Combo of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine is a major factor
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.
“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.” — Zhong Nanshan, professor of respiratory medicine at Guangzhou Medical University.
The question
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.
Key points
Treating severe cases has been one of the highest concerns of China’s top leaders. 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.
Some believe 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.
Law works in China
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. 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.
