China News Agency, Beijing, February 16th: The new crown epidemic exposed the defects of the United States

　　Author Zhang Huandi

　　The outbreak of the new crown epidemic has caused countries around the world to be involved in a "pop test" to deal with the pandemic.

Under the epidemic test, the United States has long been "dominating the list" in the global epidemic severity ranking, and its anti-epidemic performance is obviously unsatisfactory.

Facing the impact of the epidemic, the U.S. government has not only failed to lead the country out of the predicament, but its own deficiencies have become increasingly exposed.

Data map: On January 4, local time, a new coronavirus testing station on 14th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA tests residents.

Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan

The United States has lost both "face" and "inner" after the failure of the fight against the epidemic

　　A research report released by the Pew Research Center in the United States in September 2020 found that after conducting telephone surveys of ordinary people in 13 countries including Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan, the favorability of some countries toward the United States has dropped to a record low. point.

For example, 41% of Britons surveyed have a favorable view of the United States, the lowest number on record, while only 31% of French respondents and 26% of German respondents have a favorable view of the United States.

The study believes that the ineffective response to the epidemic has seriously damaged the international image of the United States.

　　The international favorability of the United States is declining day by day, as is domestic public opinion.

According to a poll released by the Pew Research Center in January this year, 50% of respondents believed that "the worst of the epidemic is yet to come."

In addition, the results of a poll released this month by the Pew Research Center showed that 60% of Americans are "confused" and 57% of Americans are skeptical due to frequent changes in the official U.S. public health guidelines related to the epidemic. The government is hiding something from the public.

　　It is not difficult to see that the severe epidemic situation has caused the American people's trust in the government to continue to decline.

According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University in the United States on February 16, the United States, as the country with the worst epidemic in the world, has accumulated more than 78 million confirmed cases and more than 920,000 deaths.

The rising number of confirmed cases and deaths is the most direct proof of the failure of the US government to fight the epidemic.

The epidemic is out of control, and the management flaws of the US government are exposed

　　Some scholars pointed out that in the early stage of the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the slow and improper response of the US government directly caused the domestic epidemic to get out of control.

Under the magnifying effect of the new crown epidemic, the long-term inherent management defects of the US government have been fully exposed, which has indirectly led to the "savage growth" of the epidemic.

　　A report released in January by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), an agency of the U.S. Congress, found that multiple U.S. government departments, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), have "significant persistent deficiencies."

　　The report points out that HHS has shown many shortcomings in its leadership and coordination in responding to various public health emergencies related to Zika virus, Ebola virus and new coronary pneumonia. For example, there are errors and omissions in various data collected and published by HHS. , such as the number of new crown tests, the number of hospitalized new crown patients, the number of new crown confirmed cases of different races, etc., which lead the government to miscalculate the epidemic situation; HHS provides inconsistent information when communicating with partners and the public, which leads local governments to formulate relevant policies. There is no way to start; the epidemic-related public health guidelines provided by HHS are frequently changed, but scientific explanations are rarely given.

　　The report believes that such defects will have extremely serious negative effects in the future if faced with the same destructive virus or extreme weather threat as the new crown.

The report also added that in addition to HHS, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Department of Agriculture also have problems such as lack of supervision of the use of funds and outdated food aid programs.

Problems occur frequently, and the United States establishes a "negative model" for the global anti-epidemic

　　Some foreign media believe that the various problems exposed by the U.S. government in responding to the epidemic, such as ignoring the warnings of scientists to underestimate the severity of the epidemic, frequently changing epidemic prevention measures, prematurely lowering the epidemic prevention level, and "throwing the blame" to shirk responsibility, etc. The opposite is typical".

　　A previous article on the website of the Spanish newspaper El Pais pointed out that accumulating errors, neglected alerts, and various flaws and loopholes have led to the epidemic disaster in the United States.

The American "Atlantic Monthly" article also believes that the United States has wasted every opportunity to control the epidemic with sufficient warning.

The British "Guardian" report also bluntly stated that the United States' response to the epidemic is neither uniform, sustained nor active.

　　According to this, some experts pointed out that on the one hand, the new crown epidemic has magnified the inherent defects of the US government. Infinite loop.

　　American politicians are incapable of handling the domestic epidemic, and the government's failure to take responsibility has caused the epidemic to get out of control. It is the ordinary people who bear the consequences.

The United States, which has the most abundant and most advanced medical resources and technologies in the world, has the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths in the world. This huge contrast is enough to prompt the US government to reflect deeply.

(Finish)