Just as in the Sewol ferry sinking, government officials botched their response, this time failing to contain the Middle East respiratory syndrome outbreak in its early stages. Most of all, authorities’ insistence on withholding crucial information ― like the names of hospitals affected by the virus ― fanned the spread of the contagious disease.

The next major targets of public criticism were the hospitals that were ill-prepared to deal with MERS patients and potential virus carriers.

On top of this, there were some hospitals and medical staff who angered the already distressed public by behaving selfishly. One good case in point is the senior staffer at the Seoul Medical Center who emailed doctors at the city-run hospital to urge them “not to accept MERS patients.”

But as in past health care crises, most medical staff at hospitals treating MERS patients have been dedicated to protecting the lives of their patients and containing the deadly, contagious disease.

Officials said each MERS patient normally needs two doctors of infectious diseases and eight nurses. With the number of patients steadily growing, the medical staff at government-designated hospitals is severely understaffed, which forces them into exhausting overtime work.

Fatigue and shortage of sleep are not the only things the doctors, nurses and support staff at the MERS hospitals ― who sweat under heavy protective clothes and gear in the negative pressure isolation chambers ― have to fight.

Many of them remain ― or are quarantined ― at their hospitals or designated facilities after their work. Some complain that even their family members are shunned by friends and neighbors.

It is heartbreaking to hear that people’s attitude toward the staff devoted to fighting the outbreak pains them as much as their physical toil and the fear of contracting the virus.

But this society is not so ill-mannered and oblivious as to ignore the dedication and professionalism of those who are bearing the brunt of the gravest health care threat to our society in many years.

Banners thanking the medical staff for their work are sprouting up near the MERS-designated hospitals and people are posting grateful remarks on their social networks and the Internet. Some are even sending gifts like fruit baskets.

The government has decided to subsidize the medical expenses for all MERS patients and living expenses of those in quarantine. Similar rewards should be accorded to the medical staff ― the frontline of the nation’s desperate efforts to stop the MERS menace.