I live in South Korea. Today, I was unable to eat in a restaurant because I am unvaccinated. Here is why.
This policy is not being reported in the West. That is because it is failing here. It is failing and it will continue to fail. We are nearing the end game. This tyranny will not stand.
Restaurant owners vent outrage over reinstated biz restriction
The owners of restaurants, cafes, and bars, angered by reinstated social distancing rules and consequent business restrictions, are targeting their outrage at the newly introduced vaccine pass expiry system.
Starting Monday, a blue border appears around a user's QR code if the expiration date is left, and when read by a QR reader, a voice saying confirming the validation of the user's vaccine pass comes out. However, when the user's vaccine pass expires, it makes a “ding-dong” sound alerting the facility operators to prohibit visitors’ entry.
Self-employed people criticized the government for frequently changing the vaccine pass guidelines, not considering their situation of checking them one at a time, and soothing angry customers.
"The government has burdened us with updating the app according to the changed guidelines and explaining the changed rules to customers who have expired vaccine passes," said Cho Ji-hyun, a co-representative of the National Emergency Response Committee for Self-Employed Responding to Covid-19.
When businesses are reducing the number of staff to lower the burden of labor costs, the new measure forces employers to hire employees to check and explain the expiration date of vaccines to customers, Cho pointed out.
Considering the delayed time and other adverse effects on the business, the government should help owners hire an employee to do such jobs, he said, adding that the group will decide whether to take collective action to protest the fickle guidelines.
People who have not received the vaccine due to health or other reasons also complained of discomfort.
"I did not receive the vaccine because I had underlying diseases. However, the government’s decision to expand the vaccine mandate to large malls forces me to take the risk by getting jabs to prepare meals for my family," said housewife Choi Sung-hye, 46, to Korea Biomedical Review. "It feels like the right not to receive the vaccine is quickly perishing as the government forces everyone to receive the vaccine."
Choi noted that while she understands the government's plans to incentivize those vaccinated, its current plan seems to be aimed more at penalizing those that have not received the vaccine.
Experts also expressed concerns that there could be elements of human rights violations in expanding vaccine mandate to almost any everyday life activity.
"No matter how legitimate the purpose may be, it is a problem to publicly humiliate unvaccinated people so that they cannot go to crowded places or demand them to get vaccinated," Citizen's Solidarity for Human Rights Director-General Oh Chang-ik said. "There are many ways to determine whether or not someone has received the vaccine or has passed their expiration date without making the discriminatory sound."
Oh also stressed that in an advanced society like Korea, the government should consider people who cannot get vaccines for various reasons.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed 3,129 new virus cases on Monday, including 2,993 local infections, raising the cumulative caseload to 642,207. Thirty-six more people died of Covid-19, lifting the death toll to 5,730, with a fatality rate of 0.89 percent.
The figure marked the second consecutive day that the daily cases fell below 4,000.
However, critically ill Covid-19 patients remained above 1,000 for 14 consecutive days as the KDCA confirmed 1,015 critically ill Covid-19 patients.
Korea also confirmed 111 more omicron variant infections, bringing the total to 1,318. Among them, 101 omicron variant cases came from overseas, and 10 were locally transmitted.
Health authorities reported that two omicron patients in their 90s have died while receiving treatment at hospitals in Gwangju, some 330 km south of Seoul.
They marked the first cases of omicron variant patients dying in Korea. However, it is still unclear whether the omicron variant was the direct cause of their deaths, the KDCA said.
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