wave of the outbreak,
recording more than 440 daily confirmed cases in its peak. The surge in cases was caused by an
anti-government rally, which causes more than 1000 new cases (Borowiec, 2020). After that, the
cases did not go down to two digits cases daily, but it did not go as low as after the first wave
(Ariadne Labs, 2020). It is assumed that the South Koreans are experiencing pandemic fatigue
over the indefinite social distancing measures, seeing that several people denied wearing masks
(Borowiec, 2020).

As a matter of fact, currently South Korea is in their third wave of the outbreak, recorded more
than 1,200 daily cases in its peak (Ariadne Labs, 2020). The South Korean government even
considered to impose their first nationwide lockdown in December 2020 as they prepare for the
worst case. However, the government was hesitant to tighten social distancing measures taking
consideration of economic activities (Shin, 2020). Faltering public health decisions such as
tardiness of vaccines, unrest that emerges from the economic crisis, and pandemic fatigue has
become a new issue (Ko, 2020; Borowiec, 2020). If the government isn’t able to assert their
legitimacy by solving these issues, in addition to worsening outbreak wave, social unrest might
also increase in South Korea.

In conclusion, from these three cases we can see that the state’s role in the pandemic is crucial.
Their initial response will determine whether their people will put their trust in them or not. In
several cases like New Zealand and South Korea in their early waves shows that when a
government is swift in fulfilling their role in responding to the outbreak, it will result to higher
rate of compliance to health protocols as well as knowledge regarding the pandemic. Looking at
the US, the government’s failure to address the crisis leads to misinformation and hoaxes, which
resulted in low understanding of the disease, as well as low compliance on health protocols.
Secondly, the ability for that government to maintain that trust is paramount to prevent further
waves of outbreaks. It is important to note that the South Korean government was considered as
successful in managing the crisis, however, as their role falter during the second wave, the cases
has been spiking reaching more than 1,000 cases now. It is important to note that while the
States’ power is limited, it is their role to ensure their citizen’s safety and well-being, especially
amid the pandemic. Hence, what they decide to do – not other countries, not private actors, and
not international organizations - are what will determine the success in their battle against the
COVID-19 pandemic.

Bibliography
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