A sudden national infectious disease broke many of our daily illusions.

It turns out that in places where urban civilization has gained a firm foothold, there are still so many people chasing game regardless of taboos. It turns out that our public health system is still full of loopholes and has not fully learned the lessons of 17 years ago. It turns out that the so-called rumors are sometimes "leading predictions", which are enough to save lives at critical moments. It turns out that 17 years later, we still have only one Zhong Nanshan who dares to break the taboo and tell the truth.

Although "the only lesson that human beings have learned from history is that they have not learned any lessons from history" is frequently mentioned, the history that happened can help us understand all kinds of chaos during the epidemic period, and at the same time, compare the gains and losses of the government and the people in coping with it.

The following six books allow us to examine the relationship between virus and urbanization, public health system and politics, rumors and truth from different dimensions. I hope that this special Spring Festival will not only leave us with panic, anger and emotion, but also a deeper understanding of the country and society.

Author: [America] Laurie Garrett
Publishing House: Life Reading Xinzhi Sanlian Bookstore
Original title: The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World Out of Balance
Translator: Yang Qiming/Yang Ning
Publication year: 2017-1

It’s been 17 years since SARS, but apart from the collection of media reports, memoirs of doctors and heroic deeds, there is still no comprehensive reflection book with enough weight, which is one of the reasons why many mistakes in that year are repeated today. Although the reflection of Chinese people is far from enough, foreign journalists who are concerned about the epidemic will certainly not miss this infectious disease that has spread all over the world.

Although The Approaching Plague focuses on the second half of the 20th century, it records the discovery and study of Ebola, Lassa fever, AIDS and other infectious diseases by human beings, and observes how the source and vector of the disease change to deal with the defensive weapons of human self-protection.

In the preface of the Chinese version, the author makes the following analysis on the far-reaching impact of SARS:

For political leaders, SARS woke them up. China’s leaders saw the cost of keeping the epidemic secret, because the whole world was dissatisfied with denying the existence of this new disease. Canadian leaders and Hong Kong, China SAR government officials found that they had neglected the infection control measures in hospitals, which eventually turned hospitals into centers of SARS transmission. It is really regrettable. The leaders of the United States originally felt at ease, convinced that their own centers for disease control really had the ability to protect the American people from the threat of microorganisms, and now they are suddenly concerned about the impact on national security in case of an outbreak of SARS.

This kind of reflection comes down in one continuous line with another main line of this book, that is, improper medical measures, wrong public health policies, short-sighted political actions or omissions have become "accomplices" of the virus again and again.　

For example, the former Soviet Union always fabricated all kinds of false data about infectious diseases and public health, and its leaders were eager to announce that they had made great achievements in disease control and could compete with capitalist Europe and North America.

Author: [America] Steven Johnson
Publishing House: Translated Words, Dongxi Library/Electronic Industry Press
Subtitle: How does the London plague reshape today’s city and world?
Translator: Xiong Tingyu
Publication year: 2017-1

Whether it is SARS or 2019-nCoV virus, the general consensus of the public is that the disaster comes from game, and the wild animal market in the blank area of health and epidemic prevention has become a "time bomb" in the city. It seems that the problem can be solved as long as the behavior of eating game is punished in accordance with public opinion.

However, why are so many people willing to take risks for a mouthful of game when modern aquaculture is so developed? This is not a problem that everyone can solve by shouting. This is a tenacious legacy of the agricultural era in urban civilization, and it is also an externalization of the desire for power to break through the urban order.

Two widespread epidemics in 20 years have prompted us to reflect on how to completely dismantle these "time bombs" and stop the spread of the virus from the source, which is the only way for us to truly enter the urban society.

In fact, a plague in London more than 160 years ago is an important driving force to shape today’s cities, and the map of death tells the story behind it.

Before that, London was dominated by scavengers, dealing with the urban infrastructure with a population of 2.5 million — — Garbage collection, public health departments, sewage treatment centers, etc. have not yet appeared. Overflow of feces, cross-flow of sewage and foul smell are the urban landscapes that Londoners are used to, and they have also become hotbeds of cholera. At that time, every four or five years, there was an outbreak of cholera in London, which claimed tens of thousands of lives and then spread to the whole of Britain.

Why does cholera spread? John snow, a doctor, found through field visits that a large number of cholera cases in London occurred in poor areas lacking sanitation facilities. He got the detailed addresses of all the people who died of illness and marked the death cases with black bars on the map, showing that the source of infection was a public well, and the deaths in cholera were distributed and spread around the well.

In the face of this "map of death", the London government began to make up its mind to improve public health facilities and set up a large-scale water supply network, all equipped with pressure and filtration devices. The British experience was later copied by other European countries, the United States and Japan. Because of this map, there has never been a large-scale cholera epidemic in London since then.

Author: [America] Nathan • Nathan Wolfe
Publishing House: Zhejiang People’s Publishing House
Subtitle: How to deal with the next epidemic outbreak?
Original title: The Viral Storm: The Dawn of a New Pandemic Age
Translator: Shen Jie
Publication year: April 2014

If john snow’s "death map" is an early big data analysis tool, today, pervasive digital monitoring is fully capable of finding and responding to the epidemic in time before it turns into an epidemic. Nathan Wolfe, the founder of Global Viral, an independent research institution dedicated to early detection and control of epidemics, discussed the epidemic prediction in the era of big data in the book "Virus Attack".

Google engineers have established a system to predict influenza trends by searching for influenza-related keywords, which is more accurate than the influenza data provided by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During the pandemic of influenza A (H1N1) virus in 2009, two British computer scientists tracked the frequency of influenza-related information on Twitter and compared the results with official health data, and found that the accuracy rate reached 97%.

In the last chapter of this book, the author conceives the future doomsday of epidemic disease — — With the help of epidemic aggregation map. This is an information map that includes the location of all people, infected microorganisms, mobile places and people they contact, and combines digitalization and biology. In the author’s view, "an organization like Google has helped us create a ‘ Global nervous system ’ , if we want to have an equivalent to ‘ Global immune system ’ Things need to develop new methods that combine government and non-government systems and use the latest methods and technologies. "

This time, operators and mobile apps have been used to accurately locate, track the moving trajectory and the spread path of the epidemic, and lock the people who have been exposed by infected people. It’s just the enlightenment of Weibo and other network platforms looking for fellow passengers, which reflects the "fault" in the operation mechanism of joint control and joint defense, and the tear between digital identity and real identity of different platforms, which is still far from Nathan Wolfe’s ideal.

At the same time, while building a detailed prevention and control network, how to deal with privacy leakage is becoming increasingly urgent — — Think about why the private information of Wuhan returnees is flying all over the sky in various WeChat groups.

Author: (Japan) Iijima involved
Publishing House: Social Science Literature Publishing House
Subtitle: Health Institutionalization and Social Change
Original title: ペストと Modern China: Health, Institutionalization and Social Capacity.
Translator: Park Yan/Yu Xinzhong/Jiang Bin
Publication year: 2019-4

The establishment of public health system in any city or country must pass the barrier of infectious diseases, and it also means the expansion of state power. Plague and Modern China combs the formation of health system in modern China at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century, and how the epidemic of infectious diseases reshaped social organization and promoted the concept of "public health".

According to the author’s research, for the plague at the end of the 19th century, the Qing government still followed the previous response to the plague, that is, ordered local officials to take appropriate measures. As a result, when the bubonic plague was prevalent in Guangzhou, it was the civil society that took the actual prevention and control measures.

Both this book and the works taught by Liang Qizi point out that charitable organizations such as Shantang and local organizations such as squire, guild hall and office played an important role in saving lives and coping with epidemics in the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

However, this mode of "government funding and private implementation" gradually declined with the intervention of colonial power. During the struggle of various powers in the Republic of China, the health system and the right to epidemic prevention and quarantine eventually became part of the state power. The modern health system and the resulting social mobilization have enabled the government to successfully intervene in society.

In fact, the establishment of health system is a part of China’s modernization. Like many things at that time, a country must have these supporting departments and systems, otherwise it cannot be included in the international rules of the game. A top-down "health movement" is not due to the awakening of public rights, but more to the political needs of different periods.

This book makes us think about how to examine the relationship between the government and social forces in the public health system after the epidemic, especially how to prevent the state from taking more rights from the public in the name of public health.

Author: (France) Jean-Noel • Capferre
Publishing House: Shanghai People’s Publishing House
Subtitle: The oldest media in the world.
Original name: Rumours: Le Plus Vieux Media Du Monde
Translator: Zheng Ruolin
Publication year: 2018-1

On December 31st, eight people who first published information about novel coronavirus were investigated for "spreading rumors", but after the outbreak of the epidemic, they were regarded as "Eight Rightists" by the people, so that the Supreme People’s Court personally wrote a document about the rumors of new pneumonia. Like any public event, from the beginning of this epidemic fermentation, rumors are bound to accompany you all the time, especially when the credibility of official institutions and media is in jeopardy.

Whether it is the official news that has been repeatedly hit in the face, the constantly reversed online public opinion or the gossip that breeds everywhere, the "dishonesty" and collective panic about authoritative sources are fertile ground for rumors. In the vague articles of the Supreme Court, rumors are legally recognized as expressions of "false information". When patients who have not been rescued in time ask for help online, the accusation of "spreading rumors" has become an iron fist rained down.

Rumor, a natural product of public opinion, is regarded as a derogatory term with only negative effects by both the government and the people. However, this may be a "China characteristic". The book Rumor: The Oldest Media in the World pointedly points out that the definition of rumor is only "an unconfirmed news" and "authenticity" does not belong to its definition.

As a kind of "gossip", rumors should not be derogatory. When people want to know something and don’t get an official reply (or don’t trust the official reply), rumors will be rampant. It can be said that rumor is the black market of information, and the change of rumor content is not only a distortion of information, but also a part of the process of people reaching an agreement.

Only by treating rumors as an expression of collective consciousness and a projection of collective emotions, and guiding and relieving them through timely and transparent information disclosure, instead of simply and rudely judging them as "false information", can we avoid the contradiction of the Supreme Court in the face of rumors ("not all false information should be legally cracked down, but at the special moment of decisive battle against new pneumonia, some rumors must be severely cracked down").

Author: Lien Teh Wu
Press: Hunan Education Press
Subtitle: Lien Teh Wu’s Self-report (I)
Original title: Plague Fighter: The Autobiography of a Modern Chinese Physician
Translator: Cheng Guangsheng/Ma Xuebo/Wang Lifeng (School)
Publication year: 2011-3

Because of this sudden virus epidemic, Lien Teh Wu, the "chief medical officer of epidemic prevention in the three northeastern provinces" who almost put out the plague in Northeast China by himself 110 years ago, was once again mentioned by everyone, and a hundred thousand+articles came into being. However, as Douban user @ Reading Lake pointed out in What is the "Lien Teh Wu Miracle", the primary factor to achieve this "miracle" is the absolute support of the "patron" at the central level under the background of the official system reform in the late Qing Dynasty.

In fact, the word "patron" is exactly what Lien Teh Wu himself said in his autobiography Plague Fighter. On the title page of this autobiography, Lien Teh Wu dedicated the book to two people, one was Sir William Napier Shaw, his mentor when he was studying in Cambridge, and the other was Ke Sze Sao, the nephew of Tang Shaoyi, the first Prime Minister of the National Government.

It is the full support of Ke Sze Sao, the right-hand man of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the full authorization of Xi Liang, the governor of the three northeastern provinces, for the "airborne cadres in the central government" that enabled Lien Teh Wu to "break the routine and resolutely and flexibly implement various epidemic prevention measures according to its own will."

On January 20th, Zhong Nanshan took the lead in making it clear to the media that there was human-to-human transmission, and confirmed for the first time that medical staff were infected, breaking the information blockade of local governments. The 84-year-old man had to come out again to break the deadlock after 17 years, echoing Lien Teh Wu more than 100 years ago.

As Weibo blogger @ Yan Hong said: He needs not only scientific achievements, but also political prestige and the right to speak in public. You need empowerment to make a person dare to speak, speak safely, be heard, and be useful. The reason why Zhong Nanshan has no successor is here, and no one is empowered. It is not easy for Zhong Nanshan to get this empowerment.