Bloomberg’s biased epidemic response rankings ridiculous

Bloomberg recently ranked the United States top among countries with the best response to the COVID-19 pandemic, while some East Asian countries, which have achieved remarkable results in the fight against the outbreak, were ranked much lower.

China, which registered zero infections and deaths last month, was ranked eighth in sharp contrast to other countries including the US, which has the highest infection and death rates. One cannot but help wonder how the rankings were made.

According to Bloomberg, as the COVID-19 vaccine becomes widely available, the criteria for measuring global anti-epidemic performance should be redefined. It thus made “reopening progress”, which includes vaccine coverage, lockdown severity, flight capacity and travel routes available as four major indicators. Infection data and people’s living quality were given much less importance. How could such an assessment lead to an objective and fair judgment?

First, treating lockdowns as negative indicators is not right. The previous US administration was widely criticized for precisely that — failing to implement lockdowns in a timely manner, leading to the spread of the novel coronavirus, and rising infection and mortality rates.

In comparison, East Asian countries, especially China, have been lauded for their rapid and effective lockdowns and other anti-epidemic measures that helped control the virus within months, and restore normalcy.

Second, Bloomberg claims to use Oxford University’s data on the government’s lockdown measures for most countries, but not for China, even though data for China is available on Oxford University’s database. It is absurd for Bloomberg to arbitrarily exclude China’s data and give China a score based on subjective assumptions.

The Bloomberg list is an outcome of the US’ post-pandemic self-promotion campaign to cover up its poor performance. Despite being a “non-democratic country” in the eyes of the West, China has achieved great success in the fight against the pandemic, which is viewed as a major blow to the West’s self-trumpeted “democratic superiority”, weakening the discourse and moral advantages of the US in its comprehensive strategic competition with China.

The ultimate purpose of the Bloomberg list is to serve Washington’s strategic competition policy against China, and help maintain its leading position and global hegemony. This well-intentioned but self-deceiving move, however, is not conducive to global efforts to fight the pandemic, nor will it help improve the US’ international image.