On the 25th, medical doctor Hong Hye-gul appeared on MBC's entertainment program 'Radio Star.' Photo by MBC
[Asia Economy Intern Reporter Kang Joo-hee] Medical doctor Hong Hye-gul recently expressed his feelings regarding the controversy over his remarks about the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) diagnostic kits.
On the 25th, Dr. Hong appeared on MBC's entertainment program 'Radio Star' and said, "I am afraid of SNS. As a media person, I make a living through SNS," adding, "Once, I posted on SNS that I ordered pizza on a snowy day and received a lot of criticism. I wondered why I was so careless."
He continued, "My wife, Yeo Esther, even told me she would divorce me if I wasn't careful with SNS," jokingly adding, "Right now, my relationship with my wife is not good," which drew laughter.
Earlier, Dr. Hong posted on his Facebook that a U.S. congressman's statement claiming "Korean COVID-19 diagnostic kits are inadequate by U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) standards" raised serious doubts about the accuracy of domestic confirmed case tests if true, sparking controversy.
Following this, voices doubting the performance of domestic COVID-19 diagnostic kits grew louder, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency strongly refuted the claims. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety emphasized, "The antibody test method in question is not a product that has received emergency approval for use domestically." They explained that the diagnostic kits mentioned by Hong Hye-gul are different from those currently used by Korean health authorities.
As criticism once again targeted Hong Hye-gul following these rebuttals, he stated, "I am being accused of producing fake news. I never said our kits were faulty," emphasizing, "A comment from a U.S. Republican congressman who is also a doctor was made, and I judged that the media should not remain silent. My intention was to verify such a shocking statement."
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