Recently, epidemics have occurred in many places in mainland China. The number of confirmed cases and the number of asymptomatic infections have hit new highs since the outbreak in Wuhan more than two years ago. Many places have adopted stricter control measures, and even implemented global static management or Lock down the city, lock down the city.
From March 14th to 20th, Shenzhen, a first-tier city at the forefront of China's reform and opening up, pressed the pause button and decided to conduct nucleic acid testing for all employees and stop all non-essential flows and activities, which is equivalent to entering a semi-closed city.
On the evening of March 27, Shanghai, China's largest city, decided to start from the 28th, with the Huangpu River as the boundary, to seal the city in two batches, to implement closed management of residential quarters in the closed area, and to implement closed production for all enterprises. Or work from home, and suspend the operation of buses, subways, ferries, taxis, and online car-hailing.
Shenzhen and Shanghai, two of China's top cities, have adopted such strict epidemic prevention measures in response to the epidemic, revealing that under the current situation, the epidemic prevention policy in mainland China should still be more stringent.
Of course, this does not prevent mainland China from adjusting and optimizing epidemic prevention policies in a timely manner according to the situation of the epidemic, the characteristics of the virus and the progress of preparations to support the loosening of epidemic prevention policies in the future, but it will not rashly relax control for now or in the short term.
On March 19, the website of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and State Supervision Commission published an article "The Cost of Epidemic Prevention and Control is a Big Account", which analyzed: "From the perspective of cost-effectiveness, through dynamic clearing and precise prevention and control, my country has guaranteed The normal production and life of the vast majority of people in most areas has reduced the inconvenience caused by the epidemic and even mental health problems; from the perspective of cost-effectiveness, the key to the economic benefits brought by prevention and control costs is to calculate Large accounts and dynamic accounts. It is not comprehensive and objective to calculate cost-effectiveness only based on the location of the epidemic and the cost at the time of the epidemic. The country should be taken as a whole to calculate the large economic accounts, social accounts and people's livelihood. Accounts. Adhere to dynamic clearing, but also international accounts. While maintaining its own economic and social development, China has made important contributions to maintaining the stability and smoothness of the global industrial chain and supply chain and the growth of the world economy.” This content is in some kind of To a certain extent, it can explain why mainland China still adheres to a dynamic zero policy that is far stricter than that of Western societies.
Considering the values and ethics of most Chinese people, as well as the relatively limited per capita medical resources and medical science level in China, the distribution of medical resources between urban and rural areas and regions is seriously uneven, and a relatively high proportion of the elderly and patients with underlying diseases have not been fully vaccinated Vaccines, China continues to take relatively strict epidemic prevention measures, which has its inherent logic.
After all, in the early morning of March 14, Zhang Wenhong, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University, wrote in the article "The most difficult period in the two years since the fight against the epidemic, whether it was a long winter night or a cold spring": "Through the recent Judging from the current situation in response to the epidemic, whether it is psychologically or in terms of the allocation of social resources, we have not been prepared to deal with a large number of cases at the same time, and now the full opening will inevitably lead to a run on medical resources, resulting in unpredictable excessive deaths.”
But opposing the full opening or lying flat does not mean the expansion of epidemic prevention or one-size-fits-all, layer-by-layer overweight.
In fact, on March 17, the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China demanded to "carry out prevention and control work strictly and practically" and "overcome paralyzing thoughts, war-weariness, fluke mentality, and a relaxed mentality", and at the same time emphasized "to improve scientific precision. The level of prevention and control, and continuous optimization of epidemic prevention and control measures", "To coordinate epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, take more effective measures, strive to achieve the greatest prevention and control effect at the least cost, and minimize the impact of the epidemic on economic and social development. ".
This shows that although China's epidemic prevention measures will become stricter in the short term, it still pursues precise and scientific epidemic prevention, and hopes to reduce the cost as much as possible.
Shanghai Epidemic｜Measures to Support Enterprises Released by Local Government: Supporting the Import of New Crown Vaccines and Therapeutic Drugs
Dr. Zhang Wenhong said that whatever is lasting must be moderate and sustainable.
As the hazard of the epidemic and the fatality rate of the virus are gradually decreasing, the epidemic prevention measures in Western countries are gradually loosened, and China's development is inseparable from the in-depth interaction with the world. The impact of strict epidemic prevention on normal life and economic and social development is becoming more and more obvious. In this context, how to make China's epidemic prevention more lasting and effective, and more worthy of the test of people's hearts?
The author believes that at present, mainland China urgently needs to do at least the following three points.
First, bail out companies and people who have been hit by strict epidemic prevention policies.
this point is very important.
In the past two years or so, the epidemic has occurred repeatedly. In order to prevent the epidemic, many places have taken measures to prevent and control the epidemic. In the process, it will inevitably bring a considerable impact on the survival of many enterprises and people.
Many businesses have either closed or lost money, and many self-employed or driver groups who have opened small stores are facing great pressure.
For many people, whether it is to repay the mortgage, car loan and business loan, or to maintain the basic monthly living expenses of the family, they all depend on hard work. Once they are hit by the epidemic and cannot work, they will immediately fall into trouble. The virus may not It hurts them, but the pressure of repayment and survival threatens to drive them into a corner.
The so-called "stop and stop", for a considerable number of people who have no savings, it is not just a simple joke.
A few days ago, a man in Jinjiang City, Fujian Province was detained by the local administrative department for 5 days when he passed the epidemic prevention checkpoint and falsely claimed that going out to buy vegetables was actually work.
This sad news reflects the plight of people's livelihood in many places.
On March 29, the Comprehensive Development Research Institute published an article "After the "Pause Button", the Road to Bailout for Shenzhen's Commercial Enterprises", which mentioned that the retail chain industry in Shenzhen faced three major problems in the week when the pause button was pressed, " One is the loss of revenue caused by the closure of large-scale stores and the loss of revenue. Over 30% of the companies have lost more than 10 million yuan in revenue a week, with a maximum of more than 100 million yuan. The cost pressure is further highlighted under the operating state; the third is the extra labor, consumables, logistics and other expenses borne by supply-guarantee companies such as supermarkets and agricultural product supply chains.
Fortunately, according to the comprehensive development research institute, "Recently, Shenzhen has issued anti-epidemic relief measures at the city and district levels in turn to help market players tide over the difficulties."
This is very necessary. The key is to implement it, to provide targeted relief, and to help those companies and people who have suffered more damage and are in real difficulties to survive the hardship and restore confidence.
After all, only when local governments provide real money to help those enterprises and people in difficulty will the strict epidemic prevention policy be understood, and it is possible to unite more people and achieve the effect of epidemic prevention as soon as possible.
On March 28, Shanghai staff wearing protective clothing went to Fengxian District to distribute vegetables and eggs to citizens.
(Associated Press)
Second, when adopting epidemic prevention and control measures, in addition to maintaining the normal supply of living materials and reducing the difficulty of buying vegetables, we must ensure the normal medical needs of patients other than the new crown, especially those with urgent medical needs. Patients should open up green channels, and try not to close the emergency department of the hospital.
There were many tragedies when Xi'an was closed earlier, including a pregnant woman who miscarried because she was not hospitalized in time, and a heart patient who died because she was not admitted to the hospital in time.
Recently, a four-year-old girl in Jilin province died while waiting to be hospitalized, and a nurse in Shanghai died of an asthma attack due to untreated asthma.
The repeated occurrence of such tragedies during the epidemic prevention period is enough to remind all localities to ensure the normal medical needs of patients other than the new crown when deciding to adopt strict epidemic prevention measures.
After all, it is not the patients with the new crown that are the patients. The new crown disease must be treated, and the non-new crown disease must also be treated. We cannot favor one over the other.
The original intention of epidemic prevention is to cure diseases and save people. If this causes other diseases to die, wouldn’t it be a departure from the original intention?
Third, China should prepare for the adjustment and optimization of the epidemic prevention policy in the future, and allow some cities with suitable conditions to try it first.
In any case, China's biggest achievement in epidemic prevention is obvious, that is, when the epidemic is raging around the world, China has spared the vast majority of its citizens from being infected and protected the lives and health of the vast majority of people.
China has become the only major economy to maintain positive growth amid the global economic woes caused by the impact of the epidemic in 2020.
This is very remarkable.
Of course, behind this is the hard work of countless epidemic prevention personnel and the cooperation of most citizens.
Now, if China wants to make the epidemic prevention policy more lasting and effective under the new internal and external situation, so that the epidemic prevention achievements accumulated in the past two years or more will not be overshadowed, it needs to plan ahead, according to the changing trend of the epidemic, the changing characteristics of the virus and The fact that the West is increasingly opening up has made early plans to explore a path that will not cause a large number of people to die from the epidemic as in the West, but can also ensure the normal life of the people and allow everything to return to normal in an orderly manner.
At present, although many people in Chinese society are no longer afraid of the epidemic and are able to recognize the new changes in the toxicity of the virus, because China is too big and there are too many people, the differences between regions and different groups are relatively large, which makes There are still a lot of people who are prone to being overly fearful of epidemics and viruses. Whenever they hear about an epidemic, they tend to panic.
One of the reasons why it is easy to expand epidemic prevention when an epidemic occurs in many places in China, and take measures close to a semi-closed city at every turn, is precisely because of such a social atmosphere.
This situation is inseparable from the excessive publicity of the epidemic and virus hazards in China in the early stage.
Today, under the new internal and external situation, Chinese society needs to consider guiding the public's understanding of the epidemic and the virus in an orderly manner at the level of public opinion and publicity, and reduce unnecessary fears.
Dr. Zhang Wenhong once suggested in his article on March 14: "We must take advantage of the rare opportunity and window period brought about by the social reset that will definitely come, and prepare for a more complete, smart and sustainable development. Strategies for coping, including: universal third-dose vaccination for the elderly, better vaccines and vaccination strategies, widely available oral medications, affordable and widely available home testing kits, effective training and rehearsal The strategy of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment, the process of home isolation in the future, the complete prevention and control system and the preparation of sufficient medical resources required for the next larger-scale import and the local epidemic, etc. A reporter asked me a few days ago why I have received so many vaccinations. The vaccine can’t lie flat, I said that these preparations are not ready, can you lie down?”
Zhang Wenhong’s suggestions are very important. I hope that China will make good use of the precious time window obtained by the current strict epidemic prevention, to optimize the follow-up epidemic prevention policies, to open up to the world sooner or later and people’s lives to return to normal, and prepare early.
In this process, cities like Shanghai that have the conditions and willingness to explore may wish to give more patience and time.
Recently, due to the spread of the epidemic in Shanghai and the current measures to block and control the river, Shanghai has been under considerable pressure, and many people have even attacked Dr. Zhang Wenhong, who has been advocating the "catch mice in ceramic stores" epidemic prevention model for more than a year. .
This should not be the case. Under China's actual national conditions, Shanghai's closure and control measures against the Yangtze River are not completely contradictory to the precise epidemic prevention measures of "catching mice in ceramic shops" in the past two years. The two are complementary. The strategy depends on the situation of the epidemic, which is a process of dynamic adjustment. The current spread of the epidemic in Shanghai and the closure and control measures on the Yangtze River should not negate the huge efforts and active attempts of Shanghai in the past two years to "catch mice in ceramic stores".
It is believed that with the support of China's epidemic prevention experience in the past two years, the epidemic in Shanghai will be brought under control soon.
At that time, China should give Shanghai more space, allowing Shanghai to continue to set out on the basis of summarizing and reflecting on the experience and lessons of the past two years of epidemic prevention, and to explore and experiment for the optimization of epidemic prevention policies.