Record-breaking cases reveal U.S. failure in Covid control

Special: Commentary

 John Lee

(ECNS) -- With the most developed medical system in the world, the U.S. still saw over 1 million newly confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, a single-day record since the outbreak of the pandemic, revealing the U.S. government's failure in controlling the virus.

The country has the most confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world, with the number surpassing 56 million and 820,000 respectively as of early Tuesday morning, according to John Hopkins University.

Americans' inappropriate pursuit of "freedom" as “sold” by politicians makes basic COVID-19 prevention and control measures like wearing a mask or vaccination hard to implement in the country.

The U.S. upholds the "America first" principle in vaccine distribution. It not only fails to cooperate with the global vaccine distribution plan, but also controls the export of raw materials for vaccine production while criticizing China for assisting developing countries with vaccines. It has hoarded a large number of vaccines far exceeding the needs of its population, but its full vaccination rate barely exceeds 60 percent, since people's attitude towards vaccination depends on their party affiliation, which is rather sarcastic.

The mask order is even more difficult to implement in America. Parties and groups began a tug-of-war on whether wearing masks violates personal freedom, resulting in the mask becoming a victim of "personal freedom" and partisan struggle. Vaccination and wearing masks are the most basic but effective methods to fight against COVID-19. However, the extreme opposition between parties and the serious division of society has turned the COVID-19 fight into a "game of power" in the country.

In addition, the U.S. government failed to effectively supervise or implement its pandemic response policies, thus fueling illegal action. For example, counterfeit COVID-19 detection stations and fraudulent test kits for COVID-19 have popped up in some parts of the U.S. The serious, long-term pandemic situation is wearing its people out. They have gradually let their guard down, making epidemic prevention in the country even worse.

What lies behind the surging deaths is not only the country's policy disorders in the COVID fight, but also its neglect of lives. The U.S. government has to reflect on its mistakes and re-formulate powerful prevention and control measures to respond to other possible variants effectively, or its people will continue to pay for these mistakes at the cost of their lives.