Politicizing origin-tracing of COVID-19 exposes hypocrisy of U.S.

Some people in the U.S. have recently played the old trick of politically hyping the origin-tracing of COVID-19. Along with provocative reports produced by certain media outlets and rhetoric adopted by so-called experts to stigmatize China using human rights issues as an excuse, the U.S. has put on a show of covering up its misdeeds by shifting the blame to others.

At the beginning of the outbreak in China, U.S. politicians had wrongly accused the country as being the source of the virus, instigating innocent people and U.S. allies to claim compensation from China while shifting the blame to the World Health Organization (WHO) for picking sides.

The Trump administration, while passing the buck to other countries, spared no effort in stirring up domestic confrontations by charging that the Obama administration had left it a vulnerable healthcare system and had been slow in the coronavirus testing process. It also criticized state governments for over-reliance on the federal government in coronavirus control.

The U.S. federal government and the state governments attacked each other over issues such as when to declare a state of emergency, when to restart the economy, and who had greater power and authority. What was worse, state governments were left to fight the virus alone, and even competed for medical supplies.

“America is too politicized, fractured, and, above all, individualistic for a collective move to save it,” said an article titled “America still needs to learn from its biggest pandemic failure” published in VOX, a news website based in the U.S.

“It’s a facet of the United States before COVID, during COVID, and I’m not sure it’s going to change after COVID,” Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

In China, epidemic control is the first priority of the government, which always puts people and their lives above everything else, and has effectively contained the epidemic as a result.

It was not by coincidence that China became the first country to walk out of the shadow of COVID-19 and secure positive economic growth, nor was it a coincidence that the U.S. not only failed to control the pandemic, but also became the country to suffer the largest number of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths.

In addition to staying united as one to fight the epidemic, China also showed a sense of morality and justice in supporting the global battle.

In the early days of the outbreak, by upholding the vision of a community of a shared future for mankind, China immediately shared the sequence of the coronavirus genome as well as treatment and control plans with the international community. While struggling to battle the epidemic at home, China launched the largest global emergency humanitarian action since the founding of the People's Republic of China, offering assistance to 150 countries and 10 international organizations, sending a total of 36 medical teams to 34 countries.

However, the U.S., which always touts so-called “universal values”, points fingers at the human rights situation of other countries, and frequently pressures China using so-called “human rights violations” as an excuse, failed to guarantee people’s right to life, which is seen as the most basic and important human right.

While serving as "an instructor" on human rights, the U.S. lost 600,000 lives to the coronavirus. According to the real-time data provided by Johns Hopkins University, as of June 6, with a population of only 4.25 percent of the world's total, the U.S. had 19.3 percent of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide and 16 percent of global deaths from the disease.

People's lives are the most important human right. Safeguarding millions of lives in the COVID-19 epidemic is the biggest proof of human rights in China, top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan remarked.

The U.S. spared no effort to divert attention by stirring up the issue of COVID-19 origin tracing, but made little effort to supply vaccines, and adopted an indifferent attitude toward human rights.

While developing countries suffered a lack of vaccines, the U.S. was hoarding them. According to a report by the Washington Post, the U.S. government has purchased enough vaccines to inoculate 750 million people. There are 260 million adults in the U.S. This puts it way over the threshold needed to immunize the population eligible for vaccination. In addition to hoarding vaccines, the U.S. also restricted export of raw materials, failing to live up to its promise of sharing vaccines with relevant countries.

So far, the U.S. has exported a total of 4.5 million doses of vaccines to its neighbors Mexico and Canada. On June 3, the Biden administration, after coming under pressure from the international community, announced it would distribute 25 million doses to countries in need. However, the supplies were considered far from enough to satisfy the demand, and the parties involved had expressed hope that the U.S. could have donated more.

China has always been providing COVID-19 vaccine assistance for other countries. It has delivered over 350 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to the world, provided vaccine assistance to over 80 countries and exported vaccines to over 40 countries. The country also joined hands with other developing countries to promote the mass production of vaccines.

This time, the U.S. has again targeted China with the issue of COVID-19 origin-tracing, overturning the findings by the WHO on global tracing of COVID-19 origins and going further down the road to politicize the issue, which is widely considered a matter of science.

Michael Ryan, the executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Program, remarked that the whole process of origin tracing is being poisoned by politics.

The COVID-19 pandemic is like a mirror reflecting China’s sincere attitude and concrete actions taken to contain the virus, and has exposed the selfish nature of American politicians who continue to talk nonsense. It showed the vision of a community of a shared future upheld by China, as well as the country’s responsibility as a major country to unite the world to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. It also revealed the irresponsibility and hypocrisy of certain American politicians.