Professor Baek Kyung-ran Appointed as First Commissioner of Disease Control under Yoon Administration... Infectious Disease Expert to Lead 'Scientific Quarantine'

On the 17th, Baek Kyung-ran (60), a professor of infectious diseases at Samsung Medical Center, who was appointed as the first Commissioner of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, has been responsible for establishing the new government's tasks such as the "100-Day Roadmap for Emergency COVID-19 Response" and designing the quarantine system. She is regarded as the right person to redefine the "scientific and sustainable COVID-19 quarantine and medical response system" emphasized by the Yoon administration.

Commissioner Baek graduated from Seoul National University College of Medicine in 1987 and completed her master's and doctoral degrees at the same university. After serving as a fellow in the infectious diseases division at Seoul National University Hospital, she has worked as an infectious disease specialist at Samsung Medical Center since 1994, and from 2007, she served as a professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine.

From 2019 to November 2021, she served as the president of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases, and since 2021, she has been an advisory member of the COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Committee. During the 2015 Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak, she led infectious disease responses at Samsung Medical Center. In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, she expressed her opinions through the Infectious Diseases Society and other channels, and as the outbreak spread, she also criticized the government's quarantine policies through her social networking services (SNS).

Under the current administration, she served as a member of the Social Welfare and Culture Subcommittee of the Presidential Transition Committee. Recommended by Ahn Cheol-soo, the head of the transition committee, she participated in drafting the Yoon administration's 100-Day Roadmap for Emergency COVID-19 Response. This roadmap includes ▲promotion of quarantine policies based on scientific evidence ▲establishment of a sustainable infectious disease response system ▲strong protection for vulnerable groups ▲strengthening national responsibility for adverse vaccine reactions ▲early securing of sufficient therapeutics and expansion of prescriptions.

Commissioner Baek is expected to prepare for the emergence of new domestic and international variants and the resurgence of COVID-19 this fall. She will also need to oversee the agency’s core duties such as prevention and management of chronic and rare diseases, as well as health and medical research and development aimed at overcoming diseases and solving related problems.

Profile of Newly Appointed Commissioner Baek Kyung-ran

▶ Born in Seoul in 1962 ▶ Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degrees from Seoul National University College of Medicine ▶ Infectious Diseases Fellow at Seoul National University Hospital ▶ Head of Infectious Diseases at Samsung Medical Center ▶ Professor of Internal Medicine at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine ▶ 30th President of the Korean Society of Infectious Diseases ▶ Member of the Social Welfare and Culture Subcommittee of the Presidential Transition Committee