The third working session of AmCham China’s Social Impact Initiative (SII) public health track was held on November 13, 2020, and was attended by over 40 stakeholders from the public health ecosystem representing the private, public, and research sectors. The topic of the working session, “Disease Prevention and Emergency Response,” focused primarily on vaccine development and emergency response and management. To summarize the content of the third working session, AmCham China published Impact in Action Brief #3: Disease Prevention and Emergency Response, which is open to the public. The full brief can be read here.
As pointed out in the report, the spread of disease has a significant impact on economic development and growth. “The World Bank has estimated that the global economy could shrink by 5.2 percent in 2020 because of COVID-19, while global trade flows could decrease by anywhere from 13 to 32 percent.” On top of this, chronic disease is one of the main causes of death in China. As a result, China has made serious investments in public healthcare. “‘Healthy China 2030,’ China’s signature policy framework places health at the center of its socio-economic development, and disease prevention and control is very much at the forefront of this initiative.”
Given the context, it was imperative that SII’s Working Session focused on disease prevention and emergency response. The objective of the SII is to foster discussion under the AmCham China platform among stakeholders across the spectrum to tackle issues in public health.
During the Working Session, participants carried out in depth discussions on the two focus points: vaccine development and emergency response and management. Following each session, participants developed a number of policy recommendations to improve disease prevention and control strategies and enable the private sector to support government-led initiatives to achieve mutual public health objectives. These included, redefining the nature of public-private partnerships for public health, connect hospitals across China by enhancing data sharing capabilities, policies, and platforms, disease prevention and control capacity-building programs should be implemented at the local level, and more.
The Action Brief #3 lays out each of these policy recommendations in detail, and continues by giving an overview of disease prevention, especially in the context of China. While focusing on COVID-19, the article also pays considerable attention to other chronic diseases and infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS and SARS. This section analyzes China’s public health system, explaining that while the government is taking on various initiatives to develop their public health care, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in China’s healthcare system and health emergency response systems.
Following this, the brief examines each of the discussion topics: vaccine development, and emergency response and management. Each section begins with by giving an overview on its development and background in China. Then, it highlights what was discussed in the working session, and outlining key questions that were tackled, as well as different strategies and recommendations.
If you want to learn more about SII and are interested in getting involved, join us for the 2021 Social Impact Summit on March 25, a full-day conference that brings together key stakeholders to drive real changes in China’s micro-, small-, medium-sized enterprises and public health sector. Register here.