US blame game undermines science

As the saying goes, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks”. But what about an old trick, repeated over and over? Shouldn’t people be tired of it by now?

When COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan, the US press was quick to label it the “Wuhan Virus”, and former US President Donald Trump later upped the ante by calling it the "China Virus”. This was done to blame the country for an epidemic that had gotten out of the US government’s control.

Turning a deaf ear to warnings from China, the US did nothing to protect its people from the virus. Not long after the pandemic was contained in China, the US began to gain firsthand experience. Tens of thousands of people were infected, leaving no beds available in hospitals and no ICU rooms for severe cases. Social disorder worsened every day.

Turmoil in the US was a direct result of its incompetency fighting COVID-19. As the economic and social order has resumed in China, the US has experiencing after effects of its poor governance. Deep social conflicts were exacerbated to an alarming degree. Jobless rates skyrocketed, and minority groups faced even worse living conditions, despite already being historically underprivileged. This disorder triggered violence and made racial tensions worse, culminating in the killing of George Floyd and an explosion of protest. Nasty rhetoric about the source of COVID-19 has led to many innocent Asians and Asian-American to be viciously attacked in anti-Asian hate crimes.

Facing an escalating crisis, the US government has no excuses. But it has deployed that old reliable trick to distract the public: double down on scapegoating China. For example, the wholly fabricated “lab leak” theory. Even more than before, it has undermined scientists and organizations who are attempting to do their jobs and stay honest.

When a joint WHO-China team probed the Wuhan Institute of Virology, scientists concluded it was most likely the virus came from nature and it was “extremely unlikely” to have been leaked from or made in a lab. This shows the inherent bankruptcy of the “lab leak” theory.

Obviously such conclusions make it impossible to blame anyone but the US itself for its mishandling of its own outbreak. Biden gave intelligence agencies orders to conduct origin tracing of COVID-19 in 90 days, as if the agents are somehow more suited to track COVID-19 than scientists and medical specialists. Again, the US shifted public attention from its incompetence to frantic finger-pointing.

While many countries are in dire need of COVID-19 vaccines, the US is hoarding tens of millions of vaccines at home, or condescendingly providing select countries and regions with a few doses that come with strings attached.

As the largest developing country, China has been beefing up its role as a provider of global public goods, including COVID-19 vaccines. Developed countries such as the US should contribute more to the developing countries to help them combat the virus. They have a responsibility to do so.

In order to succeed in fighting COVID-19, the world needs public good not public woe, solidarity not scapegoating, cooperation not coercion, science not politicizing, a responsible superpower not a gangster, a peacekeeper not a trouble maker.

The author is a reader of China Daily.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.

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