The new government has been in office for more than a week, and the epidemic prevention work has been carried out frequently. First, the flight circuit breaker mechanism in certain regions has been suspended, and the daily quota of mainland health stations has been successfully increased. This week, the "health code" model was announced. A "yellow code" restricts certain persons from entering and leaving certain types of premises.
The director of the Medical and Health Bureau, Lu Chongmao, said the government's goal is to achieve "precise epidemic prevention".
It is understood that the previous government established an inter-departmental steering committee and command center, and appointed 4 expert consultants to provide advice to the government on epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic. , is basically a decision made by Lu Chongmao himself after reviewing the data, which is quite different from the model of former Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor who consulted expert advisors before every major decision.
Some politicians believe that it is unknown whether the government intends to appoint expert consultants again in the future, but for the time being, it seems that Lu Chongmao's decision-making model is more decisive and desirable than in the past, and the loopholes can be filled in time.
▼The press conference on the epidemic on July 11 announced to strengthen the monitoring of confirmed patients▼
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The whereabouts of the government re-election expert group is doubtful Xu Shuchang: it needs to be announced by the government
At the beginning of the outbreak in January 2020, the previous government set up an inter-departmental steering committee and command center, established an expert advisory group, and appointed 4 top scholars in public health, including the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong, Leung Cheuk-wai, and then the School of Public Health of the University of Hong Kong. Dean and Clinical Professor Keiji Fukuda, Professor Yuan Guoyong of Infectious Diseases, Department of Microbiology, HKU, and Xu Shuchang, Professor of Respiratory System, CUHK.
Among them, Futian Jinger retired at the end of last year and went to the United States to start his retirement life.
In the government's anti-epidemic policy, the expert advisory group plays an important role. Carrie Lam relies heavily on the advice of the expert advisers and has frequent meetings with them.
Among them, the fifth wave of the epidemic broke out in January this year. At first, the government did not have the idea of tightening social distancing measures immediately, but Carrie Lam admitted that a WhatsApp message from Liang Zhuowei on the evening of January 4 became the key to changing the government's attitude.
During the peak of the epidemic, Liang Zhuowei, Yuan Guoyong, and Xu Shuchang also frequently received interviews from the media, becoming the "wind vane" for the public to understand the epidemic.
However, after the change of government, the whereabouts of the expert group is doubtful, and the three experts mentioned above have reduced their public speeches recently.
Some media pointed out yesterday that since Li Jiachao took office on July 1, his expert advisory group has not been formally formed, let alone "starting work".
The author has inquired about the whereabouts of the expert advisory group from the Chief Executive's Office and the Medical and Health Bureau since last Sunday, but received no reply before the deadline.
Xu Shuchang simply replied to the author: "Please wait for the government's announcement, nothing to add."
Some politicians believe that Xu Shuchang's reply is enough to imply that the expert group has "disbanded" after the previous government left office, and according to their understanding, the current Chief Executive Li Jiachao and Carrie Lam have a different "hands-on" style, and they are quite hands-off to accountability officials. In decision-making, we only focus on the general direction. Therefore, when the government has made a number of adjustments to epidemic prevention policies recently, Lu Chongmao's decision-making is basically "one husband in charge".
Chen Kaixin: Lu Chongmao has checked multiple data and made decisions decisively
Chen Kaixin, a former political assistant to the Secretary for Food and Health and a member of the Legislative Council, said that, based on his past experience in government, the government not only seeks advice from the consultants of the expert committee, but also has many experts within the Medical and Health Bureau and the Center for Health Protection, who can also consult with the government. Provide opinions; besides, when Lu Chongmao attended the Legislative Council meeting and was interviewed by the media recently, he explained in detail the reasons behind each policy change. For example, the nucleic acid test was required on the third day of quarantine in designated hotels from July 8, because The current virus strain usually develops on the third day after infection. It is believed that Lu attaches great importance to scientific data when making decisions, and does not make decisions arbitrarily.
She pointed out that the current government's implementation of the health code model, strengthening nucleic acid testing, and requiring home quarantined patients to wear electronic bracelets are actually loopholes in the previous government's anti-epidemic period, which has been proposed by lawmakers for many times but has not significantly improved.
"Professor Lu is an expert himself and has his own set of concepts for epidemic prevention policies. The new government took office just 11 days to target these loopholes to improve. I think it is a desirable, responsible and decisive performance." She believes that with good health It will be much easier to negotiate customs clearance with the mainland in the future, because the policy has strengthened the docking.
Chen Kaixin also believes that it is unknown whether the government intends to re-appoint the expert advisory team, but in principle, if officials intend to seek the opinions of public health experts, they can usually ask, and they do not have to be "named" as government expert advisers. The needs of different stages are very different: "If the next stage of the epidemic prevention policy focuses on improving the application of technology and tracking the confirmed cases, then I believe that infectious disease experts may not know the answer, but need scientific and technological experts, so this is not monolithic, it depends entirely on the current needs. "
Tang Jiahua: Secretary has been authorized to adjust measures
Tang Jiahua, a member of the Executive Council, said that the Director of the Medical and Health Bureau has been authorized to adjust the epidemic prevention measures, and the procedures do not necessarily need to be discussed in the guild. Individuals fully support the real-name system of "travel with ease", and use health code points to distinguish patients, high-risk people and those who are unaffected. Infected people, stressed that according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, personal freedom and privacy cannot take precedence over public health.
Health Code│Home quarantined people travel with peace of mind and must wear an electronic wristband. Netizens are worried that some people have concealed the electronic wristband. People who are sent to home quarantine on Friday will be given a health code. Mao: The sooner it is launched, the better it will be to identify the confirmed cases.
7.11｜From Friday, patients at home must wear electronic bracelets to travel safely and prepare red and yellow codes