Are Superior North Korean Immune Systems the Reason for Limited Impact of COVID?

GIKorea | August 3, 2022 | North Korea | 4 Comments

Here is one theory on why the North Koreans have not had a massive loss of life due to COVID despite no vaccination campaign:

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is surrounded by war veterans in front of a monument celebrating the country’s “victory” in the Korean War (1950-53) in Pyongyang, North Korea, on July 27, the 69th anniversary of the end of the war, in this photo released July 28 by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency. Yonhap

Given the two undeniable reports from the North ― that fever cases spiked before falling and that leader Kim Jong-un recently appeared in the middle of a crowd of war veterans without masks ― experts have laid out two scenarios: either that enough North Koreans are now immune to COVID-19, thanks partly to their stronger immune systems, or that most of the fever cases were not COVID-related in the first place.

“North Koreans may have a stronger active immunity, given that they are exposed to all sorts of infectious diseases,” Choi Jung-hoon, a former infectious disease doctor from the North, told The Korea Times. “It is important to keep in mind that its official numbers should not be trusted. If it (herd immunity) was the case, this means that a lot more people died and suffered from COVID-19 in the process than the numbers claim … The progress has also been helped by its draconian measures, which would be politically impossible in democratic countries.”
Korea Times

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