CHAPTER 3: Accumulated Epidemiological Lessons and China's COVID-19 Response
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Published:27 Apr 2022
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Special Collection: 2022 ebook collection
C. Xie and L. Gao, in The Coronavirus Pandemic and the Future Volume 1, ed. M. D. Waters, A. Dhawan, T. Marrs, D. Anderson, S. Warren, C. L. Hughes, ... C. L. Hughes, The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2022, pp. 50-62.
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This chapter attempts to examine the logic of China's response plan during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, and thus provide a critical analysis from the perspective of fear and trust. China's experience and lessons from the emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2003 held particular significance and implications in formulating its epidemiological perspective and response to COVID-19. Both cases demonstrate that the biggest challenge for any public health strategy is to strike a delicate balance between concern for public opinion and the initiation of exclusionary protective measures. The adjunct of modern technology can reach a wider public audience to either reduce or escalate public fear and hence validate a long-standing view that the capacity to govern can determine a government's performance in epidemic control and prevention.