[Analyzing the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic Response Governance and Policy (January 2020-December 2021)]

The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 virus caused the the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which was a first for the twenty-first century and an infectious disease that spotlighted the importance of the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency to public health. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency promptly implemented testing, treatment, and social distancing measures. Only a thorough analysis can evaluate the efficacy of the agency's COVID-19 response policies. It would be challenging to characterize the lessons and preventative actions learned from the findings as accurate insights. This paper analyzes the COVID-19 pandemic response strategy and governance from January 2020 to December 2021 by placing actions taken within the conceptual framework of infectious disease management policy. This strategy establishes a valuable policy evaluation framework that can integrate limitations of policy decisions in response to pandemic infectious diseases with imbalancing ripple effects. Infectious disease control countermeasures provoke an unexpected secondary outcome, like reduced economic growth or social isolation. It is very difficult to balance these negative consequences with the effectiveness of preventing infectious diseases. In other words, infectious disease prevention strategies can be specific obligations in specific contexts that are derived from ex post accountability. Therefore, infectious disease response policy assessment requires a step-by-step framework to evaluate potential negative impacts, and it is important to set parameters in advance to resolve competing interests arising in particular contexts.