Following the White House’s constant groundless accusations against China amid the COVID-19 pandemic, experts and media outlets in the US have demanded that President Donald Trump and his government stop shifting blame onto others and take effective measures to tackle the still severe pandemic situation in the US.

Gail Collins, a columnist for the New York Times, wrote an article titled ‘Pick your favourite anxiety, China or Europe’ on May 13, in which she stressed that the spreading virus in the US is actually from Europe, not China, as Trump has been claiming.

“Trump’s China obsession is particularly disturbing to people who have to deal with our current public health crisis, most of which is no longer due to the Asian connection at all. If you listen to Andrew Cuomo’s daily address to the people of New York, you may have noticed that he talks about the ‘European virus’,” wrote Collins in her article.

Collins quoted New York governor Andrew Cuomo as saying that the virus now spreading in the US was actually from Europe. “That was a detail the administration was reluctant to mention, given the fact that even our extremely creative president couldn’t figure out a way to make himself the hero of that version. So Americans were left to presume it was all about Wuhan,” wrote Collins.

The article further criticised the Trump administration for spreading irresponsible remarks that hamper the US’ pandemic control efforts, such as Trump publicly telling Americans that wearing face masks is not “a one-sided thing,” and it had both good and bad sides.

Collins also noted that Trump has been using China as a bargaining chip against his political rivals, as there’s “nothing like claiming your opponent is soft on some place foreign”.

“You’ll never hear it from the Fake News media, but I am TOUGH ON CHINA and Sleepy Joe Biden is WEAK ON CHINA,” a recent Trump fund-raising letter announced. “He always has been and he always will be — that will never change.”

The article concluded that at a time when the whole world is facing an unprecedented pandemic, global oversight is needed to tackle the spread of the virus, which is not going to fade away.