Administration leading US further astray by ignoring advice of health professionals: China Daily editorial

Despite the broad support it has garnered from health professionals across the United States, the open letter published by the United States Public Interest Research Group on July 17 urging the country's decision-makers to "shut it down, start over, do it right" has, as expected, been met with a cold shoulder by its intended addressees.

Issued about seven months after the US administration knew about the existence of the novel coronavirus and its virulence, and more than four months after it declared a national health emergency, the letter calls on the administration to do what it was advised to do from the very beginning.

As of Monday, the virus had claimed about 143,000 lives in the US, and it is thought that the figure might hit 200,000 in less than four months. But the administration and the health professionals have never been on the same wavelength, as the administration's focus has never been on saving lives, but on the economy.

No wonder the administration was so cautious in trying not to panic Wall Street even if it was well aware that a golden opportunity to contain the pathogen might be lost in doing so.

With the situation rapidly spiraling out of control, the administration has relentlessly dissembled, pointing accusing fingers at various parties in a bid to hide the fact that it has never even tried to put saving lives before revving up the economy.

The two options need not have been mutually exclusive, had the US administration had the humility to take a leaf from other countries' books on how to balance them. But then, in the eyes of the administration, having the largest number of deaths caused by the virus automatically makes the US a world leader in the fight against it.

But as the letter says, many of the actions of the administration thus far "have fallen short of what the moment demands".

Despite the fact that the limitless quantitative easing based on the US dollar's status as a global currency has actually allowed the country more privileged space to weather the test.

The letter called on the administration to unleash the resources needed to contain the virus: massively ramping up testing, building the necessary infrastructure for effective contact tracing, and providing a safety net for those who need it.

Instead, the administration's shortsighted efforts to politicize the pandemic, smear the World Health Organization and speculate on the global public health crisis for its own ends have made it a leading example of the follies and dangers of hubris.

If the administration carries on its wheeler-dealer approach to reboot the economy and society before checking the spread of the virus, what the nation has suffered so far will only be the prelude of things to come.