Seoul’s Halloween & Pandemic Panic

Another reason to regret draconian Covid lockdown policies? Maybe the 151 killed in stampede at Seoul Halloween Celebration as 100K+ packed a narrow street for 1st time after restrictions listed & went crazier still?

Like all such “accidents” triggered by panic, this tragedy did not have to happen. According to the WSJ relying on Seoul police officials, “the victims [including another 82 injured] were people in their teens … The deadly crowd crush appeared to have occurred [at night] in a narrow downward-sloping alleyway near the Itaewon subway station.” All it took was for “several celebrants” to trip, push or simply bump into one another in the dark and as they fell forward, they apparently started a human tsunami that grew with increasing speed. In one horrible alleyway scene, “a pile of people [were] stacked several rows high.”

As the WSJ noted: “Officials had anticipated crowds of roughly 100,000 people in Itaewon, which is in central Seoul. The turnout was even larger, given that it was the first time since the start of the pandemic that many Covid-19 restrictions – such as limits to operating hours & outdoor-mask mandates – had been lifted.” Could it have been a case of too much government control to begin with and too little in the end?

Davd Soul