One Pandemic, Two Solutions: Comparing the U.S.-China Response and Health Priorities to COVID-19 from the Perspective of “Two Types of Control”

Abstract

After three years of global rampage, the COVID-19 epidemic, the most serious infectious disease to occur worldwide since the 1918 influenza pandemic, is nearing its end. From the global experience, medical control and social control are the two main dimensions in the prevention and control of COVID-19. From the perspective of “two types of control”, namely medical control and social control, this paper finds that the political system, economic structure, and cultural values of the United States greatly limit the government’s ability to impose social control, forcing it to adopt medical control to fight the virus in a single dimension. In contrast, China’s political system, economic structure, and cultural values allow its government to adopt stringent, extensive, and frequent social control, as well as medical control to fight the virus. This approach departs from the traditional pathway of fighting the epidemic, i.e., “infection–treatment–immunization”, thereby outpacing the evolution of the virus and controlling its spread more rapidly. This finding helps explain why the Chinese government adopted a strict “zeroing” and “dynamic zeroing” policy during the first three years, at the cost of enormous economic, social, and even political legitimacy. It was not until late 2022, when the Omicron variant with the waning virulence became prevalent, that China chose to “coexist” with the virus, thus avoiding a massive epidemic-related death. While the United States adopted a pulsed-style strategy at the beginning of the epidemic, i.e., “relaxation–suppression–relaxation–suppression”, and began to “coexist” with the virus in just one year, resulting in a large number of excess deaths associated with the epidemic. The study contributes to explaining the difference in the interplay between public health priorities and COVID-19 response strategies in China and the United States, based on the specific public health context and the perspective of “medical control” and “social control”.

Association Between Baseline Echocardiographic Parameters and Acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 Infection in Hospitalized Patients

“…We retrospectively enrolled consecutive patients hospitalized in our center from November 2022 to February 2023. This was the nationwide outbreak period of COVID-19 infection in China, during which most people were infected with COVID-19 for the first time [ 12 , 13 ]. The inclusion criteria were (1) patients aged 18 years and older; (2) patients for whom echocardiography was performed; and (3) patients for whom the COVID-19 test was performed by polymerase chain reaction assay.…”

“…However, the differences in baseline clinical and echocardiographic parameters between patients infected and not infected with COVID-19 remain unclear, especially for the Omicron variant. After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China strongly controlled the disease, with restrictions gradually relaxed in November 2022 [ 12 , 13 ]. Following this, the number of patients infected with COVID-19 increased sharply and contributed to the nationwide outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (the Omicron variant wave) in China [ 12 , 13 ].…”

“…After the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China strongly controlled the disease, with restrictions gradually relaxed in November 2022 [ 12 , 13 ]. Following this, the number of patients infected with COVID-19 increased sharply and contributed to the nationwide outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic (the Omicron variant wave) in China [ 12 , 13 ]. During this period, people were exposed to COVID-19 at the same time and most patients were infected with COVID-19 for the first time.…”

Editorial: Language and culture in organization and consumer behaviors

“…The intersection between language and culture and digital technology presents many opportunities and they will also become more prevalent and important in modern society (Lee and Daiute, 2019 ; Lee et al, 2023 ; Lyu et al, 2023 ). On the one hand, with the development of digital technology, the corresponding products and services are launched to the global market, so companies need to consider the user experience from different languages and cultural backgrounds (Guy, 2019 ).…”

Trajectories and predictors of emotional exhaustion in clinical nurses in the context of healthcare crisis: a case study in Xi’an, China

“…Since the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, China has taken strict control and prevention measures and followed the dynamic zero-COVID policy (Cheng et al, 2021). It was not until late 2022, when the Omicron variant with the waning virulence became prevalent, that China chose to "coexist" with the virus, thus avoiding a massive epidemicrelated death (Lyu et al, 2023). The relaxation of epidemic control measures led to a large-scale infection within a short period of time.…”