It takes more than cheerleading to effectively manage a crisis: China Daily editorial

The US representative to the United Nations tried to transform Wednesday's virtual UN Security Council meeting reviewing the implementation of a resolution calling for a coordinated, inclusive, comprehensive and global response to the novel coronavirus outbreak into a pulpit to preach hostility.

Accusing not only China but also the World Health Organization of a lack of transparency and of mishandling the outbreak, Rodney Hunter tried to claim they were responsible for the virus spreading around the world.

Requesting that he might intervene, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the UN, firmly rebutted the allegations saying the United States was trying to spread a political virus and its abuse of the meeting was simply to serve US domestic politics. He said that US citizens were the victims of the political maneuvering of the administration, whose ineptness and disdain for science have been laid bare by the pandemic.

The extent of that maneuvering was made clear on Wednesday when US President Donald Trump acknowledged for the first time that he downplayed the severity of the pandemic after a new book by journalist Bob Woodward revealed that he talked in private about the "deadly" virus in February, while declaring to the nation it was no worse than the seasonal flu.

The book details the dire warnings Trump received from national security officials and health professionals that the COVID-19 pandemic could be as devastating as the 1918 influenza pandemic in late January.

Just a few weeks before much of the US was shut down, Trump claimed that the virus was "very well under control in our country". Trump did not devote federal resources to procuring masks or expand ventilator production until March, and US officials recommended against wearing face masks until April, partially because of the shortage of masks for medical workers.

On Wednesday, he tried to justify his actions by claiming that as a "cheerleader for this country" he wanted to play down the seriousness of the pandemic to prevent panic. It is clear that, as Woodward writes in the book, "There was no real management theory of the case or how to organize a massive enterprise to deal with one of the most complex emergencies the United States had ever faced" — which constitutes a stark contrast with what the WHO has urged countries to do and China's success in generally containing the virus.

As Geng said, China took effective measures to contain the virus in a timely, open, transparent and responsible manner, and the smearing of its response to the outbreak is "full of evil intention".

"We have made a great contribution to the global fight against the pandemic, which has been well recognized and well acknowledged by the UN, by the WHO, by the international community," he said.

In contrast, the US administration's focus is on shifting the blame to others rather than saving lives — to its shame.