Facing severe challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has been making joint efforts to battle against the disease over the past months, while the United States has been crippling global endeavors to cope with the crisis.
INCOMPETENCE IN COPING WITH PANDEMIC
The number of COVID-19 cases in the United States exceeded 1.46 million with over 88,000 deaths as of Sunday, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, making the country the hardest-hit place around the world.
Tardy response, ignorance of science and poor nationwide coordination have been the problematic performance of the U.S. administration on anti-epidemic efforts.
On Dec. 31, 2019, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on its website that Chinese health officials had reported a cluster of cases of acute respiratory illness in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in central China. Since then, Washington has received more and more information on the disease, but did not attach enough importance.
On Jan. 22, U.S. President Donald Trump told CNBC one day after the CDC confirmed the first COVID-19 case in the country that the United States has the situation "totally under control," and "It's going to be just fine."
Although the U.S. government declared a U.S. public health emergency to respond to COVID-19 at the end of January, the Democratic and Republican caucuses were still held in the U.S. state of Iowa in February. The following presidential primaries in many states led to multiple mass gatherings.
At the White House press briefing on Feb. 28, Trump said that some U.S. media are "doing everything they can to instill fear in people and I think it's ridiculous and I think they're very disreputable."
It was not until March 16 that the White House reversed its previously dismissive stance and announced anti-epidemic guidelines.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that had the guidelines been implemented earlier, a crucial period in the exponential spread of the virus would have been mitigated and American lives saved.
