Based on the new mission of public health set in the Healthy China strategy and the insufficient response to COVID-19, this article pointed out the problems of the current public health and preventive medicine system from the macro-system level, meso-organization level, and micro-individual level, including insufficient strategic planning, resource input, institutional coordination, talent training and team building. It was creatively proposed that a disease prevention and control bureau should be set up outside the health commission to implement the vertical management at four levels, from national level to province-level, including autonomous region, municipality directly under the central government, city-level and district/county-level. The disease prevention and control bureau should consist of a strategic research institute, a center for disease prevention and control (CDC), a human resources training base, and a scientific research institute, which could perform their own duties and rely on each other. Enhancing the functions of strategic planning, overall coordination, and evidence-based decision-making in the original system, emphasizing the foresight and continuity of scientific research, and allowing the CDC to focus more on health management and emergency response could better facilitate in protecting the public health, improving the health and quality of life of the entire population, and guaranteeing the social stability and development.