Daily Times

As of June 1, the US has reported more than 1.83 million confirmed COVID-19 cases cumulatively with over 106,000 deaths, both figures quite easily being the highest in the world.

In the face of an utterly poor pandemic response, economic slowdown, bipartisan hostility, and divided public opinions, some US politicians are head over heels busy, not battling the outbreak and saving lives, but shifting the blame and putting on one disgusting farce after another.

The US stood by with folded arms at the onset of the outbreak when it first appeared in China. On January 30, a senior US official claimed in an interview that “the viral outbreak in China could offer upside to the US economy by encouraging manufacturers to move back to America.”

His remarks astonished the world. While China was at its most difficult times battling the virus, senior US officials, instead of showing morality and compassion, gloated over China’s misfortune and thought about taking advantage of it for their benefits. The US administration, arrogantly and ignorantly, kept downplaying the very real and imminent threat that COVID-19 was, till it was a little too late.

China began to regularly notify the World Health Organisation (WHO) and countries and regions, including the US of its outbreak information and containment measures from January 3. From then on to early March, when the pandemic picked up speed sweeping across the US, in a very valuable time period, Washington first played down the pandemic situation and focused only on the confirmed cases without taking any preventive measures, which, when taken later, turned out loose and faulty.

Having failed to respond to the crisis effectively, the US has been trying to blame others for its own mistakes

The fact that the US president, at a public rally, called COVID-19 a ”hoax” on February 28, when there were more than 80,000 cases and around 3000 deaths worldwide already, speaks volumes about how shortsighted and miscalculated United States’ response to the pandemic was. The United States did not give COVID-19 its due importance, and wasted the very crucial time that could have been utilized in preparation for an effective tackling of the essentially inevitable public health emergency.

Having failed to respond to the crisis effectively, the US has been trying to blame others for its own mistakes. As the outbreak escalated at home, some American politicians, turning a blind eye to facts, have been trying to scapegoat the World Health Organization (WHO) for Washington’s poor response. The US declared on April 14, to suspend its funding for the WHO.

Quite clearly, in the crucial couple of months when the outbreak of COVID-19 in the US could have still been controlled, the United States’ most powerful were more interested in preparing for the US presidential election (due to be held later this year), than caring for the valuable lives of innocent citizens and doing what should have been done.

Former US President Abraham Lincoln once said, “You may deceive all the people part of the time, and part of the people all the time, but not all the people all the time.” The mean lies and fallacies spread by certain American politicians may deceive a small group of people, but not the whole world; they may deceive some people part of the time, but not all the time.

COVID-19 is a common enemy to all humankind. It was a threat shared by every nation on the face of the earth, and needed to be tackled with unity. When China, being the initial epicentre of the pandemic, was occupied majorly by the fight against the newly emerging deadly disease, other global super powers like United States and Russia should have taken the initiative and led the charge to form a unified global front in the fight against the coronavirus. The need was for all the nations to join hands and prepare an elaborate response strategy for the pandemic. All the stakeholders should have come together to help developing countries with weaker health systems that were more vulnerable to COVID-19, both economically and in terms of resources. However, the global powers particularly United States failed to lead from front and deliver. However, the mainstream view in the international community is that it’s the US, not the WHO that has destroyed the global cooperation in battling the virus. Christopher Hill, former Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, published an article criticizing the US government for brooding about only one thing at the moment – buck-passing. He is right in saying so. Apart from passing the buck to China and WHO, certain American administration officials also instigated media to call the coronavirus “China virus” and “Wuhan virus” and labeled China’s anti-virus cooperation with the world as “diplomatic campaign” or “propaganda initiative.” They came up with the theories that China had covered up its epidemic situation and falsified data, and even made absurd arguments that the virus came from a Chinese lab and China should make compensation.

There was an utter lack of concerted efforts and unity, which proved to very costly. To make matters worse, United States quite irresponsibly started the blame game which made international cooperation even more difficult. If the US had taken it seriously and cooperated with China when it was single handedly fighting with COVID-19, the global scenario would have been a very different picture now…one with far less corpses and agonies.

The writer is assistant professor at the Punjab University, Lahore. He can be reached at amjadmagsi

@gmail.com