Citizens’ health above politics
China defeats us in COVID-19 tests: US netizens
As inadequate novel coronavirus (COVID-19) testing has become a full-blown scandal in the US, some American netizens amazed by China’s manufacturing and test capability of test kits called on the US government to purchase nucleic acid reagent test kits from China.
However, Chinese analysts believe that the US government which has been clamping down on China’s biomedical industries amid the trade disputes and attempting to contain China may not be ready for it, urging US politicians to start thinking about the health of its citizens rather than politics, as the virus knows no boundaries.
US Vice President Mike Pence, who is coordinating the US response to the outbreak, finally admitted Thursday that “We don’t have enough tests today to meet what we anticipate will be the demand going forward.’’
His acknowledgement came after weeks of complaints from local residents on the strict test criteria for the virus, inadequacy of test kits and poor quality of the test kits.
Pence promised that by the end of next week the US government would distribute kits across the country that would enable 1.2 million Americans to be tested. However, it seemed to spark more anger than relief from some Americans who questioned how the government can guarantee 1.2 million tests when the US has only been able to perform about 3,600 tests as of Wednesday.
On social media like Twitter, disgruntled US netizens criticized its government for being a complete failure while comparing China and the US on the test capability.
“China makes so many kits and can test millions a week. The [United] States should buy from them because this administration is failing us,” netizen “KittyHipoint” said.
Some US netizens urged its government to pay China for the patent of the test kits and build kits themselves, and some asked China to donate test kits to the US.
Three Chinese nucleic acid test kit companies reached by the Global Times on Friday said that they would like to help the US if needed, as China’s test kits, which have been upgraded generations to avoid the previous incidence of false-negative results, as also used in other countries, and have been effective.
Many Chinese test kits companies have been distributing their kits to other countries plagued by the virus, including Iran, Italy, and Japan.
Lü Mengtao, operations director of Beijing Zhimed Medical Science, told the Global Times that although the ordinary Americans cried out for Chinese test kits, whether to introducing Chinese kits is mainly dependent on the US government.
Some US politicians politicized the virus and were reluctant to introduce Chinese test kits for the purpose of clamping down on biotech sectors of China, its strategic rival. However, the virus knows no boundaries and the US move will undermine global efforts to combat the virus, Lü said.