China Should Remove Red Tape for Disease Control Agencies, Official Says

China should cut bureaucracy in its health sector and grant more freedoms to disease control organizations, the head of the country’s top agency for epidemic prevention has said.

Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), said at a major annual political conference in Beijing that “micromanagement” from health administrators was hindering the agency’s smooth operation.

“The key to reforming disease control systems does not lie in whether they have administrative powers, but in keeping their technical work free from administrative interference,” he said.

Gao’s comments, which echo those of other high-profile health officials, come as the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, meets in Beijing to discuss the country’s response to the deadly coronavirus pandemic and chart a path toward normality.

In a speech to the country’s top political advisory body, Gao, who is also a prominent virologist, said the outbreak had revealed shortcomings in China’s disease prevention and control mechanisms and public health systems.

He called on the government to give disease control agencies more decision-making power, set up more-direct lines of communication between agencies and top leaders, and grant agencies more authority to directly notify the public about disease outbreaks.

Although the China CDC is formally an independent agency, in practice it is run under the auspices of the National Health Commission, China’s health department.

Gao, who has headed the China CDC since 2011, said in his speech that because the agency lacks a mandate to shape policy and speak directly with senior government officials, its experts are excluded from policymaking, and its technical strategy is out of kilter with the administration.

Insufficient preparedness and inefficient communication hindered the China CDC’s response to the pandemic, Gao said, adding that the agency had long suffered from fragmented disease prevention systems and unclear distinctions between the roles of its staff and medical personnel.

In line with a national plan announced last week, Gao said China should install more robust nationwide disease control infrastructure, support the construction of more high-level biosecurity facilities, and strengthen core competencies like testing and monitoring, big data analysis, and infectious disease research.

In February, China’s top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan called on the government to place the China CDC on a footing equivalent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, America’s main national public health institute.

“(The China CDC) is only a technical department under the leadership of the National Health Commission, and its special position has not been adequately emphasized,” Zhong said at a press conference in the southern city of Guangzhou. “In the U.S. and other countries, (equivalent institutions) have a direct line to the central government, don’t need to send reports up the hierarchy, and in special circumstances can even directly issue public notices.”

Contact reporter Matthew Walsh (matthewwalsh@caixin.com) and editor Lu Zhenhua (luzhenhua@caixin.com)