Washington had all the info but refused to act on it in time

The claim that the World Health Organization did not share early information about COVID-19 with the United States is nothing but another attempt by the US administration to deflect attention from its own failure to timely respond to the pandemic, despite all the warnings it received.

The WHO has rebutted the calumny, pointing out that the UN agency not only kept the US, as well as other countries, abreast of what was happening regarding the novel coronavirus outbreak, but that it has also had some 15 staff from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention working in its core departments since Jan 1, joining two US government officials assigned there long term.

These US experts and officials helped guide and advise WHO policy, including whether to declare a global public health emergency. Their presence also means the US would be informed in detail of the new developments regarding the outbreak as soon as the WHO learned about them.

Also, two US scientists were among the WHO’s fact-finding mission to China from Feb 16-24, when China was in the most difficult part of its “people’s war” against the virus, and must have gained firsthand knowledge on the severity of the situation, as well as how to respond.

The complaint by the US administration that it was left in the dark is intended to exculpate itself of responsibility for its lack of action, which has resulted in the US accounting for about one-fourth of the deaths caused by the virus worldwide.

With thousands of new cases still being reported every day in the country, the administration has been scrabbling around like a squirrel after nuts looking for someone to blame.

State governors, US companies producing medical supplies in other countries, a malfeasant WHO, and of course, the culprit-in-chief, China, the US government has adopted a more-the-merrier approach when it comes to picking scapegoats, hoping to cultivate the impression among the US people that all the lives lost are attributable to other parties’ wrongdoings, while all the lives saved should be credited to itself.

The cost of sustaining the illusion that it was “very, very ready for this” is more people’s lives. Instead of heeding the many warnings about the public health emergency and taking the bold actions necessary to protect Americans and unleash the full power of the federal government to curb the spread of the virus, the US administration took a blasé attitude in a bid to prop up the US stock market.

At this crucial moment in the global fight against the pandemic, rather than trying to pass the buck for what has unfolded, the administration would serve the American people better by working with others to overcome this public health threat.