Disruptor in pandemic fight
THE notion of “American exceptionalism” argues that the United States has a special role in the world and serves as a role model for others to follow.
That myth has fallen prey to the rampaging coronavirus pandemic, or more specifically, to Washington’s disruption to the global fight against the deadly pathogen.
As the world’s sole superpower, the United States has an unshirkable responsibility to pioneer or support a global combat against humanity’s common enemy, or at least set a fine example to contain the outbreak at home. However, Washington’s performance has made it a disruptor-in-chief in this ongoing vital struggle, and let the world down deeply.
Many politicians in Washington love to boast of America’s leading role in the world.
The country is truly leading today, but in a tragic way no one is willing to see.
Being the world’s current epicenter in the COVID-19 pandemic, the US now has about one-third of the world’s caseload and death toll, respectively, more than any other places on the surface of the Earth.
Clearly, despite all the warnings flashed by China or the World Health Organization, or even its own intelligence communities, this US administration has simply dropped the ball because of either selfconceited arrogance or gross negligence, or both.
In a recently published Op-ed, The Associated Press said the United States responded to the pandemic with a system with “cascading failures and incompetencies,” and grumbled that “a nation with unmatched power, brazen ambition and aspirations through the arc of history to be humanity’s ‘shining city upon a hill’ cannot come up with enough simple cotton swabs.”
It seems that some Washington politicians, such as US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, have no interest in reflecting on what is going wrong in their own country. Facing their coronavirus debacle, they are interested in two things: covering it up and blaming others.
When the Pompeos and the Navarros attack China over transparency, they should know that they are the ones who tried to play down the dire threat of the disease despite having been repeatedly warned, refused to disclose how the administration was distributing medical supplies and blocked Dr Anthony Fauci, an infectious disease expert and key figure on the White House coronavirus task force, from testifying before Congress.
Instead of contributing to the global drive to bear down the pandemic, the incumbent US government has even launched an offensive to disrupt it.
The author is a Xinhua writer.