Seoul-Based Lab Upset that They Tested U.S. Military Personnel for Coronavirus Not Stationed with USFK
Via reader tip comes this odd story of USFK apparently pulling a fast one on a Korean lab testing people for the coronavirus:
A Seoul-based lab tested 72 American troops positive for the novel coronavirus, but the US military in Korea said they belonged to soldiers stationed elsewhere, a local report said Sunday.
A US hospital at Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, where the US military here is headquartered, sent clinical specimens to the lab, and it shared the results with the city of Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, as it was bound by law to do so.
The city pressed the US Forces Korea for more details, but it only confirmed that those diagnosed with COVID-19 were US troops on duty elsewhere and not in Korea.
The local report said the specimens sent to the lab for testing were all numbered, rather than named, so the examinees were not identified.
Upon learning the news, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered every lab in the country not to run virus tests on unidentifiable samples.
Korea Herald
You can read more at the link, but but what doesn’t make sense to me is that USFK has been stating that the hospital on Camp Humphreys can do its own coronavirus testing. The hospital can supposedly do up to 80 tests a day so has it reached maximum testing capacity by also testing soldiers from outside of USFK?
The article also says that the city wants every soldier, family member, DOD civilian, and contractor living off-post in Pyeongtaek be tested for the coronavirus. How come the city isn’t forcing every Korean in Pyeongtaek to be tested? Why just USFK personnel? Are they saying USFK personnel are somehow more susceptible to be infected by the coronavirus compared to a Korean? This seems discriminatory to me.
I think USFK’s percentage of infected/USFK population is higher than that of the city of Pyeongtaek’s percentage. Pyeongtaek City Hall’s blog currently shows 34 infected, (USFK personnel are included in these numbers, but per the recent guidance USFK isn’t allowed to share their numbers, so I’m not sure how accurate it is) https://blog.naver.com/pt_story/221887435703
I can see this from Korea’s point of view. They want to keep a tight accounting of who has been infected in their country. They expect USFK to provide accurate information to include in their contact tracing investigations.
If they suspect USFK is being deceptive about who they are doing tests on then they have reason to suspect other information provided by USFK, including whether other USFK military and civilian personnel had been tested or not.
Pay close attention to facts – Current UNC/CFC/USFK Commander cares most about his reputation and the public image he has built. Much like other leadership in the US he cares only about himself and very little about his underlings. He has a very tight close staff that shine his rear end all day, the rest of the command are all afraid of him as he is a bully. He great 3 stars, true leaders who care about people, but he has created a toxic environment where everyone is afraid to take action because it may anger the emperor.
Andy, USFK share all their number of infected with the Korean CDC, they are allowed and do share the numbers. As of Friday total USFK associated (Military, Contractors, KGS Employees and Dependents) was 16. Most of those at CP Humphreys. Go to the USFK or USAG Humphreys facebook page.
Testing everyone is a stupid idea and showing the typical anti-US bias of the commie moon administration. Idiots do realize you can test me and 5 minutes later I could catch the virus. Testing is a tiny snapshot of time.
What do they mean by “stationed elsewhere”? There is such a thing as TDY/TAD. And, of course with the almost compelete shutdown of air traffic, not to mention the required quarantine upon return to one’s home country, it is not so simple now to just hop on a plane and return to one’s permanent duty station.
Sounds like JTF is describing Commie Moon.
Fact #1: If you get COVID-19, you’re going to die.
Fact #2: If you don’t get COVID-19, you’re going to die.
Now are you ready to take me up on my free offer of eternal life? – Jesus
Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved.
If Pyeongtaek City’s total number of infected is 34 and USAG Humphreys and Osan AFB’s numbers are included in this 34, then maybe Pyeongtaek City should be a little more concerned about USFk personnel being tested.
Flyingsword, Yeah I checked the FB pages. USFK FB page reply shows :
Author U.S. Forces Korea “We can’t share numbers, but we’ll start adding the date and time to our announcements”. I know USFK will share the numbers with Korea CDC (unless its for military not stationed here). I’m surprised to see so much contractor bashing on the FB pages. 🙁
Oh come on. How can you even classify this as discriminatory against Americans, when their getting free testings? South Koreans who do not have any symptoms or do not have a medical note, they have to pay for the tests which are about $150 per test. And many people around the world who want to get tested, can’t get tested because their countries simply don’t have enough coronavirus test kits. And yet, South Korean government is offering free tests to USFK and their contractors, because Korea doesn’t want this virus to spread through the US military to undermine the national defense.
And you see this as discriminatory, anti-US move. Oh man. 🙄
And about the USFK pulling a fast one on the Korean government, and bringing samples from the US troops stationed in Europe, Japan, US, or wherever… what a dick move. Why doesn’t Mr Trump just ask South Korean government to help out the US military and test all the 500,000 US troops around the world (or whatever the number that is), instead of sneaking in samples from other countries to test at the expense of South Korean taxpayers? Honesty is the best policy.
Mostly likely from the high demand for testing all those crew members from that carrier,
Funny i got numbers no problem
@JoeC, you are probably right because the number of tests Camp Humphreys can do combined with the 72 from the Korean lab is close to the numbers of infected personnel the carrier.
The complaints all smell like thousand year old eggs…