Page 15 - 155 Varsity ebook

/ 13

Feb 12. By March 1, No Red Pocket
had managed to help 266 patients “
suffering from other diseases and in Civil organisations do need support
a quandary to receive timely care.
Among them, 13 were in need of di- from government to function better
alysis, 51 suffering from cancer or tu-
mors, and 21 stricken with acute dis-
eases such as heart attack and stroke. ”
Wuhan Homosexual Centre
is a civic organization founded in ities by then. “Civil organisations do Putian network, the largest pri-
2011, aiming to provide help for the need support from government to vate hospital system in China, has
LGBT community in Wuhan. Amid function better,” Huang says. long been criticized for deceptive
the pandemic, volunteers of the or- As collateral damage triggered promotion and low-quality medical
ganization have shifted their work by the pandemic escalated, anger service.
to deliver drugs for HIV carriers in spread on social media against the Despite being suppressed instead
the locked-down provincial capital. government’s slow initial response of trusted by the authorities, civil
Without multiple drugs essential to to the coronavirus outbreak and society in China is striving to thrive.
cocktail therapy, those living with their negligence of patients with “Even if we do not have an official
HIV may die from any infection as chronic illness as the administration pass permit, we will still violate the
their immune system is weak. only focused on combating the coro- traffic control to save people’s lives…
“There are over 20,000 people in- navirus. I hope even during ‘wartime’, peo-
fected with HIV in Hubei Province “I think the emergence of so ple still pay attention to vulnerable
and a large number of them cannot many non-governmental channels groups,” wrote Huang Haojie on his
receive their medicine due to the was due to the lack of official chan- Weibo account on February 26. He
pandemic, making them at high risk nels at the early stage of the out- received the pass permit on the same
of drug resistance and morbidity,” break. If there was any, the people day.
says Huang Haojie, a member of the did not have to resort to social media
organization. “Problem lies in medi- for help,” says Fang Kecheng, assis- As tension in Wuhan eases, op-
cine delivery but not its supply.” tant professor of the School of Jour- eration at hospitals is gradually
Although some residential com- nalism and Communication at the resuming normal. The National
munities in Wuhan arranged staff to Chinese University of Hong Kong. Health Commission declares that
pick up medicines for people infect- The Red Cross Society of China by March 31, 62 hospitals in Wuhan
ed with HIV as the city tightened its Hubei Branch also received a na- are providing medical services for all
traffic control, most of them refused tionwide reproach for its inefficien- patients. According to Hai Hai, most
to seek help from community staff cy and misconduct in distributing patients No Red Pocket has helped
in the light of privacy concerns, and donated materials during the early can now receive routine treatment.
they were more likely to turn to civil stage of the outbreak.
groups. However, inside the para- The Society, together with Hubei
lyzed city, civic groups were also Charity Federation, had received
bogged down sometimes. an overall donation of ¥4.36 billion Edited by Jasper Cao
Huang’s fellow member was (US$610 million) and 5.29 million
stopped and questioned by police pieces of materials by January 29. Sub-edited by Emilie Lui
on a delivery run on February 25, be- However, according to a doctor in
cause he did not have a pass permit. Wuhan Union Hospital, a hospital
Huang says though health bureaus designated to treat febrile patients
and hospitals had expressed their with more than 8,000 staff, was only
support in issuing special permits given 3,000 surgical masks, while
for civil organisations, volunteers 16,000 were given to a hospital of
were not informed of any channel to Putian network specializing in gyne-
acquire the pass permit from author- cology and obstetrics.