Commentary: Another Washington-starred Covid folly on show

People line up for COVID-19 testing in Washington, D.C., the United States, Jan. 5, 2022. The United States shattered a single-day record with over 1 million COVID-19 cases on Monday amid the rapid spread of Omicron variant and government decisions to ease prevention and control measures in the country. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

The "anything but China" mindset was in fact born out of America's deep-rooted political plague, as Democrats and Republicans pull whatever strings they have to win the partisan wrangle -- to both sides, badmouthing Beijing seems to be a perfect tactic for political gains.

BEIJING, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Another COVID-19 folly has been put on show in Washington lately: Almost all members of the U.S. House of Representatives were spotted entering the chamber floor wearing Chinese KN95 masks given to them that offers increased protection, the same group of people who have long been scaling up an anti-China campaign.

The sight was beheld after a tougher mask mandate issued recently requires House members to wear N95 or KN95 masks on the chamber floor amid a severer pandemic situation in the country.

But those politicians were not happy with this. While some jumped to the old "Wuhan lab leak" conspiracy theory for comfort, others leaned on the so-called "China threat" theory in protest against the mandate. For most of them, securing "anything but China" remains the top priority.

This "ABC" mindset was in fact born out of America's deep-rooted political plague, as Democrats and Republicans pull whatever strings they have to win the partisan wrangle -- to both sides, badmouthing Beijing seems to be a perfect tactic for political gains.

The 57-page "Corona Big Book" disclosed in 2020 advises Republican candidates to address the pandemic by aggressively attacking China, and provides with detailed guidelines on how to tie Democratic candidates to Beijing.

This strategic playbook has been given so much attention to by the former U.S. administration that turned a blind eye to an urgent need for timely and effective anti-pandemic measures. Racking its brain for new ways to spread rumors and scapegoat China, the country was left with the most COVID-19 infections and related deaths in the world despite first-class medical technology and facilities as well as top-tier health experts.

While those self-dealing Washington politicians were busy taking care of their own political interests, they seemed to feel just fine sacrificing the common interests of those struggling to survive inside the United States and beyond.

A man waits for COVID-19 testing in Washington, D.C., the United States, Jan. 5, 2022. The United States shattered a single-day record with over 1 million COVID-19 cases on Monday amid the rapid spread of Omicron variant and government decisions to ease prevention and control measures in the country. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)

During its hard time in the pandemic, the United States had received from China more than 40 billion masks, around 1.2 billion surgical gloves and nearly 1 billion protective gowns, amid other medical supplies, between March 1, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021.

Nevertheless, some U.S. politicians have bitten the hands that were helping them, deliberately distorting China's kindly offers into a political witching.

And now the latest scientific advise by House physicians on wearing masks on the chamber floor, with an aim at protecting House members from the highly contagious Omicron variant, was responded with more racist anti-China attacks and triggered a new round of taunts between the two major U.S. political parties. With this absurd logic, it will be no surprise that one day students and consumers in the United States wearing Chinese-made masks will be forbidden to enter schools and grocery stores.

"For every single death certificate that has COVID-19 as a primary cause of death, partisanship should be listed as a contributing cause. This pandemic was politicized from day one," said an article by Business Insider in late 2021.

Indeed, more and more people around the world have sobered up and realized that for those U.S. decision-makers, lives of the ordinary, national health and science are the last things on their agenda. The nearly 850,000 lives claimed by the virus in the country are a living proof that when leaders fail and political system is in deadlock, people suffer.

Playing politics by pointing an accusing finger at China will not save America from the pandemic, but will only turn those U.S. politicians themselves into buffoons on the global stage. This is what the politicians need to wake up to before the pandemic claims even more souls in their homeland.