Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

8-2020

Abstract

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented an unprecedented public health crisis across the globe. Governments have developed different approaches to tackle the complex and intractable challenge, showing variations in their effectiveness and results. South Korea has achieved exceptional performance thus far: It has flattened the curve of new infections and brought the outbreak under control without imposing forceful measures such as lockdowns and travel ban. This commentary addresses the South Korean government’s response to COVID-19 and highlights distributed cognition and crisis management capabilities as critical factors. The authors discuss how the South Korean government has cultivated distributed cognition and three core capabilities—reflective-improvement, collaborative, and data-analytical capabilities—after its painful experience with 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV). South Korea’s adaptive approaches and its learning path examined in this commentary provide practical implications for managing potential additional waves of COVID-19 and a future public health crisis

Keywords

COVID-19, distributed cognition, emergency and crisis management, public health crisis, state capability

Discipline

Asian Studies | Emergency and Disaster Management | Health Policy | Public Health

Research Areas

Political Science

Publication

American Review of Public Administration

Volume

50

Issue

6-7

First Page

729

Last Page

735

ISSN

0275-0740

Identifier

10.1177/0275074020942412

Publisher

SAGE

Embargo Period

6-10-2021

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020942412

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