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Behind grim milestone of 100,000 coronavirus deaths in U.S.
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HUMAN LIFE VS POLITICS
“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” Obama said earlier this month. “A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”
However, politicians in Washington D.C. continue to ignore the wake-up call for unity and cooperation, and politicalize the pandemic struggle over election concerns.
For example, to wear a face mask or not has been a raging question in the United States, but not one based on science or public health. Instead, it has become rooted in political identity for numerous American voters and a focus of fierce partisan fights with an eye to general elections in November.
Recent polls showed how strong the partisanship worked behind mask-wearing, with 75 percent of Democrats saying they wear masks when they leave home and only 53 percent of Republicans saying they take the precaution.
Besides mask wrangle, the list of controversial issues ranges from the use of Defense Production Act to produce ventilators, gun-carrying protests against stay-at-home orders, support for the WHO, to risks of quickly reopening economies.
“What has cost the United States so many lives and jobs during the pandemic is not, at root, a failure of public health. It’s a failure of democracy,” Litt said. “More than any political or cultural trend, more even than President Trump, our redesigned system of government is responsible for the crisis we find ourselves in today.”
CALLS FOR COOPERATION
If the United States sought more international cooperation, its own response to the pandemic could have been better, experts say.
To shift blame to others, the Trump administration announced that it will permanently cut off U.S. funding to the WHO if the body does not commit to what he called “substantive improvements within the next 30 days.”
“The saddest thing is that on previous occasions, the U.S. has been proactive in the WHO and acted as a scientific, financial and logistical contributor to solving the problem. If the U.S. had functioned this way abroad in December and January, this would have helped its response at home a great deal,” Ramsay told Xinhua.