"You can endure a fever up to 39.4 C" ... A-ol-i's Korean medicine doctor boyfriend draws backlash from physicians' group as a 'doctor who could kill people'

[Financial News] The physicians' group has issued a statement and pushed back against fever-management advice posted on social networking service by Kim Hyung-bae, a Korean medicine doctor known as the boyfriend of popular influencer A-ol-i.

According to the medical community on the 25th, the Association of Physicians for a Fair Society released a statement that day and strongly criticized Kim's remarks on fever.
Earlier, Kim posted a video on his Instagram about the "characteristics of a family of Korean medicine doctors," saying they do not take cold medicine even when they catch a cold. When a user asked under the video, "Do you just endure it even if you have a fever?" Kim responded that "adults can try enduring it up to 39.4 C, and children up to 38.5 C."
In its statement, the Association of Physicians for a Fair Society said, "A high fever of 39.4 C can indicate a serious illness and requires prompt diagnosis," adding that "if diagnosis is delayed, the risk of severe complications or death can increase."
The group explained that the causes of fever range from simple upper respiratory infections to pneumonia, encephalitis and sepsis, so blood tests and X-rays should come first to identify the cause.
The association also questioned the source of the temperature threshold. It said, "It is difficult to find any medical guideline that says to observe a fever until 39.4 C," and added, "If you search with AI, you will see advice to use antipyretics and physical cooling from 39.5 C, but that is only a condition set by one paper for an experiment."
It continued, "The patients in that study were already undergoing culture tests and receiving antibiotics, and not a single patient was left untreated until 39.5 C." It added, "He applied a standard used for patients who have already undergone fever testing and received 24-hour intensive care to people at home."

The group also took issue with Kim using "doctor" in his account name and the phrase "Korean medicine doctor" in his profile. It said, "He reversed the word order of the government's official English title for Korean medicine doctors, Doctor of Korean Medicine, so that it would be read as a Korean 'doctor,'" adding, "What users actually see is only the account name 'doctor,' which could easily lead the public to mistake him for a medical doctor."
It also said, "There are concerns that this incident could become a second 'Anaki' case, reviving a situation that put children at risk with countless pieces of false medical information."
The group demanded that Kim delete the false medical advice and apologize. It also urged the Ministry of Health and Welfare to change the official English title for Korean medicine, and called on the National Assembly and the government to establish institutional measures to prevent Korean medicine doctors from using labels that could be mistaken for those of medical doctors.
[email protected] Seong Min-seo Reporter