Why are some people obsessed with hoarding medicine?
After the optimization of epidemic prevention and control policies, with more and more "little foreigners" around us, people gradually realize the importance of having antiviral drugs at home. However, most people lack the knowledge of how to effectively treat the virus and the ability to identify the truth of the information, so they have to refer to the "COVID-19 Drug List" and buy any drugs they don't know are useful. They are not going to hoard drugs, but they have to buy them.
In addition, following the shortage of antipyretic drugs such as Lianhua Qingwen, ibuprofen and Tylenol in major pharmacies, anti-inflammatory drugs, cold drugs and cough drugs have also joined the wave of being robbed. Some people are "yang" and can't buy a box of antipyretics in the city. Some people managed to grab a few boxes of medicine online, only to find that they were fake drugs when they got the goods. Others bought drugs with delayed delivery, and the fever clinics in major hospitals were overcrowded. Anxiety and panic caused by insufficient supply make people who didn't want to hoard medicine gradually join the team of hoarding medicine.
"hoarding medicine" is a staged conditioned reflex of the people against the epidemic, just like "hoarding masks" and "hoarding wine" in the previous two years. Even according to the past anti-epidemic experience, after the peak of "hoarding drugs", the output of related drugs will increase and the price will tend to be stable, but people will still think that it is safe to buy early, buy more and insure more.
Faced with such psychology, how should we effectively guide people to purchase drugs reasonably?
The author believes that the root of people's blind "hoarding medicine" lies in not knowing how to effectively prevent and control the virus. Therefore, guiding people to purchase drugs reasonably requires the joint efforts of all walks of life.
Authoritative institutions or pharmaceutical companies can combine various drugs according to the symptoms of various infections, and attach the correct medication order to set up an "anti-epidemic package" for sale. It can not only effectively guide people to buy drugs, but also avoid the secondary harm caused by unreasonable drug use.
On this basis, government departments can use the medical insurance platform to strictly control the number of buyers. When people buy drugs, they are required to use medical insurance cards for settlement, and each identity information can only buy a certain number of preventive drugs every month. It can not only ensure that the supply meets the needs of the people, but also prevent criminals from maliciously hoarding drugs.
In addition, the network platform is needed to strengthen public opinion supervision. Any remarks that cause people to panic should be "taken off the shelf" in time and punished. At the same time, the drug administration department will announce the drug inventory in time, so that the people have the confidence to buy drugs.
After guiding people to purchase drugs reasonably, we should trace back to the source and understand the causes of the "drug hoarding storm" so as to solve the problem in time when the next drug hoarding phenomenon occurs.
Obviously, the shortage of drugs is an important reason for this "drug hoarding storm". For pharmaceutical companies, a big reason they are worried is whether they can sell drugs in time to ensure cash flow after increasing costs, investing in new production lines and hiring new pharmaceutical personnel. What should these production lines and employees do when the epidemic prevention and control tends to be stable and the domestic drug consumption is gradually decreasing? Therefore, relevant departments need to adopt a variety of policies, such as reducing tax rates, increasing production, and promoting sales through matchmaking. Even signed an annual cooperation agreement with pharmaceutical companies to place a large number of orders, eliminating the concerns of pharmaceutical companies and giving priority to ensuring stable supply.
Another reason why people are anxious to join the "drug hoarding" team is that some unscrupulous channel dealers maliciously hoard goods and drive up prices. This requires the relevant departments to strengthen supervision and crack down on illegal activities such as hoarding, driving up drug prices and spreading false news. The government can purchase drugs directly from the source, distribute them to community hospitals and health stations, and sell them directly to the public, so as to avoid middlemen earning the difference.
In addition, we must ensure logistics and transportation, ensure that epidemic prevention materials can be delivered to the people as scheduled, and increase investment in medical facilities, such as Hangzhou Nucleic Acid Museum becoming a "health clinic" and opening an "Internet hospital", which are all important measures to alleviate people's anxiety and reduce hoarding behavior.
The shortage of drugs is only a temporary phenomenon. At present, the drugs purchased by ordinary people are mainly in reserves. With the three-pronged approach of increasing the production capacity of pharmaceutical companies, increasing the transportation capacity of transporters and government intervention and supervision, the drug supply will tend to be stable.
Before that, how should we treat the matter of "hoarding medicine"?
Some people on the Internet joked that it used to be "risk control such as buying food", but now it is "buying medicine and having a fever". Under the present circumstances, we can buy medicines for standby, but medicines have a shelf life and have requirements on storage conditions. Improper storage is easy to deteriorate, and too many drugs are easy to be wasted after long storage. Therefore, there is no need to blindly follow the trend and buy a lot of medicines. If you buy a lot of medicine, you can actively respond to the activity of "neighborhood help each other and enjoy the surplus medicine" and provide the surplus medicine to those who really need it. In addition, most of the cold medicines we buy in pharmacies are used to treat diseases and cannot play a preventive role. "it's really a three-point poison." Taking medicine without illness will break the original balance of human functions and increase the burden on the liver and spleen and stomach, but it may get sick. Therefore, I hope that everyone will use drugs rationally and seek medical advice in time if they feel unwell.
The epidemic is not over yet, and the adjustment of prevention and control policies is optimization, not liberalization. We still have to fulfill the responsibility of prevention and control. We need drugs to help us fight the virus, but we can't rely entirely on drugs. Whether it is "yin" or "yang", you should do a good job of personal protection, wash your hands frequently, ventilate more, don't get together, don't run around, and be the first person responsible for your health.