[Reporter’s Notebook] The 'KDCA' Remains Only Half Upgraded

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dae-yeol] The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), which has grown stronger each time a major infectious disease swept through, is now on the verge of being elevated to the status of a full-fledged agency. After the National Institute of Health was expanded and reorganized into the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) following the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, it was upgraded to a vice-ministerial level during the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in 2015. Now, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is set to become an independent administrative agency.

The government is working on specific reorganization plans, but flaws are already emerging. According to the amendment disclosed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, instead of elevating the KCDC to an agency, the National Institute of Health, which is the predecessor of the KCDC, will be transferred to the Ministry of Health and Welfare. The newly established Infectious Disease Research Institute will also be placed under the research institute, meaning it will fall under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

While the KCDC is being made independent to strengthen infectious disease response capabilities, the research organization that forms the foundation of policy decisions is being separated. If the plan proposed by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety is implemented, the KCDC’s staff will shrink from the current 907 to 746. A reduction in experts means serious gaps could emerge in disease control, which requires continuous research and data support in the scientific domain.

Although the KCDC is considered the control tower for quarantine measures in the current situation, Director Jeong Eun-kyeong has taken almost no administrative actions since the COVID-19 outbreak began in January. While the agency assesses risk by monitoring domestic and international COVID-19 trends and issues 'recommendations' to various government ministries, its actual authority is limited to epidemiological investigations and quarantine. Management of medical resources falls under the Ministry of Health and Welfare, immigration-related tasks are handled by the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and cooperation with local health centers affiliated with local governments goes through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety.

Strengthening expertise will not be easy, and the guarantee of independence is merely superficial because the amendment was drafted by bureaucrats who are adept at protecting their organizations. Although the president emphasized the importance and both ruling and opposition parties agreed, the bureaucratic group is the one tying up the crucial details. Is it too far-fetched to think that creating an additional vice-ministerial position and transferring the research organization suits the interests of both the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety?

Considering that Minister Park Neung-hoo of the Ministry of Health and Welfare has entrusted important positions such as the head of the KCDC’s Emergency Operations Center and the Infectious Disease Control Center to officials from the Administrative Service even during the ongoing COVID-19 situation, my judgment is that this suspicion is not entirely baseless. It seems increasingly unlikely that infectious disease and other disease experts will voluntarily join the KCDC in the future.