Blame game not able to save lives

By Zhong Sheng

The exacerbating COVID-19 pandemic is taking lives around the world. However, some US politicians, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are “cooperating” with right-wing media outlets such as the Fox News to cover their incapability of pandemic response and shift blames to others.
They spread the rumor that the virus was manmade and escaped the Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying China covered up pandemic information. They even accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of delaying virus response.
It is reported that according to a Republican strategy memo, the party now sees attacking China as an opportunity to buoy their chances in the 2020 election. However, such political manipulation exactly revealed their vicious intentions.
The origin of the novel coronavirus is a serious and scientific issue that calls for meticulous and professional investigation from scientists. The “patient zero” of the 1918 influenza pandemic that originated in the US is still not found today despite over a hundred years of searching.
So how can the US politicians and right-wing media be so certain about the source of COVID-19?
As a matter of fact, their theory that the virus was manmade and leaked has encountered immediate and unanimous opposition from the science world, including American medical experts.
Authoritative academic journals such as The Lancet and Nature Medicine published articles underlining the natural origin of the virus, and a medical expert remarked that focusing on the origin of the virus rather than saving the people, is nothing different from murder. Those who attempt to only gain political benefits from disasters will only live in infamy.
Conspiracies can’t exist under sunshine. US independent news site The Grayzone published an article revealing how conservative journalists cooperated with the US government, as well as the making and spread of their conspiracy theories.
Vincent Racaniello, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University pointed out the lab leak theory is driven by politics and not science-based. Virologist Jason Kindrachuk from the Canadian University of Manitoba also said on Forbes that the escape theory lacks scientific supporting.
Shifting the blames to China isn’t all that the American politicians have done, and now they are passing the buck to the WHO. Rather than having a look back on their disastrous response to the pandemic, they attributed the spread of the virus in the US to the so-called delayed informing from China and the UN health body.
It’s been recognized that China has always kept its information open and transparent, and the country has reported to the WHO and relevant US organizations on Jan. 3. Besides, the WHO also released information to the world at the first opportunity, without any delay.
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou all reported their first infection on Jan. 20, and that of the US came only one day after. However, the virus developed in totally different ways in the two countries.
A joint letter was recently submitted to the White House by over 1,000 medical associations, charity organizations, pharmaceutical companies and experts around the world, saying the WHO and the Chinese government have always maintained close cooperation to make sure that they report public health data to the international society as early as possible.
China shared the genetic sequence of the novel coronavirus at the first opportunity, which laid a basic foundation for accelerating vaccine development.
Editor-in-chief of The Lancet Richard Horton told the truth. The inaction that followed the WHO’s emergency declaration, he said, was down to member states and not to China, adding that the world should be grateful to the country for its warnings and containment efforts.
The US is currently the most hit-hard region in the world where the response failures of the government have sparked strong dissatisfaction of the society. However, some US politicians, attempting to diver the blames, resorted to “red herring” though the situation is clear enough for all. They bragged their so-called achievements to the US citizens while spreading rumors to the world.
The 57-page strategy document distributed by the Senate Republican campaign arm focused on one thing – to pass the buck to China.
Global scientists are concerned, as the rampant virus is new to this world and it takes time before vaccines are developed and people can finally get rid of its impacts on lives and health.
Only mutual assistance can help the world get through the hard time, and only cooperation and solidarity can enable the world to better cope with challenges.
“While American leaders play the blame game, more lives are being endangered,” said Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times.
–The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item