scholarly journals China's Public Health Policies in Response to COVID-19: From an “Authoritarian” Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinghua Gao ◽  
Pengfei Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Wide Range

Background: China is generally regarded internationally as an “authoritarian” state. Traditional definitions have assigned many negative connotations surrounding the term of authoritarian. We realize that it might not be considered value-neutral in other countries. But authoritarian in the Chinese context emphasizes more on centralized decision making, collectivism, coordinating all activities of the nation, and public support, which is considered a value-neutral term. Therefore, it is adopted in this paper. We would like to clarify this. Authoritarian governance is considered an important mechanism for developing China's economy and solving social problems. The COVID-19 crisis is no exception. Most of the current research on crisis management and government crises focuses on advanced, democratic countries. However, the consequences of crisis management by authoritarian governments have not been fully appreciated. Although prior research has addressed authoritarian initiatives to manage crises in China, authoritarian interventions have rarely been theorized in public health emergencies.Methods: Based on a literature review and theoretical analysis, we use a descriptive and qualitative approach to assess public health policies and mechanisms from an authoritarian perspective in China. In light of the key events and intervention measures of China's government in response to COVID-19, the strategic practices of the Communist Party of China (CPC) to construct, embody, or set political goals through authoritarian intervention in public health crisis management are discussed.Results: China's government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic with a comprehensive authoritarian intervention, notably by establishing a top-down leadership mechanism, implementing a resolute lockdown, rapidly establishing square cabin hospitals, enhancing cooperation between different government departments, mobilizing a wide range of volunteer resources, enforcing the use of health codes, imposing mandatory quarantine on those returning from abroad, and implementing city-wide nucleic acid testing. These measures ensured that China was able to contain the outbreak quickly and reflect on the unique role of the Chinese authoritarian system in responding to public health crises.Conclusions: Our paper contributes to expanding the existing understanding of the relationship between crisis management and authoritarian system. China's response to COVID-19 exemplifies the unique strengths of authoritarian institutions in public health crisis management, which is a helpful and practical tool to further enhance the CPC's political legitimacy. As a socialist model of crisis management with Chinese characteristics, it may offer desirable experiences and lessons for other countries still ravaged by the epidemic.

scholarly journals What Caused the Outbreak of COVID-19 in China: From the Perspective of Crisis Management

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. 3279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ziheng Shangguan ◽  
Mark Yaolin Wang ◽  
Wen Sun
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Management System ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Health Management ◽  
Information Management System ◽  
Government Control ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Public Health Crisis

Since the first known case of a COVID-19 infected patient in Wuhan, China on 8 December 2019, COVID-19 has spread to more than 200 countries, causing a worldwide public health crisis. The existing literature fails to examine what caused this sudden outbreak from a crisis management perspective. This article attempts to fill this research gap through analysis of big data, officially released information and other social media sources to understand the root cause of the crisis as it relates to China’s current management system and public health policy. The article draws the following conclusions: firstly, strict government control over information was the main reason for the early silencing of media announcements, which directly caused most people to be unprepared and unaware of COVID-19. Secondly, a choice between addressing a virus with an unknown magnitude and nature, and mitigating known public panic during a politically and culturally sensitive time, lead to falsehood and concealment. Thirdly, the weak autonomous management power of local public health management departments is not conducive for providing a timely response to the crisis. Finally, the privatization of many state-owned hospitals led to the unavailability of public health medical resources to serve affected patients in the Wuhan and Hubei Province. This article suggests that China should adopt a Singaporean-style public health crisis information management system to ensure information disclosure and information symmetry and should use it to monitor public health crises in real time. In addition, the central government should adopt the territorial administration model of a public health crisis and increase investment in public health in China.

scholarly journals Learning From the Past: Distributed Cognition and Crisis Management Capabilities for Tackling COVID-19

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 729-735 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seulki Lee ◽  
Jungwon Yeo ◽  
Chongmin Na
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Distributed Cognition ◽  
The South ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
South Korean ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Learning Path ◽  
Core Capabilities ◽  
Management Capabilities

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has presented an unprecedented public health crisis across the globe. Governments have developed different approaches to tackle the complex and intractable challenge, showing variations in their effectiveness and results. South Korea has achieved exceptional performance thus far: It has flattened the curve of new infections and brought the outbreak under control without imposing forceful measures such as lockdowns and travel ban. This commentary addresses the South Korean government’s response to COVID-19 and highlights distributed cognition and crisis management capabilities as critical factors. The authors discuss how the South Korean government has cultivated distributed cognition and three core capabilities—reflective-improvement, collaborative, and data-analytical capabilities—after its painful experience with 2015 Middle East respiratory syndrome-coronavirus (MERS-CoV). South Korea’s adaptive approaches and its learning path examined in this commentary provide practical implications for managing potential additional waves of COVID-19 and a future public health crisis.

scholarly journals Authoritarian Surveillance: A Corona Test

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-103
Author(s):  
Azadeh Akbari
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Analytical Integration ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
State Form

As the world seemed undecided in praising China’s crisis management through what was formerly called networked authoritarianism (MacKinnon 2011), countries such as Iran showed no interest in extending its notorious political surveillance practices into the public health arena. Consequently, this paper asks if the umbrella term “authoritarian surveillance” used by many Western and non-Western scholars (including myself) can do justice to the practices witnessed during the COVID-19 pandemic in countries such as Iran? Could any act of arbitrary or oppressive surveillance be categorised as authoritarian surveillance? Does authoritarian surveillance necessarily correspond to an authoritarian state form? This paper summarily reviews the political theories of authoritarianism and the current discussions on authoritarian surveillance. By scrutinising Iran’s inability to apply its political surveillance tools during a public health crisis, the paper argues for an analytical integration of other socio-political concepts, such as state legitimacy, and economic potentialities, such as infrastructural capacities, into discussions of authoritarian surveillance. Consequently, the paper proposes a situated understanding of authoritarian surveillance contextualised within social, political, economic, and historical interrelations.

scholarly journals Dengue 2009-2017: Políticas Públicas de Salud en la Provincia de Córdoba / Dengue 2009-2017: Public Policies in Health in the Province of Córdoba

2018 ◽  
pp. 25-37
Author(s):  
José Emilio Ortega ◽  
Santiago Martín Espósito
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Aedes Aegypti ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
National Context ◽  
Careful Evaluation ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

El dengue es una enfermedad de interés en salud pública por su impacto en la morbilidad y mortalidad en el contexto mundial, regional y nacional. En 2009, la recolonización del Aedes aegypti, vector del dengue en la Argentina y en la Provincia de Córdoba generó una crisis sanitaria. Analizaremos el rol de Estado Provincial como responsable de políticas públicas sanitarias, abordando la implementación de éstas a partir de una evaluación razonable y cuidadosa de la realidad, teniendo en cuenta que el derecho a la salud, analizado en clave del Estado Social de Derecho, es un verdadero derecho fundamental. Dengue is a disease of interest in public health due to its impact on morbidity and mortality in the global, regional and national context. In 2009, the recolonization of Aedes aegypti, a vector of dengue in Argentina and in the Province of Córdoba, generated a health crisis. We will analyze the role of the Provincial State as responsible for public health policies, addressing the implementation of these policies based on a reasonable and careful evaluation of reality, taking into account that the right to health, analyzed in the Social State Law, is a true fundamental right.  

Wir müssen abwägen – aber wie sollen wir abwägen?

2021 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-66
Author(s):  
Lutz Wingert
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Health Policies ◽  
Public Health Policies ◽  
Individual Health ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Prospect Of Success ◽  
Moral Questions

Abstract The global Covid-19 crisis raises at least three moral questions, which my contribution answers as follows: (1) Which patient should get treatment according to triage criteria? The patient whose treatment has the best prospect of success. (2) How should we resolve the conflict between public health measures and economic needs? Public health should have priority, but reaches its limits where the individual right to stay afloat through one’s own work is violated. (3) How should we resolve the conflict between public health measures and civil liberties? Public health should have priority, but reaches its limits where the restriction of freedom violates the integrity of individual health and personal freedom. The answers and the arguments behind these are developed through the discussion of a wide range of current public health policies, concrete measures, and competing approaches to moral questions in the Covid-19 pandemic.

Clarification of the Concept of Risk Communication and its Role in Public Health Crisis Management in China

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (5-6) ◽  
pp. 834-836
Author(s):  
Wuqi Qiu ◽  
Cordia Chu
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Risk Communication ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Research Field ◽  
World Health ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Crisis Events ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
New Research

ABSTRACTRisk communication plays a very important role in the prevention of public health crisis events and has been considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be 1 of the main functions of an emergency public health crisis. However, it is a relatively new research field in China, so many people have mistaken understandings of risk communication. This article will describe the concept and importance of risk communication and briefly introduce the role of risk communication in public health crisis management. It also provides information for the prevention of public health crisis events in the future.

scholarly journals What Influences Physicians’ Online Knowledge Sharing? A Stimulus–Response Perspective

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Xiaojia Dong ◽  
Xinxiang Xu ◽  
Jiahui Guo ◽  
Feng Guo
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Psychological Perspective ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Public Health Crisis ◽  
Positive Effect

During the COVID-19 pandemic, online health platforms and physicians’ online knowledge sharing played an important role in public health crisis management and disease prevention. What influences physicians’ online knowledge sharing? From the psychological perspective of stimulus–response, this study aims to explore how patients’ visit and patients’ consultation influence physicians’ online knowledge sharing considering the contingent roles of physicians’ online expertise and online knowledge sharing experience. Based on 6-month panel data of 45,449 physician–month observations from an online health platform in China, the results indicate that both patients’ visit and patients’ consultation are positive related to physicians’ online knowledge sharing. Online expertise weakens the positive effect of patients’ consultation on physicians’ online knowledge sharing. Online knowledge sharing experience weakens the positive relationship between visit of patient and physicians’ online knowledge sharing, and enhances the positive relationship between patients’ consultation and physicians’ online knowledge sharing. This study contributes to the literatures about stimulus–response in psychology and knowledge sharing, and provides implications for practice.

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