To the Editor:“Being Called a Cult Is One Thing, Being Blamed for an Epidemic Is Quite Another,” by Raphael Rashid (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, March 9), which describes the Shincheonji Church of Jesus as being scapegoated in South Korea for political purposes, is misleading. From an early stage, the Korean government has set key principles to combat Covid-19: Be quick, transparent and pre-emptive. Rather than waiting for patients to come in, we pursued and tracked down possible patients to prevent spread within the community. During this process, our health authorities found a rapid community transmission taking place among members of the Shincheonji Church. This is a result of exhaustive epidemiological analysis and has nothing to do with prejudice or politics.

Source: New York Times March 11, 2020 20:37 UTC