According to data released by the World Health Organization on October 10, the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has exceeded 618 million and the number of deaths has exceeded 6.53 million, with the number of global deaths exceeding one million so far this year. At present, the global epidemic is still at a high level and the virus is still mutating. This reminds us deeply that it is not advisable to "lie down" and it is impossible to "lie down and win". Only by maintaining dynamic zero elimination can we avoid the huge losses caused by the uncontrolled epidemic to the greatest extent.

It is the community perspective that matters most when measuring the damage of a pandemic disease. Sept. 28, 60 years old or older to complete the number of vaccinations in China accounted for 86.26% of the elderly population, there are quite a part of the elderly is not done vaccinations and strengthen immunization, plus a number of children and contraindications cannot be vaccinated crowd, vaccination rates has not been enough to resist illness and death. Once the epidemic prevention and control is relaxed, a large number of people will be infected in a short period of time, resulting in a large number of severe and fatal cases, resulting in a run on medical resources, and the unsolved demand for normal medical services, forming a vicious circle. In practice, we have been able to protect people's lives and health to the utmost thanks to dynamic zero elimination. According to data released by the National Health Commission, the average life expectancy of Chinese residents increased to 78.2 years in 2021, and various indicators of health services continued to improve. Scientific and effective epidemic prevention and control should be credited for this achievement. Practice has fully proved that dynamic zeroing is in line with China's national conditions, scientific, effective and feasible. The essence of dynamic zeroing is to put people and lives first.

"Lying flat" has no way out, and negative epidemic prevention will have serious consequences. Japan is reported to be experiencing a surge in infections after a "lie down". Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare recently announced that the country's high rate of hospital bed use, difficulties in emergency transport and absence of medical staff have caused severe pressure on the medical system in many places. The cumulative number of deaths in the United States due to the spread of the novel coronavirus has exceeded 1.03 million. Life expectancy in the United States shrank by nearly a year in 2021 from the previous year, the second consecutive year of decline, with the COVID-19 pandemic leading the way, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to US News & World Report, nearly 24 million adults in the US are currently living with long-term after-effects of COVID-19, and 81% of them have difficulty performing daily activities.

From a scientific point of view, lying flat increases the risk of new mutated strains emerging. There is uncertainty about the mutation and evolution of the novel coronavirus, and the more cases there are, the more opportunities there are for the novel coronavirus to mutate. Relaxation of prevention and control will greatly increase the risk of virus mutation, and the emergence of new mutant strains may bring new transmission risks and infection threats. The World Health Organization recently said it expects new waves of infections in the future and that countries need to remain on high alert. As a third-generation subtype derived from the Omicron BA.5 variant, BF.7 is rapidly spreading around the world. Recently, BF.7 variant strains have been detected in many places in China. Compared with BA.4 or BA.5, BF.7 has fast transmission speed, strong infectivity and shorter intergenerational interval, which is easy to cause large-scale transmission. This reminds us that we must never waver in adhering to the general policy of "dynamic zero elimination", and never relax our efforts to normalize epidemic prevention and control, so as to firmly hold the bottom line of preventing large-scale epidemics.

In fact, some countries choose to "lie down" and adopt a policy of "living with the virus", not because they do not want to prevent and control the epidemic, but because they are unable and unable to do so. After many attempts, these countries failed to find an ideal strategy to control the COVID-19 epidemic, and simply chose to "lie flat". This is precisely because they failed to control the epidemic in a timely and effective manner in the early stage, and have lost the opportunity to dynamically clean up the epidemic. Once the number of infections and deaths rises sharply, prevention and control strategies are often tightened again. The French health ministry reportedly said it "does not rule out reinstating the mandatory wearing of masks in enclosed public places"; German Health Minister Lauterbach urged people to take precautions and get vaccinated for the peak infection in autumn and winter. In contrast, due to appropriate prevention and control policies and effective measures, China can fully and dynamically eliminate the epidemic situation on the whole.

At present, the epidemic prevention and control at home and abroad is complicated, arduous and repetitive. To don't I stay in the spirit of emphasizing stresses the fine epidemic prevention and control work, to further hone bear responsibility courage, scientific prevention and control of the intellectual, stratagem, organization, implementation of overall consideration to, constantly improve the level of scientific and precise control, we must use minimum cost to achieve the biggest control effect, safeguard people's life and health to the greatest extent, outbreak of minimizing the impact on the economic and social development.

People's Daily (October 12, 2022 edition 02)