Reflections on the Participation of Social Organizations in the Prevention of COVlD-19

Liao Wenjing,Lin Xiangpeng,Liu Liang,Dou Lele,Wang Shuling

(School of Business Administration,Shenyang Pharmaceutical University,Shenyang 110016,China)

Abstract Objective To study the problems of Chinese social organizations in participating in the prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic so that we can standardize the participation mechanism,improve the collaborative management mechanism,and promote the development of social organizations.Methods Through the analysis of CNKI,news reports,industry conferences and other data,combined with the current situation,the participation of social organizations in public health emergencies were investigated.Results and Conclusion The coordination between government and social organizations is not good.Social organizations in the field of public health are unable to stand out in a timely manner.The public do not have self-management ability.Some of the media spread rumors.Besides,most social organizations are highly dependent on the government and they are ack supervision.Social organizations should be incorporated into the emergency management system and national hub-based social organizations must be established.In addition,supervision should be strengthened to increase the credibility of social organizations.The responsibilities of community and emergency management at the grassroots level should be enhanced.The public opinion response and disposal system should be improved.Lastly,the responsibility of social organizations in the field of public health must be fulfilled.

Keywords: social organization;public health emergencies;emergency management;government and community cooperation;charity

Since the beginning of 2020,COVID-19 has swept the world,killing millions of people,curbing globalization,severely impeding the economy,and profoundly changing the world pattern.Even though China is the first country to control the COVID-19 pandemic,in the early breakup of COVID-19,social organizations have many problems in the participation of the pandemic control,such as poor coordination of social resources,unsmooth operation of some charitable organizations,and the ineffective assistance in rural areas.General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed that “Winning the war against COVID-19,we must rely on the people”.The prevention and control of COVID-19 is not only the task of government,but also the responsibility of the whole society.Only through close cooperation between the government and society can public health emergencies be effectively managed.

At the beginning of 2021,the pandemic started a new round.There were 1+55 medium and high risk areas in China.The outbreak of pandemic in Hebei and Heilongjiang provinces showed the weak prevention the rural areas,which gave us an early warning.This article analyzes the problems of social organizations in the prevention of COVID-19 to provide some thoughts for the cooperation between the government and social organization with an efficient response to public health emergencies.Because of its strong infectivity,all parties in the society must take part in the prevention of COVID-19.Therefore,the social organizations studied in this paper include not only enterprises,social organizations,foundations,charitable organizations,but also autonomous organizations such as village committees and neighborhood committees.

1 Support from all parties -contributions of social organizations during the pandemic

At the initial stage of the pandemic,enterprises,foundations,industry associations,charities and other social organizations mainly provided assistance for raising and distributing medical materials in Wuhan and its surrounding cities,using the legal platforms for social fundraising,matching supply and demand of materials under the original business mode with the help of information platforms.Voluntary teams were formed spontaneously by non-governmental forces,using relatives,friends,and interpersonal networks to participate in local aid work such as donation of materials,online consultation,psychological consultation,information integration,material and personnel transportation and other services.The materials received by the five charity organizations designated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs are shown in Table 1.In terms of public opinion,media also played an early warning and supervision role.Early insiders took the lead in releasing the initial information of the pandemic through new media such as WeChat and Weibo.Therefore,they became the “whistle-blowers” in the eyes of the public.Some mass media even triggered hot discussions and thoughts on the Internet through on-site reports and in-depth articles.

Table 1 Materials received by the five charity organization designated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs during the pandemic

2 Slight flaws -problems of social organizations participating in pandemic prevention and control

Although social organizations play an important role in the prevention and control of the pandemic,their participation had some problems,such as the rigid operation of some government-run charities,the blocked distribution of social organizations’ resources,the serious formalism of prevention and control by grassroots organization,and the rumor from some wemedia.Specifically,there are the following points.

2.1 There are defects in the coordination mechanism of social organizations resources

First,social organizations lack the overall view and the coordination view.The internal response mechanism,mobilization mechanism and coordination mechanism of these organizations have not been effectively established.As a result,the collection and verification of supply and demand information are insufficient.Besides,the information is not transparent,resulting in low efficiency of resource allocation[1].

Second,some social organizations are not aware of getting help from other parties.They are unable to fully conduct diversified cooperation with large logistics and Internet companies to establish information exchange mechanism,which can improve the efficiency of aid[2].In the early days of COVID-19,five charity organizations designated by the Ministry of Civil Affairs still handled the business according to normal measures.As a result,when more materials poured into Wuhan,the donations received in a short time instantly exceeded the operation capacity of these organizations.For instance,Red Cross Society of China Wuhan Branch,at the beginning,had only a dozen staff members,as well as some volunteers recruited temporarily.Therefore,it was unable to complete the workload hundreds of times beyond its ability.Thus materials piled up in the warehouse which could not reach the front-line personnel.However,other organizations that had the capacity to play a bigger role were not allowed.Eventually,they failed to distribute the materials effectively,leading to a systemic collapse[3].Later,the solution was solved by getting the assistance of the modern logistics company.

Third,social organizations have not been included in the national emergency management system,and it is difficult for them to get support from relevant government agencies.Taking the emergency logistics transportation as an example,although social organizations can quickly collect resources,they are not included in the emergency relief system by the government,and it is difficult for them to effectively coordinate with the government in material distribution.In addition,during the period of COVID-19,all regions were closed to each other,leading to serious disruption in transportation and distribution.

2.2 The self-management capacity at the grassroots level is insufficient

Firstly,the neighborhood (village) committee,which is the key autonomous organization in China,has a serious administrative dependence and can hardly carry out its work independently without the guidance of the government.Administrative thinking makes most community workers focus on completing the tasks assigned by superiors.They are not good at cooperating with other governance subjects,resulting in poor community service supply.Secondly,medical institutions such as rural grassroots health centers and clinics are not able to diagnose the pandemic because of limited facilities.In addition,when the pandemic is under control,the public gradually feel relaxed.

2.3 Some we-media fabricate facts to mislead public opinion

In the era of attracting eyeballs,some we-media are keen on fabricating facts to stir up public sentiment.During the period of COVID-19,many articles on hot topics became popular on the Internet,gaining as much as nearly 100 times attention than usual.But some of these articles ignored the facts for the sake of profit.For example,“The Last Words of Doctor Li Wenliang”tried to consume the emotions and sympathy of netizens.Many articles attempted to provoke social opposition by reporting the son of Academician Zhong Nanshan who wore Hermes.Besides,there were many false reports about the deputy director of the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission who ran away after contracting COVID-19.

2.4 Lack of talents in the field of public health

Social organizations in the field of public health,such as hospital associations and doctors’associations that can connect the government and society and provide them with accurate information,failed to provide professional guidance for other social organizations in demand identification,risk aversion,and scientific action[4].Therefore,the government should cultivate talents in the field of public health.

2.5 Lack of supervision system of charitable organizations

At present,the officially registered charitable organizations in China are mainly managed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and other departments,but they do not carry out supervision on social organizations.For those organizations that are not officially registered,the supervision of government departments is almost zero.Moreover,the supervision from the society is mainly realized by news media,insiders,and other means,which is contingent.For the whole charity organizations,the supervision is not satisfactory.It is difficult to avoid the material distribution incident of Red Cross Society of China Wuhan Branch.

3 Countermeasures for the participation of social organizations

3.1 Integrating social organizations into the national emergency management system to have a better cooperation

In the field of emergency management of pandemic prevention and other disasters,if the government wants to enhance the quality of disaster relief and improve the efficiency and fairness of resource allocation,it should bring social organizations into the national emergency management system to promote the construction of a sound mechanism of political and social cooperation with information sharing and resource coordination.In addition,more space should be given to social organizations to fulfill their responsibility[5].A national hub-based social organization should be set up to provide timely information,integrate and coordinate the resources,and work as a comprehensive platform for communication and exchange between the government and society.Representative of non-governmental organizations should be included in the emergency response center,so that they can cope with the disaster with the government[6].

3.2 Enhancing grassroots ability and building disaster prevention communities

Grassroot community is the basic unit of organizing residents’ life,and its disaster prevention is of great significance to the whole society.The community’s strategy of disaster prevention and mitigation is to rely on all residents to carry out disaster management with the assistance of all parties.Although China has established the grass-roots mass self-governance system to achieve the corresponding goals,it needs more reforms.

First,the phenomenon of administrative dependence of community governance should be cleared[7].The government should further clarify the responsibilities of communities and help the neighborhood (village) committees return to the nature of autonomous organizations according to law.The community Party Committee should focus on leading and supporting the neighborhood (village) committee to guide residents to participate in public affairs.The community service station shall realize the functions of self-governance and service for the residents[8].

Second,the neighborhood (village) committee should be given the right to allocate materials independently to a certain extent.A community emergency materials reserve and use system,even emergency reserve fund system can be established,which will help neighborhood (village) committee to solve the problem of insufficient emergency special materials.Therefore,residents can have more material economic support for pandemic prevention and control.

Third,the practice of government workers to guide community work during the pandemic should be normalized.This not only enriches the grassroots forces,but also makes the government departments play a role in the front line.On this basis,we should strengthen the community personnel setting and establish a long-term mechanism of “community reports,and all parties work together”.In case of emergency,the government will take action in time,which will help to improve the efficiency and make governance more flexible[9].

Fourth,we should make full use of the Internet and big data technology during the pandemic.On the one hand,various government APPs,can be integrated to build a comprehensive intelligent platform at the community level,which can collect and analyze the basic information,such as the needs and feedback of community residents.It can comprehensively cover the party,government,agriculture,business,people’s livelihood,and other grassroots governance,and accurately serve the masses[10].On the other hand,resources from all parties should be integrated to build comprehensive platforms such as medical care,psychological counseling,skill training,and legal aid for the community,which will improve the cooperation between the community and social organizations.In addition,information collection and early risk warning can be preset through the community smart platform.The “direct reporting system” can be set up to realize information sharing and enhance the community risk prevention and control[11].

Fifth,communities and social organizations should be guided to actively cooperate and integrate resources.Meanwhile,the horizontal governance function of social organizations should be given play.Enterprises and public institutions can participate in community governance,and their obligations and responsibilities must be stipulated to realize multigovernance[12].

Sixth,the general practice clinics should be encouraged to set up[13],which can promote the classified diagnosis and treatment to avoid the instant obstruction of medical system in case of emergency[14].

Seventh,solid and effective education on pandemic prevention and control should be carried out to enhance people’s awareness of disaster.

3.3 Guiding citizens to rationally participate in pandemic prevention and control through online platforms

First,we should ensure that information is open and transparent.The Internet new media makes the public opinion more complicated.After the outbreak of an emergency,the whole society will discuss it.Due to the public information asymmetry,cognitive limitations and different demands and other reasons,there is often false and illegal information online,misleading public opinions,which can cause panic and endanger social stability.Only by ensuring the openness and transparency of information,we can avoid confusing the public opinions[15].Second,the timeliness of public opinion disposal should be taken into consideration.On the premise of timely response,online and offline overall solution can be offered to stop deception[16].Third,the quality of information supply should be improved.When the era of 4G came,the decentralized new media with fast speed were welcomed by the public.To a large extent,the public’s emotion is more important than the authenticity of information,and the post truth effect is obvious.The government must improve the means of consensus and the quality of information supply.It should change the focus from post-supervision to pre-shaping to make the online information true and inspiring[17].

3.4 Strengthening personnel training in the development of social organizations

At present,talents in the field of public health in China are insufficient.The government should increase the number of graduate students in public health and preventive medicine.Besides,we must improve the quality of these students by increasing the investment in the discipline of public health and preventive medicine.The professional curriculum should be improved as well.The compound professionals with solid theoretical knowledge of preventive medicine and applied medical emergency skills must be cultivated to input enough talents for the society.At the same time,we should strengthen the support for social organizations in the field of public health by purchasing their services to the public and other social organizations.As a result,they can play their full role at the critical moment and become the leader in the public health emergencies.In addition,it can also promote different social organizations to build a talent resource integration platform for better cooperation.

3.5 Improving the regulatory mechanism to enhance the credibility

The poor performance of some charity organizations in the pandemic has industry led to the trust crisis.Trust is the foundation of charity organizations.Under this context,charity organizations should improve their supervision system,strictly implement the information disclosure regulations to ensure the transparency of donation such as fund raising,financial management,and material distribution.This can effectively guarantee that donors and the public have the right to know and supervise the information.At the same time,a sound news spokesman system should be established to release information to the public in a timely,comprehensive,and accurate manner.Besides,the system of board of directors must be introduced to strengthen internal supervision[18].In terms of external supervision,a public evaluation fund can be established based on third-party supervision.Therefore,they can be free from the impact of the value orientation of the demand party and the beneficiary side of the evaluation,and conduct an objective evaluation in a fair,impartial and neutral manner[19].In addition,a platform can also be built with the help of blockchain technology to supervise resources,thus reducing regulatory costs and expanding regulatory scope.Lastly,public welfare project information should be released actively to enhance the credibility of charitable organizations and promote their sound development[20].