Jeong Eun-gyeong, Director of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, Included in Bloomberg's '50 People of the Year'

Recognized for COVID-19 Prevention Efforts... Director Bong Joon-ho of the Film 'Parasite' Also Selected

Jung Eun-kyung, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Jung Eun-kyung, Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, was included in Bloomberg News' '50 Most Influential People of the Year.' She was recognized for her significant role in leading South Korea's response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and helping to curb its spread.

On the 3rd (local time), Bloomberg published on its website a list of 50 individuals and organizations who achieved remarkable accomplishments in 2020 across business, entertainment, finance, politics, and science and technology sectors. Bloomberg explained, "This year has seen many events, including COVID-19, racial discrimination issues, and the U.S. presidential election," adding, "We selected individuals considering these factors."

Commissioner Jung was nominated in the science and technology category alongside Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Bloomberg stated, "South Korea was the second most severely affected country by COVID-19 globally in February, but now the number of confirmed cases per capita is one-sixtieth that of the United States," describing Commissioner Jung as an "unparalleled contact tracer."

Bloomberg noted, "South Korea's quarantine measures can offer lessons to Western democracies that have failed in their COVID-19 responses," and added, "Without Commissioner Jung, South Korea would not be where it is today." In particular, Bloomberg explained that when COVID-19 rapidly spread around Daegu through the Shincheonji Church in February, Commissioner Jung persuaded Shincheonji to provide a list of its members, enabling testing of over 200,000 people.

Furthermore, Commissioner Jung was highly praised as "the person who introduced one of the world's most effective tracing systems," with Bloomberg mentioning that the daily new confirmed cases, which exceeded 900 in February, dropped to 100 by the end of March. Bloomberg emphasized, "(In South Korea) everyday life has mostly continued normally throughout this year without any lockdown measures."

Besides Commissioner Jung, director Bong Joon-ho, who won four Academy Awards including Best Picture for the film Parasite, was named in the entertainment category. Bloomberg highlighted that Parasite was the first foreign-language film in the 92-year history of the Oscars to win Best Picture, stating it "reminded myopic American audiences that excellent films are being made in other countries."

Commissioner Jung and Director Bong were also selected among the 100 most influential people in the world for this year by Time magazine in September.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.