Taking off the masks

Visitors wearing face masks as a precaution against COVID-19 walk in the rain at Gyeongbok Palace in Seoul, May 28. AP-Yonhap

By Scott Shepherd

The government recently announced a set of incentives designed to increase the uptake of vaccinations. There is a raft of measures, but foremost among these is the promise that, starting in July, those who have received their first jab of a COVID-19 vaccine will not be required to wear a mask outdoors. While the long-awaited announcement of the easing of restrictions should have been the cause of great joy ― free at last! ― the reaction has been rather more skeptical than the government might have hoped, and for good reason.

Let's not get bogged down in questions of whether wearing masks outdoors is effective. The government here has gone with universal mask-wearing in public spaces both inside and out, and its COVID strategy has obviously worked pretty well ― especially considering the incredibly high population density of the cities. Whether there's a causal link between the country's low COVID-19 rate and the fact that people have worn masks outside from the very beginning, I don't know; but the overall strategy has worked. The government's message has been consistent and clear for over a year now, and the country has rightly received praise at home and abroad for its relative success in handling the pandemic.

The mask mandate in and of itself would never have worked without the cooperation of the public. In some respects, Korea is very much a conformist society, and the social pressure on anyone not wearing a mask in public is immense. The only scowls of disapproval more virulent than those greeting an unmasked face in Korea are those that meet a scoundrel trying to cut to the front of a polite and orderly British queue.

The Korean public have gone along with masks because everyone's doing it and because there's faith in the system. In this situation it would be folly to allow some to take off their masks while expecting everyone else to keep them on: it will simply lead to the abandonment of outdoor mask-wearing. People who have not yet been vaccinated will simply pretend that they have, and will whip off their masks post-haste. It's not like we'll be waving around a vaccine certificate to everyone we pass on the street. At first it may be pretty hard for a twenty-something to walk around barefaced, so to speak, in public, but as the vaccination rate eventually increases, that familiar sight of masked visages bobbing along the street will become less and less common.

The government's defenders could argue that since the exception only applies outside, there's a reduced risk; vaccine recipients will still have to wear masks indoors, where the infection spreads more easily. Such a response would beg the obvious and pressing question: in that case, why are we wearing masks outside in the first place? My concern is not the efficacy of outdoor mask use, but rather that the government is undermining its own strategy. If masks are needed outside, then let's all keep wearing them. The government obviously doesn't claim that a single shot of the vaccination will offer full protection, otherwise it would also relax their use indoors.

These incentives are confused and ineffective. The offer to let people who have received a jab loosen their masks is not based on the idea that these people have now suddenly become invincible outside: rather, the underlying problem the measures seek to solve is vaccine hesitancy. While the government has done a pretty good job explaining and carrying out its systems to contain the spread of the virus, it has failed to promote the vaccination program, and has been slow to execute it. The incentives announced this week are a poor attempt to make up for this by offering rather limp bribes to vaccine recipients.

Such offers might increase vaccine take-up in the short term, but it will lead to a worrying disconnect between the causes and the effects of public policy. If all the sacrifices we have made over the past year really are for the good of both society and for the individual ― and they are ― then we don't need bribes. Adding incentives and bonuses will only lead to a disassociation from the policy's real purpose. We'll never receive another vaccination again unless we get a free goodie bag with each jab.

Fundamentally, this is a failure to identify the real problem and address it: too many people don't trust that the vaccines are safe, and it's vital that the government solves this issue if it is to achieve herd immunity.

There are all kinds of factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy here. As with pretty much every problem these days, social media takes a fair share of the blame of course; but another large part of the problem is that Korea doesn't have a very long history of reliable democratic government. All four of Korea's living ex-presidents have been convicted of serious crimes, and two are still in prison. The country has seen corruption, dictatorship and assassination; uprisings, massacres and coups ― and all in living memory.

It's hard, then, to fault the small sections of the population who feel skeptical of the government's assurances that jabs are safe. Masks are one thing, but letting a nurse inject a fluid into your body is something else entirely. There are some people online who knowingly peddle dangerous lies about vaccinations. They should be condemned and, as far as possible within the limits of law and freedom of speech, silenced or at least drowned out. There are others, however, who feel legitimate concerns ― innocent, worried people ― and they can and must be convinced of the benefits and efficacy of the vaccination program.

Up until now, there has been a clear difference in the government's treatment of mask-wearing and vaccinations. The government made its choice about masks ― we need to wear them ― and stuck to it. By contrast, it fumbled around with vaccinations, going back and forth about the safety of the jab.

It's too late to undo the prevaricating about vaccinations that we saw earlier in the year, but the vital thing to do now is to get out a clear message and stick to it. The vaccination is safe and effective, and it's our best shot of getting out of this pandemic. Offering to let people take off their masks at this early stage isn't the way forward.

I'm ready and raring to get my vaccination once I'm eligible. That's because I believe it's a safe and effective way of protecting me and others around me from COVID. Once the government succeeds in convincing the population of this fact, then ― only then ― will we see a decrease in vaccine hesitancy. Forget the bribes and incentives, the government needs to get the facts about the vaccine out there, loud and clear, and it needs to procure more vaccinations. We've still got a long way to go before this pandemic is over. Until it is, we need to stay on track with the country's successful measures, and fix the ones that aren't working. The initiatives the government announced this week do neither.

Scott Shepherd is a British-American academic. He has taught in universities in the U.K. and Korea, and is currently assistant professor of English at Chongshin University in Seoul. The views expressed in the article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial direction of The Korea Times.