Science and Technology Daily: Experts conclude what China has done to protect its people amid COVID-19 pandemic

BEIJING, June 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- A news report by Science and Technology Daily:

President Xi Jinping presided over a symposium on June 2 attended by experts and scholars. After this important meeting, some of the experts in medicine, public governance and law discussed how China's multi-dimensional response to the epidemic has achieved initial victory.

Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor of respiratory medicine at Guangzhou Medical University, told Science and Technology Daily, "In fighting the epidemic, China pressed 'pause' on its economy. All medical workers have endeavored to save every patient and never give up, working as meticulously as one would when embroidering."

In the medical treatment of COVID-19 patients, China has mobilized an unprecedented amount of national resources to carry out large-scale medical treatment, without missing any infected cases or giving up on a single patient. Treating severe cases has been one of the highest concerns of China's top leaders.

Tong Zhaohui, vice president and chief physician of Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital affiliated with Capital Medical University, and a member of a medical team dispatched to Hubei, recalled that after listening to his report, President Xi inquired about the cost of treatment for severe and ordinary patients, and noted that the combination of the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine is one of the major characteristics of China's COVID-19 response.

The whole country is fighting the epidemic as if playing a game of chess, relying on overall planning and coordination, and especially the command system, experts said.

Xue Lan, dean of Schwarzman College and professor of the School of Public Policy and Management of Tsinghua University, believes that China's command system has been very strong in fighting the COVID-19 epidemic. The Central Leading Group for Novel Coronavirus Prevention and Control and the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council have played a huge role in quickly mobilizing all forces across the country and coordinating various resources.

China has also attached great importance to popularizing laws and regulations on the safety of public health and epidemic prevention and control, as well as promoting the whole of society to act in accordance with the law.

Wang Chenguang, a professor at the School of Law of Tsinghua University, and the executive vice chairman of the Chinese Society of Health Law, said that China has raised the strategy of Healthy China to the level of the law. It has also built a public health legal system with the Basic Healthcare and Health Promotion Law as its foundation, and multiple laws as the main body, such as the Law on the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, the Emergency Response Law, the Frontier Health and Quarantine Law, and the Drug Administration Law. This system ensured that epidemic prevention and control is conducted in compliance with the law.

In addition, the combination of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine is a vivid example of making innovation while carrying forward the best practices of TCM.

Zhang Boli, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of the TCM University in Tianjin said that President Xi has put forward a number of requirements for the construction of the national public health system. These include building a disease prevention and control system, strengthening early monitoring and early warning capabilities, further improving the abilities to treat major infectious diseases, enhancing the organization and leadership of TCM work, popularizing public health safety and epidemic prevention laws and regulations, increasing investment in science and technology in the field of healthcare, and continuing to actively fulfill international obligations. In addition, he also pointed out the direction for future work.