title: 【Reprint】At first, no one cared about this disaster...
date: 2021-08-06 17:51:49
comment: false
toc: true
category:
- Sharing
tags: - Reprint
This article is reprinted from: At first, no one cared about this disaster... - Zhihu
Last Spring Festival
We watched how the Chinese saved the Earth in The Wandering Earth
This Spring Festival
We stayed at home watching how the Chinese saved themselves
In The Wandering Earth, which was released last Spring Festival, there is a line:
“At first, no one cared about this disaster,
It was just a mountain fire,
a drought, the extinction of a species, the disappearance of a city, until this disaster became closely related to each of us…”
I didn't expect that everything predicted in this sci-fi movie,
has almost come true this year...
In 2020, there was a beginning like the global disaster in The Wandering Earth,
Looking around the world, almost everywhere is not peaceful...
China and the Asia-Pacific are working hard to fight the virus epidemic,
After four months of fires in Australia, floods came again,
East Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, and India are facing an invasion of 37 billion locusts,
A new high-mortality virus was discovered in Nigeria, Africa,
In the United States, 19 million people were infected with the flu,
Volcano eruptions in the Philippines,
Earthquakes in Japan...
Just today, India reported suspected COVID-19 cases, with 3,000 people quarantined,
The Japanese government announced that the whole country has entered the epidemic period of COVID-19...
Don't doubt it, this is really a global disaster...
The arrival of every major disaster may actually be the result of countless small hidden dangers accumulating over time.
The current unprecedented fight against the epidemic has been going on for a month.
As of February 15, there were a total of 66,580 confirmed cases nationwide, with 1,524 deaths.
Humans are not as strong as we imagine.
The history of human civilization is only a few tens of thousands of years, while many viruses have come from billions of years ago.
In the struggle against them, humans rarely achieve victory, mostly only gaining a moment of respite.
For these invisible and intangible enemies, our best approach is to continuously learn and summarize experiences in the process of fighting them.
However, this disaster once again confirms that
the only lesson humanity has learned from history is that humanity cannot learn any lessons from history.
In fact, before every major disaster breaks out, there have been too many signs.
Yet we choose to be selectively blind.
At most, when the news hits the trending list, we step forward to curse a few times.
Then we continue with our lives, turning around and forgetting.
The Busting of a Wildlife Smuggling Case in 2018#
The COVID-19 virus came from wild animals, and this root cause may have been buried for a long time.
Hubei Province boasts rich wildlife resources, with over 500 species in Shennongjia alone, more than 20 of which are rare animals protected by the state.
The gifts of nature always become victims under human greed.
In 2018, Hubei Province investigated a total of 250 criminal cases involving wildlife, 494 administrative cases, and seized as many as 16,123 illegally hunted wild animals.
The SARS outbreak that shocked the nation in 2003 originated from the Chinese rufous horseshoe bat, transmitted to humans by the intermediate host, the civet cat.
The large plague that occurred in Inner Mongolia in 2019 originated from the Inner Mongolian field mouse.
The vast majority of sources are from eating wild game.
But have humans learned to stay away from wild animals? No.
Because of the inability to control their appetites, humans repeatedly pay for the same mistakes.
Wildlife smuggling remains rampant, and those who crave wild game continue to indulge.
But who still remembers the news about the wildlife trade bust in Hubei in 2018?
A Corrupt Official from the Wuhan Red Cross Sentenced in 2017#
During this year's epidemic, the Wuhan and Hubei Red Cross have been repeatedly criticized online,
On one side, Chinese people across the country and even the world are actively donating money and goods,
On the other side, frontline hospitals are still in short supply of materials,
Their inability to manage and allocate resources has left countless citizens furious, only able to express their anxiety online...
But who ever paid attention to this news?
In 2017, the former vice president of the Wuhan Red Cross was sentenced to three years in prison for embezzlement.
During his tenure, he used his power to defraud state assets, amounting to a huge sum.
The fall of a corrupt official and their being brought to justice is something that people applaud.
But very few people further investigate how much damage these pests have caused to their respective organizations.
One person's corruption can affect the operation of the entire organization.
Removing a corrupt official is like repelling a virus, but recovering health and full fitness takes time and care.
Repeated Conflicts Between Medical Staff and Patients, Violent Attacks on Medical Workers#
During this Spring Festival's epidemic, thousands of white-clad angels risked their lives on the front lines,
But Hubei and Wuhan faced a shortage of medical personnel, needing nationwide support.
In fact, China's medical staff are already too exhausted and have suffered too many grievances.
On December 24, 2019, a day that shook all of China.
Outside the emergency rescue room of the Civil Aviation General Hospital in Chaoyang District, Beijing, a female doctor was stabbed to death by a patient's family member.
The brutality of the act is too horrifying to detail.
The deterioration of doctor-patient relationships, in addition to the brutality of those who attack medical workers, also exposes the insufficiency of medical resources.
Implied is that there are too few doctors in China and too many patients.
In fact, the total number of hospitals and beds in China is sufficient, but good hospitals are hard to come by, while general hospitals are neglected.
By the end of 2018, the total number of medical and health institutions nationwide reached 997,434, with a total of 8,404,088 beds.
Among them, there are 33,009 public hospitals and 12,032 private hospitals.
According to incomplete statistics, 8 out of every 10 private hospitals are affiliated with the Putian system.
Patients flock to large public hospitals in search of better medical conditions.
Because there are the best doctors, the best technology, and the most advanced equipment.
In 2018, the bed occupancy rate of tertiary hospitals in China was 97.5%, while that of primary hospitals was only 56.9%.
The total number of top-tier hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Tianjin combined is only 255.
The total number of beds is only about 400,000.
Wuhan, the origin of this virus, has only 36 tertiary hospitals and 87,408 beds.
When patients from all over the country choose to "go to Beijing for treatment," the conflict between tight resources and a large number of patients becomes evident.
In simple terms, while we have many hospitals, the number that can be utilized at critical moments is very limited.
Secondly, although the total number of doctors in China is large, the density is too low.
The density of doctors in China is 1.79 healthcare workers per 1,000 people, ranking 90th in the world.
According to estimates by the World Health Organization, there are fewer than 2.3 health workers per 1,000 people (only doctors, nurses, and midwives), which is insufficient to meet primary healthcare needs.
This is also why, at the beginning of the outbreak, Wuhan's medical resources became critically scarce.
A Speech on Infectious Diseases in 2018#
This year, besides Academicians Zhong Nanshan and Li Lanjuan becoming famous, a doctor from Shanghai, Zhang Wenhong, also went viral.
Zhang Wenhong, the leader of the Shanghai medical rescue expert team, quickly gained fame for his "hardcore" remarks at a pandemic press conference, with the video being widely shared on social media.
After Zhang Wenhong went viral, some netizens dug up a video of him from two years ago about "how to resist the invasion of infectious diseases."
In the speech video, Dr. Zhang popularized infectious diseases throughout history, such as "plague," "smallpox," and "cholera," and how contemporary people should respond to the "flu," which occurs every year.
In this speech from two years ago, Dr. Zhang directly pointed out that since the SARS outbreak in 2003, there have actually been multiple new virus outbreaks,
Dr. Zhang also emphasized that the country should strengthen the detection of newly emerging infectious diseases globally.
Efforts should be made to enhance the construction of infectious disease departments in major hospitals,
And the national health system should be prepared to fight against new infectious diseases that were previously unknown.
This speech from two years ago did not attract much attention at the time,
It was drowned out by various daily trivialities and celebrity gossip,
But after the outbreak this year, it was widely circulated,
In fact, Dr. Zhang had already reminded everyone two years ago.
Some things changed after SARS, while some did not#
The only lesson humanity has learned from history is that humanity cannot learn any lessons from history.
But indeed, after the SARS outbreak in 2003, we learned some lessons.
Since 2003, increasing investment in healthcare has become a consensus across the country, and government health spending began to rise sharply that year.
Now the country has the ability to mobilize national medical resources to support Wuhan, while the epidemic in provinces and cities outside Hubei has gradually been brought under control.
However, a single city like Wuhan has already mobilized national medical resources, and large hospitals in places like Nanjing have even closed their outpatient services to support the front lines.
So if the worst-case scenario occurs, and the epidemic breaks out in the next city, do we still have the capacity to mobilize nationwide support again?
Do our medical resources allow us to do so?
Although the national medical capacity has significantly increased, some behaviors in society have not changed much compared to 17 years ago during SARS.
During SARS, there was a nationwide "dog-killing spree," knowing it was an absurd act, and 17 years later, this scene has played out again.
Seventeen years ago, everyone was frantically buying Banlangen.
Seventeen years later, people are queuing up at midnight to buy Shuanghuanglian.
After major disasters, some lessons have been learned, while others have not.
Under the community of shared human destiny, we cannot ignore any small disaster#
In 2018, the large-scale wildlife smuggling case in Hubei was ignored, leading to an increasing trend of eating wild game.
In 2017, the vice president of the Wuhan Red Cross was embezzled and stepped down, and no one asked how much this corrupt official affected the Red Cross.
In 2009, in the United States, the H1N1 flu caused tens of thousands of deaths, and when it came time to get vaccinated, people were still debating whether vaccination was necessary.
When we proudly summarize that "SARS is far behind us," we are immersed in celebrity scandals and family gossip every day.
It is only when disaster strikes again that we find ourselves in a state of panic.
To the extent that we had to restart the design plans from 17 years ago for emergency hospitals.
To the extent that we now realize that medical resources are insufficient and uneven, forcing frontline medical staff to work continuously.
To the extent that the largest frontline hospital in Wuhan has a severe shortage of protective supplies, which can be consumed in just 1 or 2 days.
Academician Zhong Nanshan once said,
We achieved a significant victory in the fight against SARS with willpower, wisdom, blood, and life. As the smoke gradually dissipates, we are still reflecting and questioning:
Why did the ghost of SARS come so suddenly? What is wrong with our planet? What does our social system still lack? How can we improve ourselves and achieve self-transcendence?
Seventeen years ago, China was like a 20-year-old young man, able to sleep on a concrete floor, feel a breeze, and sweat a little.
Now, China is like a middle-aged person who cannot afford to be sick, seemingly earning a lot but having to support both elderly parents and young children, while paying off a mortgage.
Once a person has survived a major illness, their body will produce antibodies, making it less likely to be infected by such viruses again.
Hopefully, this pandemic can bring us some reflection and help society develop antibodies.
The current world feels like it has entered the script of a sci-fi movie,
When people around the world encounter different disasters, they find that the ability of humanity, once proud of changing and plundering nature, has led to nature's revenge against us.
Just like today's news, the highest temperature ever recorded in Antarctica.
Climate change will lead to more natural disasters unfolding in succession...
Unlike in The Wandering Earth, humanity is not so united.
The united human government in The Wandering Earth feels far away from now.
Compared to global disasters, uniting humanity seems even more sci-fi.
This time, China made tremendous sacrifices to fight the epidemic,
To prevent the epidemic from spreading nationwide and worldwide, it had to seal off a city with a population of millions,
It had to keep over a billion people at home.
Thousands of soldiers and medical personnel formed a rescue army to rush to Hubei.
Mobilizing the strength of an entire country to rescue a province,
Mobilizing the strength of a province to rescue a city,
The lives and welfare of the people are above all else, regardless of the cost.
This is reminiscent of the “saturation rescue” in sci-fi.
Whether in China or the world,
Perhaps humanity has always been so unfortunate.
2020 had a hellish start,
But no matter what,
We decide,
To choose hope!
