An employee of Wuhan train station in Central China's Hubei Province observes passengers' body temperature on January 21 amid outbreak of the novel coronavirus pneumonia. Photo: China News Service

The city of Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province, on Tuesday announced 15 medical workers in the city have been diagnosed with the novel coronavirus pneumonia. Such important information came late since this is one of the key evidence that the novel virus is capable of human-to-human transmission. The information should have been released earlier.

It is understandable that local governments must bear overall responsibility for local economic development. They have a particularly heavy responsibility to maintain social stability. Upgrading the control measures of the epidemic cannot be done hastily. Even though the government has made a judgment that the epidemic is at an emergency level, officials tend to stabilize the situation through internal control and minimize losses to economic and social development.

But in the internet era, people will not accept such governance. They have their independent judgment, and they do not want their lives to be arranged. People want to be equal with the officials in the right to know about major matters that involve their interests. Thus, authorities are criticized rather than appreciated if they try to soothe the public.

In the public health field, whether information is fully disclosed affects people's judgment and their level of self-protection against the sudden outbreak of the epidemic. Many people would be more cautious if they could understand the risks of the latest pneumonia earlier, and the spread of the epidemic would be more restrained.

The problems mentioned above are the regrets about dealing with the Wuhan pneumonia. Again, they show us it is important to remain practical and avoid subjectivism when dealing with complicated matters.

But the progress in recent days shows that Chinese society has still made a big step forward compared to the SARS outbreak in 2003. News of the Wuhan pneumonia has been reported earlier, and various forces have jointly promoted the Chinese society's understanding of the latest pneumonia. During this period, overseas reactions have spread to China, increasing our internal vigilance.

Having undergone outbreaks of SARS and H5N1, China is able to launch preventive and control measures rapidly after it is aware of the seriousness of the novel coronavirus. As China is highly capable of allocating medical and other resources, prevention and control measures have been adopted across the country in a short time. During the ongoing Spring Festival travel rush, it will obviously be a difficult battle against the growing epidemic. But Chinese society is not panic. 

Based on what is known, the novel coronavirus is not as lethal as SARS, which infected 5,237 people in the Chinese mainland and killed 349. We hope the latest pneumonia would infect and take the lives of far fewer people as well as cause fewer economic losses. We shall be able to make this happen.