Why is the health code repeatedly abused?

​Last night, Henan Minquan County issued a notice that in order to ensure that the risk of the epidemic does not spill over and that no one is missed in the nucleic acid testing of all staff, it decided to implement "code assignment management for all personnel", including red codes for township and street personnel in 7 high-risk areas. , and the rest are given a yellow code. This meant that, overnight, everyone in the county could not go anywhere.

This simple and rude practice has been urgently stopped today by the Shangqiu Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters. But no matter what, the impact has already been caused, and this incident seems to once again confirm people's general concerns: although the above three orders and five declarations, there are always some places where people are given red codes and yellow codes casually. The question is, why are health codes repeatedly abused?

While many people tend to see this as a local fad, it seems odd that it might be a rational decision if you consider their situation.

Take a look at this round of epidemic situation in Minquan County, and you can count it: on July 25, the county officially announced 2 cases of asymptomatic infection, and since July 30, two new cases have been added every day, and the cumulative number of confirmed infections has been confirmed yesterday. There were 224 cases, and spilled over to the adjacent counties and cities of Ningling and Yongcheng. What if you were the decision maker?

Although all confirmed cases in this round of the local epidemic are asymptomatic, let alone critically ill, not even mild, the absolute requirement of "clearing" can conceivably put enormous pressure on local epidemic prevention decisions. The epidemic has been controlled within the county and has been cleared. It seems that the only way in the past two years is to conduct round after round of nucleic acid testing of all staff, repeated screening and isolation, and to achieve this, it is necessary to block the flow. It's best to keep the whole area still.

At this stage, it is only a matter of piercing a layer of paper from the "code assignment". Whether it was Qianshan County, Jiangxi Province, which ordered the traffic lights in the whole county to be changed to red lights last year, or Xingtai, Hebei and other places to implement "global static management" drills under the condition of zero infection, the purpose is the same: in an emergency, implement temporary Control to ensure that no one escapes screening.

At this point, for decision makers, the choice is clear at a glance: the red code and the yellow code are indeed simple and rude, but it works, and even the only choice under urgency is a temptation that is difficult to refuse - after all, if You refrain from using this last resort. In case someone slips through the net and the epidemic cannot be controlled, the black gauze cap may be lost within a few days, but the code assignment will not have such serious consequences. Who will be fired for this?

Even if it is "immediately corrected", for local decision makers, the posture has already done enough: I have taken all the firmest measures to stop the spread of the epidemic, and now it is called to stop, well, the ball is kicked to you , ask your superiors to issue better epidemic prevention instructions, and I will follow suit. In this case, at least he will not be sacked because of "ineffective epidemic prevention".

The reason why the health code has been repeatedly abused lies in the internal contradiction of the current epidemic prevention requirements: local decision makers have assumed full responsibility. At the same time, the management of the health code itself has been subject to political needs, so it is difficult to expect localities to resist the temptation and not regard it as an effective means of control.

This spring, I heard from a friend in the south: In the past, when someone from the local area came to Beijing to petition, it would cost an average of 20,000 yuan per person to arrest him or her, but now it is much simpler, just give him/her a red flag Code, I'm sure I can't go anywhere.

Shenzhen, which was once praised as "the ceiling of China's cities" on the Internet due to the rapid closure of the city at the beginning of this year, recently launched a "group code". As long as one person does not have a nucleic acid test, the entire building will be assigned a yellow code. Of course, its purpose is also to achieve "everything that should be checked", but there is no doubt that the scope of the yellow code has been arbitrarily expanded, implicated originally innocent people.

Here, the yellow code has become an administrative coercive method forcing everyone to submit to nucleic acid testing, which not only ignores individual rights, but even exerts pressure on individuals with a collective responsibility system. Although Shenzhen has long relied on uninterrupted nucleic acid testing to maintain the normal operation of the city, and the citizens have been very cooperative, the implementation of the "group code" has reached a new extreme - you may find that because of one of your own Neighbors you don't know didn't stab you in the throat for some reason, and you can't even go home now.

Therefore, although the incident in Minquan County came out, some people could not help but mutter: "Why is Henan again?" Because there have been more than one incidents of giving red codes to village bank depositors before in Henan, but this is not only happening in Henan. Maybe there are some places where the political ecology lacks corresponding checks and balances, but technically speaking, in a necessary emergency, it is entirely possible for any of us to fall.

Faced with this situation, what can be done?

In theory, the most reasonable should be "let medicine belong to medicine, and politics belong to politics": how to do epidemic prevention should respect science and follow the opinions of experts. This can not only avoid unnecessary accidental injury, but even if the epidemic is not prevented, it is the responsibility of the experts.

In order to prevent the abuse of the health code, it should have been handled by the local health and health commission according to medical logic, but this itself means that medical discourse has gained a certain degree of independence, and can resist unreasonable administrative orders accordingly.

We are all aware of the reality in China, not to mention the lack of medical resources and infectious disease experts in small places, even in Shanghai, we have seen what happened in the end. In short, "epidemic prevention is so important that it is not just a doctor's business." If it is not prevented, which expert can bear such a responsibility?

In other words, the crux of this matter is actually a result-oriented unlimited liability system, but if there is a set of standard handling procedures, as long as the local epidemic prevention personnel operate according to this, even if the final result is not prevented, they will be procedurally If you did nothing wrong, you should not be held accountable. Only in this way can they seriously follow the procedures. However, this can easily be seen as a naive view, because it is common in our daily life that if something goes wrong, it is your fault, and there is no escape.

In reality, to prevent local decision makers from assigning red and yellow codes arbitrarily, the most likely evolution may be to accept the authority: since code assignment has such a great impact on people's lives and involves rights in all aspects of individuals, then this At least it should be decided by the provincial level and even the National Health Commission. Of course, this brings another problem, which is that the workload is also concentrated, and it is more difficult to make judgments and decisions quickly.

As you can see, all of this is intertwined. As long as these mechanisms are not changed and the epidemic prevention requirements for clearing zero are not changed, then the abuse of health codes is nothing more than a question of "where next time". Frankly, this question is unsolved.

Is there any better choice for ordinary people? It is probably only possible to live in a place with a higher bottom line as much as possible. There is no other way.