(East and West Questions) Short comment: The death of a million, why did the epidemic in the United States end here?
China News Agency, Beijing, May 14th: How did the epidemic in the United States come to this point?
Author Cui Bailu
On May 12, local time, US President Biden issued a statement announcing that the cumulative number of deaths from the new crown in the United States has reached 1 million.
"We must remember that we must remain vigilant against the outbreak and do everything in our power to save more lives," the statement said.
On May 12, 2022, local time, the flag was flown at half mast in Times Square in New York, the United States to pay tribute to the millions of people who died of the new crown.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan
However, the reality is not as expected.
At present, the cumulative number of confirmed and dead cases of new coronary pneumonia in the United States ranks first in the world. With the relaxation of prevention and control policies, the number of new diagnoses and hospitalizations in the United States has surged recently.
Behind the astronomical figures are living lives and broken families.
As the most developed country in the world, the United States has an innate advantage to fight the epidemic, but it eventually caused a humanitarian disaster, which makes people wake up and think about how the epidemic in the United States has come to this point?
Institutional failure and disordered governance are the institutional root causes of the failure of the US to fight the epidemic.
American politics has become polarized, and the democratic system has been reduced to "veto politics". For more than two years, the Democratic and Republican parties have confronted and criticized issues such as wearing masks, vaccinations, and stay-at-home orders.
Take the $22.5 billion anti-epidemic relief fund that the Biden administration urgently sought from Congress in March as an example. After several rounds of bargaining, the appropriation amount has been cut in half to $10 billion. Recently, the two parties have diverged on immigration policy, resulting in the implementation of the funds. Indefinitely.
Due to the inability to build consensus, national governance has become inefficient, and the best time to fight the epidemic has been delayed again and again.
Since the 1970s and 1980s, the United States has embarked on a development model of "big market, small government", cutting expenditures and outsourcing public functions to private institutions. , the road of monopoly.
During the epidemic, the U.S. public health system soon experienced problems such as hospital runs, insufficient resources, and chaotic management, while large pharmaceutical institutions such as Pfizer, Moderna, and Merck used their monopoly positions to extract huge amounts of government funds and commercial profits.
American left-wing scholar Noam Chomsky pointedly pointed out: "We have entrusted our fate to private tyrants - pharmaceutical companies, and they are irresponsible companies to the public."
On January 4, 2022, local time, residents are tested at a new coronavirus testing station on 14th Street in Manhattan, New York, the United States.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liao Pan
The public health governance crisis interacts with chronic diseases such as the gap between the rich and the poor and racism, exacerbating social inequality and putting vulnerable groups at greater risk.
Statistics show that about 730,000 of the 1 million new crown deaths are elderly people over the age of 65. African Americans, Asians, Latinos and Native Americans are 1-2 times more likely to die than whites. The mortality rate in poor counties is 2-4 times as many rich counties... Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: "The United States has become one of the few countries hardest hit by the epidemic, and inequality in public health is a big reason. "
Value anomie is the ideological source of the failure of the United States to fight the epidemic.
On the one hand, the value of economic interests overriding the right to life is dislocated, making life safety despised.
Profit maximization is the fundamental goal of capitalism. Whenever a public crisis is encountered, it is affected by profit-seeking and short-sightedness, and it chooses to sacrifice public interests in exchange for economic interests.
During the epidemic, the U.S. government was reluctant to implement strict lockdown measures, repeatedly conveying the message that the economy is more important than human life and that the virus is not dangerous. Some politicians even advertised the "social Darwinism" of survival of the fittest and survival of the fittest, causing the society to misunderstand the epidemic. Read and despise.
When epidemic prevention and control is regarded as an obstacle to economic development rather than a prerequisite, any epidemic prevention measures are weak.
On the other hand, the individual-based thinking and one-sided view of human rights have created a negative anti-epidemic concept.
The values of individualism prevail in the United States, and human rights are often equated with personal freedom and political freedom, while the main responsibility for the right to life and the right to health is borne by individuals and does not need to be actively maintained by the state.
During the epidemic, Tocqueville's "self-concerned and at ease" individualism made many people resist epidemic prevention measures such as mask orders and stay-at-home orders, while the government used "not infringing freedom" as an excuse to passively fight the epidemic and shirk its responsibilities. The epidemic continued to worsen.
The epidemic is far from over.
In the face of millions of deaths, Amesh Adalja, a scholar at the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, said frankly: "The number of deaths did not have to be so high, and the epidemic response measures could have been better." (End)