Author: GIKorea

So who would be excited to watch some South Korean baseball games on ESPN?:

U.S. sports media giant ESPN was seeking free rights to broadcast South Korean professional baseball games, leading to a stalemate in its negotiations with its counterpart in Seoul, informed sources told Yonhap News Agency on Thursday.

According to sources with knowledge of the talks, ESPN wanted to acquire rights to Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) games for free from Eclat, which owns international rights to KBO games.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but clearly ESPN is desperate and I don’t blame the KBO for playing hardball on them. If they want programming they should pay for it.

Another sign of normalcy returning to South Korea:

CGV, South Korea’s largest multiplex chain, said Friday that it will reopen 36 theaters next week that have been shut down for about a month due to business disruptions stemming from the novel coronavirus pandemic.

“We will restart operations in a bid to overcome the crisis by revitalizing the virus-hit film industry and our neighborhood economy,” an official from the company said.

Theaters, including those in Myeongdong and Daehangno, central Seoul, will resume operations from Wednesday, she said.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It is interesting that the researchers declare their clinical study as inconclusive despite out of 205 test subjects exposed to the coronavirus not contracting it:

A clinical study on a preventive virus treatment using hydroxychloroquine, a controversial drug that has been touted as a possible cure for the novel coronavirus, was inconclusive, according to the Korean researchers.

Researchers from Samsung Medical Center in southern Seoul and Pusan National University Hospital in Busan completed post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) on 184 patients and 21 health care workers at a long-term care hospital in Busan, where they were exposed to the coronavirus after massive infections were reported there. 

Post-exposure prophylaxis refers to any preventive medical treatment started after exposure to a pathogen. HCQ is an anti-malaria drug that recently gained worldwide attention after U.S. President Donald Trump said it could be a cure for Covid-19, although medical experts are divided over the use of the drug, citing side effects.

According to the study, which was published in the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, Korean researchers conducted the treatment on people who were at risk of contracting Covid-19, although their baseline polymerase chain reaction tests for the novel coronavirus were negative.

Researchers gave the subjects a daily dose of 400 milligrams of HCQ until the completion of a 14-day quarantine period. During the trial, 32 people reported one or more symptoms, including diarrhea, skin rash and gastrointestinal problems, the study showed.

At the end of 14 days of quarantine, follow-up tests on the study participants were all negative, indicating that those who received the treatment did not develop Covid-19.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

What I find of interest from President Moon’s plan is that the government is not going to fund major infrastructure projects but instead digital projects and small neighborhood projects:

President Moon Jae-in proclaimed a “Korean New Deal” on Wednesday to create jobs in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.  

He also announced that the government plans to give 1.5 million won ($1,200) to people who lost their jobs but aren’t covered by employment insurance, which has never been done before.

Preventing layoffs and creating jobs have become the top priority of the government with job losses hitting their highest numbers in a decade.  

During the government’s fifth economic emergency council meeting on Wednesday, Moon promised a Korean New Deal.  

“New Deal jobs should not be temporary positions but innovative growth projects that will continue through the post-Covid-19 era,” Moon said. 

“The government has to boldly push forward major projects that would create new jobs.”  

According to Finance Minster Hong Nam-ki, the Korean New Deal projects will be digital, have jobs that don’t have much face-to-face contacts and also include small neighborhood public projects.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest on the Kim Jong-un health watch:

 U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he does not know about the health condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un but hopes he is doing well amid unconfirmed reports that the young leader may be seriously ill.

“These are reports that came out, and we don’t know. We don’t know,” Trump said at a White House coronavirus press briefing. “I can only say this: I wish him well. Because if he is in the kind of condition that the reports say, that the news is saying, that’s a very serious condition, as you know, but I wish him well.”

Trump said he doesn’t place “too much credence” in any report put out by CNN. Citing an unidentified U.S. official, CNN first reported that the U.S. is looking into intelligence that Kim is in “grave danger” after a surgery.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of a healthcare official trying to cover for all possibilities which ends up getting everyone worked up about something that may not happen:

Another large-scale outbreak of coronavirus could take place in winter, South Korea’s top health official has warned, asking people not to let their guard down until a vaccine and effective treatment are developed. 

Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Jung Eun-kyeong issued the warning at a Monday briefing, citing the patterns of surge-flattened-resurgence in bygone pandemics and many facets of virus information that are still left in the dark. 

“COVID-19 shows its ups and downs when it comes to infection power” Jung said. “Cold air normally provides a favorable environment for viruses to flourish, while people spend more time indoors in winter. If these happen at the same time, in the worst-case scenario, it could lead to a second outbreak of a coronavirus pandemic.” 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.