World must work together on virus

Views from around the world. These opinions are not necessarily shared by Stuff newspapers.

That outside of Hubei province, the most hard-hit area, the number of new novel coronavirus infections has dropped each day for 12 days in a row, to 166 as of Sunday (local time), indicates the epidemic situation is largely being brought under control.

Undoubtedly, it was the lockdown of Wuhan since January 23 that has helped the country to keep the virus contained largely within the city; and it is the country’s efforts – the whole nation has come to a virtual state of standstill – that has helped win the world a window of opportunity to curb the virus’ spread.

But some outside the country prefer prejudice to empathy and they vilify the Chinese people and the country. These China-bashers turn a blind eye to the country’s efforts to prevent the virus spreading – efforts whose scale and efficiency are enabled by its system – and point to the infections outside the country, about 1 per cent of the total, to hype up the epidemic as symptomatic of the China threat they are peddling.

And it is because of them that the World Health Organisation has had to urge some developed countries to share their data and join in the war against the virus. Such biased and immoral views are against the interests of the world, as they directly shake the foundation for the international solidarity that is needed to defeat the virus.