Health authorities conducting quarantine activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. [Photo=Yonhap News] 

The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in late 2019, fundamentally shook the lives of people around the world. Millions of lives were lost, the global economy ground to a halt, and individual movement and freedom were strictly controlled under the pretext of public health. 

Years later, as official government investigation reports and declassified documents emerge, the truths hidden behind the suffering we endured are gradually coming to light. 

Truths Revealed by the U.S. Congressional Report

In late 2024, the U.S. House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic published a final report of over 500 pages after nearly two years of extensive investigation. This report elevated several suspicions—previously dismissed as conspiracy theories—into the realm of official fact. 

The final U.S. Congressional report concluded that “it is most likely that the COVID-19 virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China,” based on its biological characteristics and the circumstances surrounding researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) who fell ill with COVID-like symptoms in the autumn of 2019.

Suspicions Regarding Anthony Fauci's Funding of Gain-of-Function Research

Although Anthony Fauci, then head of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), testified at past congressional hearings that “the U.S. government never funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute,” the investigation revealed that this was not the truth. 

It was confirmed that funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) flowed through the U.S. non-profit organization "EcoHealth Alliance" to support research on bat coronavirus modifications at the Wuhan laboratory. 

Gain-of-function research involves artificially enhancing a virus's transmissibility or toxicity to study its potential dangers in advance. The U.S. Congress pointed out that American tax dollars were used for this risky research and that health officials, including Dr. Fauci, systematically dismissed the initial "lab leak theory" while pushing the "natural origin theory."

Bill Gates’ Prophecies and the Controversy of Depopulation Conspiracy Theories

Years before the COVID-19 outbreak, Bill Gates and other global IT and health leaders warned in forums such as TED talks that "the greatest threat facing humanity is not nuclear war, but a highly transmissible pandemic virus," which became fuel for conspiracy theories. 

While such conspiracy theories may lack credibility, the widespread public distrust—driven by the belief that global elites and large pharmaceutical companies leveraged the pandemic to gain immense capital and control—was a tragic byproduct of the lack of information transparency.

The Speed of mRNA Vaccines and Their Side Effects

The mRNA vaccines, approved at unprecedented speeds to end the pandemic early, saved many lives. However, behind this benefit lay the dark shadows cast by this "race against time." 

The typical development period for a vaccine is 5 to 10 years, whereas the COVID-19 vaccine was developed in about 11 months (Operation Warp Speed). 

The Cost of Hasty Clinical Trials and Adverse Effects

The years-long long-term safety tracking period that general vaccines undergo was completely omitted in the face of the COVID-19 crisis. Thanks to Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) policies, pharmaceutical companies launched their products while being guaranteed legal immunity against side effects. 

A group of COVID-19 vaccine victims protesting in front of a courthouse. [Photo=Yonhap News] 

As time passed, tens of thousands of cases of fatal side effects—such as myocarditis, pericarditis, and thrombosis (TTS)—following mRNA vaccinations from Pfizer and Moderna were officially reported worldwide. 

Despite healthy young people and adolescents dying suddenly or suffering severe complications after vaccination, governments initially evaded compensation due to a lack of proven causality, imposing double the suffering on victims and their bereaved families.

The Shadow of Quarantine Measures

Humanity shut down society itself to prevent the virus from spreading. However, according to U.S. Congressional reports and post-pandemic evaluations by the public health community, many of the extreme measures implemented at the time lacked sufficient scientific basis. 

It was revealed that the "6-foot (approx. 1.8m) social distancing" rule widely enforced in the U.S. and the total closure of schools were based on the arbitrary decisions of health bureaucrats rather than scientific experimental data. The resulting decline in academic achievement among children and adolescents, loss of social skills, and the downfall of small businesses have left scars that will last longer than the virus itself.

South Korea's K-Quarantine: A Dilemma of Control and Compliance

While South Korea was praised as a "global model for pandemic response," the reality behind it involved the unilateral sacrifice of small business owners and fundamental rights. 

Nighttime curfews on cafes and restaurants and the "vaccine pass" system for large supermarkets and academies were applied uniformly without precise standards regarding density or transmission risk, driving countless self-employed individuals to bankruptcy. 

Critics have argued that measures such as the total transition to non-face-to-face church services and the banning of protests in Gwanghwamun were used as tools to suppress anti-government sentiment or stigmatize specific groups, going beyond the purpose of disease prevention. 

China's Zero-COVID Policy

The most extreme form was China's "Zero-COVID" policy. Major cities with tens of millions of people, such as Shanghai and Xi'an, were locked down for months simply because a few cases were detected. Tragedies occurred where residents were trapped in apartments with welded doors, and even in cases of fires, people were unable to evacuate, leading to deaths during forced transfers to quarantine centers.

The Controversy Over WHO Impartiality

In early January 2020, during the initial phase of the pandemic, even when human-to-human transmission was certain—with medical staff in Wuhan already becoming infected—the WHO was criticized for accepting the Chinese government’s announcement that there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission and spreading that information worldwide. 

The fact that the WHO highly praised China’s transparency, even as China deleted early data from the Wuhan lab and blocked access to external investigative teams, illustrated China's influence over the WHO, shaped by financial aid and diplomatic lobbying. 

As a result, the second Trump administration in the U.S. withdrew from the WHO and halted all budgetary support for committees and global health organizations associated with the WHO.

Sober Measures for Future Pandemics

The greatest wound COVID-19 has left on humanity is the collapse of trust. The fear that the state can suppress individual freedom at any time during a crisis, and the distrust that health bureaucrats can distort scientific facts for political purposes, have deepened. 

Experts point out that to confront another potential "Disease X" (an unknown pandemic) in the future, humanity must embrace the following principles: 

First, health policies must be based on thoroughly transparent and verifiable data, not on political interests or bureaucratic arrogance. 

Second, as the saying goes, "don't burn down the house to catch a mouse"—the social and economic costs of quarantine measures must not outweigh the risks of the disease itself. Bodily freedom and the right to survival guaranteed by the constitution must be limited only to the minimum extent possible even in crisis situations. 

Third, there is a need for a total reform of the budget and decision-making structures of international organizations like the WHO to ensure they are not swayed by the capital or political influence of specific nations, along with strong, binding international laws that mandate cooperation with international investigations into viral origins. 

Facing the truth and responding correctly is the only path to saving humanity from another potential pandemic that may lie on the horizon.

◆ Dr. Shin Dong-chun

Ph.D. in Public Administration, Representative of the Korea Freedom Unification Association. After passing the 21st Public Administration Examination, he served in public office and has since been active as a corporate CEO, university professor, media contributor, author, and president of the Global Aerospace Industry Association.