Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
for “the happiness of the people and the power of the country. the care of the public
health is the first duty of the statesman.”'
Effects on Domestic Governance in China
While the epidemic inflicted significant short-term economic damage to Pacific Rim
economies, it also had important implications for intra-state governance. the SarS
epidemic exposed significant problems in China's governance structure. Initially,
the government chose not to publicise the outbreak for fear that this would have a
negative impact on economic development. the information clampdown persisted
even after the epidemic spread to beijing, in part because the party-state did not want
SarS to ruin the meeting of the national People's congress (nPc), a showcase for
its highly controlled and carefully staged version of participatory democracy. by
early april, it was evident that SarS had already raised the eyebrows of the central
leaders. Yet the government's ability to formulate a sound policy against SarS
was impeded by lower-level government officials who intercepted and distorted the
information flow up the chain of command. It was alleged that Beijing municipal
authorities, for example, deliberately hid the actual SarS situation in the city from
the party centre. Initial deception by lower-level officials led the central leaders to
misjudge the situation and declare on 2 april that SarS had already been brought
under effective control.
The cover-up paralleled the absence of effective official response to the original
outbreak. as late as 20 January the ministry of health was aware that a dangerous
new type of pneumonia existed in Guangdong. However, china cDc did not issue a
nationwide bulletin to hospitals on how to prevent the ailment from spreading until
3april. It was not until midapril that the government formally listed SarS as a disease
to be closely monitored and reported on a daily basis under the law of Prevention
and treatment of Infectious Diseases. the chinese government thus waited more
than three months before taking decisive action. this lack of 'sensitivity' was to large
extent caused by the problem of 'connectivity' (i.e., interdepartmental cooperation).
In addition to the tensions among different levels of health authorities, coordination
problems existed between functional departments and territorial governments, and
between civilian and military institutions. organisational barriers also delayed the
process of correctly identifying the cause of the disease. In fact, china cDc had
to negotiate with local disease-control centres to obtain the virus samples. as the
number of new cases in Beijing grew rapidly, a significant burden was imposed
on the healthcare system, particularly its hospital capacity. overwhelmed by the
extraordinarily high flow of traffic through emergency rooms in mid April, major
hospitals in beijing took few measures to reduce the chances of cross-infection. the
crisis raised serious concerns about the capacity of the health systems in resource-
poor regions to cope with a pathogenic challenge on the scale of SarS.
Paradoxically, the SarS crisis also granted an opportunity for the chinese
government to address internal governance problems. as albert o. Hirschman (1991)
 
 
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