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South Koreans stand in line at a pharmacy to buy protective masks on Mar. 3. (Yonhap News)

With fears growing among the general public over 40 days after the novel coronavirus began spreading in South Korea, the number of people describing themselves as feeling “angry” when they see related news has more than tripled, survey findings show. The results also indicated increased trust in the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) but growing distrust of the Blue House and media in terms of their response to the virus.

On Mar. 4, a research term led by You Myoung-soon, professor at the Seoul National University Graduate School of Public Health, published findings from a “second survey of the South Korean public’s risk perceptions” based on responses from 1,000 people nationwide between Feb. 25 and 28. The findings showed 85.1% reporting feeling “increased anxiety in the month since the first confirmed diagnosis.” When asked about their “feelings upon encountering news about the novel coronavirus,” the most frequent response was “anxiety” (48.8%), although the percentage was down from the 60.2% recorded when the first survey was conducted roughly a month earlier between Jan. 31 and Feb. 4.

The emotion that showed the most notable increase in the latest survey was “anger” at 21.5%, or more than triple the 6.8% recorded in the first survey. The percentage of respondents naming “shock” rose slightly from 10.9% to 12.6%, while reports of “fear” were down from 16.7% to 11.6%. Reports of experiencing anger were found to be relatively higher among respondents in their 20s and those in the Daegu/North Gyeongsang Province region.

“The emotions South Koreans are experiencing now are different from those when the disease first surfaced,” You said of the findings.

“It appears that the anxiety people are feeling about the number of deaths rising, being unable to find the masks that have been recommended as a key means of prevention, and hearing reports of people not observing the self-quarantine rules has combined with feelings of discontentment and distrust,” she suggested.

“We need more finely tuned and differentiated forms of crisis communication,” she concluded.

Among the public institutions responding to the virus, trust in the KCDC was found to have increased. Among respondents in the latest survey, 81.1% said that they “trust” the KCDC, a 6.5-percentage point increase from the first survey. Trust in public health care institutions such as national university hospitals and local medical centers was also up from 72.6% to 79.3%, while trust in local governments rose slightly from 52.5% to 55.4%.

At the same time, 49.5% of respondents said they “trust” the Blue House, an 8.1-percentage point decrease from the first survey, and 39.9% expressed trust in the media, a 6.5-percentage point decrease.

A majority 70.5% of respondents agreed that the government had made an appropriate decision in increasing the infectious disease crisis alert level to “severe” on Feb. 23, while only 40.8% predicted that the measure would lead to an “early end” to the coronavirus outbreak. In contrast, 74.5% agreed that it signaled a “long-term battle” with the disease. Regarding these findings, You suggested, “It may be important for the government to adopt a strategy of achieving ‘small victories’ by achieving continued results, however small they are.”

By Park Jun-yong, staff reporter

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