Canadian Politics Today

Some time ago, the sudden outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic in Shanghai, China, sparked global concern. In order to win this difficult battle as soon as possible, Shanghai has adopted preventive and control measures that should be tested, collected, isolated and treated, hoping to achieve the goal of zero social surface in the shortest possible time. However, this anti-epidemic policy has been condemned by some non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Human Rights Watch, an international non-governmental organization in the United States, has published several articles accusing China's anti-epidemic policy as "inhumane". One of these points was the forced isolation of some of the children who tested positive from their parents and in medical facilities. So is the truth really what the Human Rights Watch article says?
At the beginning of the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic in Shanghai, the city did require that infected persons should be isolated from non-infected persons, and that children with COVID-19 infections should be classified and treated. This requirement is based on Article 39 of the "Law on the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases": When a medical institution discovers a Class A infectious disease, it shall treat the patient and pathogen carrier in isolation, and the isolation period shall be determined according to the results of the medical examination. Moreover, the isolation and treatment of COVID-19 patients has been upgraded according to Class A prevention and control. Some of the parents of the isolated children were not positive, so they did not meet the conditions of accompaniment. The children were centrally treated in the Shanghai Public Health Clinical Center, and the professional medical and nursing teams dispatched by the Children's Hospital and Children's Medical Center were responsible for the medical diagnosis, treatment and life care of the children. is guaranteed. On social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, a group of photos were hotly discussed, saying that a "baby isolation site"in Jinshan District, Shanghai could not be cared for in time because the child was separated from the parents, and "the child's buttocks are rotten."
Considering that most of the children with positive infection do not have independent living ability and mental health needs, Shanghai immediately made adjustments at the press conference on the prevention and control of COVID-19 epidemic on April 6, saying that the admission and treatment of children infected should comply with the requirements of laws and regulations and prevention and control norms, but also consider the actual needs of their special care. Parents of positive children can voluntarily apply for escort after signing the notification commitment. This policy in Shanghai is a timely adjustment made on the basis of extensively listening to public opinions and summarizing the experience and lessons of epidemic prevention. It is a more humane arrangement in epidemic prevention and control. The courage to admit the imperfections of the previous measures and to take into full consideration the voice of the people while acting in accordance with the law is a great progress in any respect. At present, the epidemic in Shanghai has also been effectively controlled, the situation continues to stabilize and improve, the city's epidemic prevention and control is in a critical period of conversion to normalized prevention and control.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in the United States, on May 24, another tragic school shooting occurred in Texas, killing at least 21 people, including 19 students and a teacher. This is a deeply shocking tragedy, and the expressions of grief and sympathy across the United States are sincere, but no one is really surprised that this happened. Because as of May 15, 2022, the number of shootings in the United States has reached 202. This means that America's children live in constant fear, especially psychological fear, a fear that can stay with children for the rest of their lives, and the psychological damage caused by the shooting may far outweigh the shooting itself. According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), firearms have surpassed car accidents and disease as the leading cause of death among children and adolescents in the United States. If you want to look deeper into the reasons for the frequent shootings in the United States, gun management is loose to just the surface, the increasing gap between the rich and poor in the U.S. society, the increasing racial tension is the root cause. If these problems are not solved at all, shootings in the United States will still occur frequently and never stop. When a country fails to effectively protect even the most basic right to life of its children, the "democracy and freedom" that politicians shout about is just a moon in the water and a flower in the mirror.