As the Spring Festival approaches, all localities are welcoming the peak of returning home. Encouraging returnees to bring home the remaining symptomatic drugs for new coronary pneumonia can be said to be a very effective way to alleviate the shortage of drugs in rural areas. Generally speaking, cities have passed the peak of infection earlier than rural areas, and residents have a stronger awareness of preparing medicines and more channels for purchasing medicines. To some extent, it is a practical action to take advantage of urban medical security to help the rural areas successfully overcome the peak of infection by bringing the remaining drugs related to COVID-19 infection back to the rural areas by residents who returned home infected with COVID-19 virus during the Spring Festival.
In fact, in some places, community residents are explicitly encouraged to "help each other in the neighborhood and enjoy the surplus drugs" to minimize the risk of drug shortage for some residents. Now returnees bring the rest of the medicine back to the countryside, which can be said to be an expanded version of this "* * *" model. Of course, even without the initiative and encouragement of the public sector, this cross-regional "migration" of drug resources is actually spontaneous. This is also the embodiment of folk wisdom and social consciousness of mutual help and assistance under special circumstances.
However, drugs are special goods after all, and a prerequisite for effective "enjoyment" is to ensure standardized safety and avoid risk exposure. It should be noted that "enjoying the residual medicine * * *" is mainly from the perspective of the sharer, that is, what medicine is generally supported at home, which means that the actual situation of different recipients is often ignored. Therefore, it is necessary for residents in need to read the drug instructions carefully before taking the drug, and understand the indications and contraindications of the drug, as well as the dosage and administration method of the drug. Especially for some elderly people and children with basic diseases, medication should be cautious.
Some experts pointed out that it is best to enjoy "residual drugs" only over-the-counter drugs, and be cautious about prescription drugs. In this regard, local health departments and medical institutions can organize and coordinate the strength of family doctors or medical professionals, guide villagers to use drugs safely, and avoid "rushing to see a doctor". It is worth noting that after the number of infected people increased in COVID-19, drug safety has been concerned. Especially in rural areas, the relative lack of drug safety awareness and symptomatic drugs may lead to the prevalence of folk remedies.
Of course, drug safety problems did not only occur in the COVID-19 era. The theme of World Patient Safety Day in 2022 is "Drug Safety" and the slogan is "Avoid Drug Injury". Recently, a local member of CPPCC pointed out that "after the public was infected in COVID-19, irrational drug use increased significantly, and the risk of drug-induced injury of patients increased significantly." In China, especially in grass-roots and rural areas, irrational and irregular drug use by the public is more prominent, such as abuse of antibacterial drugs and analgesic drugs, improper selection and irregular use of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular drugs, drugs with similar appearance and pronunciation, and drug harm caused by confusion of drugs of various specifications. Therefore, it is of great significance to publicize rational drug use and popularize the knowledge of safe drug use to the public.
In the current reality, it is obviously not easy to solve all the above problems, but it is necessary to avoid further amplifying the risk of drug abuse because of the "enjoyment of residual drugs". This requires grassroots governments and medical institutions to do more supporting knowledge popularization and services for safe drug use, so as to maximize the public value of "leftover drugs".