Research On The Application Of Policy Tools In Public Health Emergency

The outbreak of COVID-19 at the end of 2019 has become the most widespread and longest lasting global public health emergency in recent years.As the first country to detect the epidemic,China has always put people’s lives and safety first in the process of epidemic prevention and control,and adopted a series of comprehensive and strict prevention and control measures.However,as the epidemic continues to change,coordinating epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development has put new demands on local governments’ ability to manage and respond to public health emergency.In particular,the"abnormal" emergency response caused by a public health emergency is a test of local governments’ ability to accurately grasp the changing trend of the epidemic and use policy tools to make government decisions,macro-control and manage public affairs.This article presents two COVID-19 public health emergency in Zouping city in 2020 and 2022 as the research objects.The case analysis method and the semi-structured interview method and participative observation method are adopted,and the emergency management process of COVID-19 in Zouping City is divided into stages based on the crisis life cycle theory and policy tool theory.Focus on the study of the two emergency management policy tools in Zouping City,as well as the combination of policy tools at different stages,the effect and differences of policy tools were analyzed.The public health system,government’s emergency response capacity in Zouping have been improved,and a regular prevention and control mechanism has been established to show the efficiency in policy tools application.In the application of policy tools,the use of policy tools lacks macro-planning and coordination,the use of policy tools is not timely and predictable,the local adaptation is not high,and the less use of voluntary policy tools.Therefore,we can further analyze the reasons for the imperfect construction of the coordinated response system for public health emergency,the insufficient early warning and monitoring ability of local governments,the unscientific formulation and selection of policy tools,and the weak participation of the public and the third sector.We are trying to identify "blind spots" in local governments’ use of policy tools to respond to public health emergency.Then we can provide targeted suggestions for local government to use policy tools more scientifically,reasonably,innovatively,and efficiently.The suggestions are improving the emergency response system for public health emergency,strengthening the local government’s ability to apply policy tools,promoting the optimization and innovation of policy tools,and promoting and improving the third sector’s participation,etc.We provide a reference for local governments to improve their ability to cope with public health emergency and promote the substantiated development of emergency management theory and policy tool theory research.