Washington's self-serving acts are wantonly putting people's lives at risk: China Daily editorial

With the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus in the United States exceeding 2 million on Wednesday, among whom more than 110,000 have died, the woefulness of the administration's response is tragically clear.

Despite receiving numerous warnings from other countries and the World Health Organization, instead of actively preparing for the pandemic hitting US shores and readying an emergency medical response and anti-pandemic measures, such as limiting public gatherings, detection, tracing and isolation of those infected, the US administration tried to downplay the situation fearing such moves would have the stock markets reeling.

It was not until March 13 that a national health emergency was declared.

But research by Columbia University in late May indicated that if the government had imposed movement restrictions one week earlier, it could have saved 36,000 lives, and if it had introduced them two weeks earlier, about 83 percent of the deaths from the virus could have been avoided.

Even now the administration is still pinning its hopes on "magic bullets", such as vaccines and drugs, and fantasizing that the virus will "magically disappear".

It is no wonder people in the US are suffering. Particularly those on the lower rungs of the social ladder, as the pandemic has fully exposed the inequality that exists within US society.

African Americans account for about 12 percent of the US population, but accounted for 22.4 percent of the deaths caused by COVID-19 in the country as of middle of last month; the number is also disproportionately large for Hispanic Americans. And by the middle of last month, one-third of the deaths caused by the virus in the US were occupants and staff members of long-term care institutions such as nursing homes. No wonder, some have called the US anti-pandemic actions a "state-approved" massacre of the disadvantaged and marginalized.

Against that backdrop, the US administration suspending US funding for the WHO, the stigmatization campaign it has organized against China, and the blame game it has played against local governors and US enterprises operating abroad, can be seen for what they are — desperate attempts to pass the buck.

For a country that is second to none with regard to its economic might, technological prowess and medical resources, the heart-wrenching figures are a sad indictment of its governance capabilities in a national emergency.

The white paper detailing China's fight against the virus that was published on Sunday shows how the nation conducted an all-out people's war against this public health threat, which saved people's lives and allowed it to provide assistance to other countries. A similar record of what has unfolded in the US would only have the lamentable tale to tell of how the US administration's selfish and short-sighted behavior has put people's lives at risk both at home and around the world.