Exacerbating COVID-19 reflects failure of U.S. democracy
By Ren
Ping
The
COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating around the world and the situation in the
U.S. is still worrying. Statistics show that there are 1.64 million confirmed
cases of COVID-19 and more than 90,000 deaths in the U.S.
However,
some American politicians are still obsessed with buck passing and political competition,
which has caused inefficiency and disorder in COVID-19 response. This is
regarded as a disastrous failure even by the American society.
What
shall be done during the pandemic, saving lives or pursuing economic
performance? Which is more important, votes or the people? They are not hard
choices.
However,
the jaw-dropping practices of the U.S. politicians have not only hurt the life
and health of the Americans and led to the global spread of the virus, but also
exposed the true colors of the American democracy.
Instead
of respecting the people and lives, they tried every means to seek selfish
political gains, such as claiming that “some manufacturing may return to the United
States due to the pandemic,” and downplaying the COVID-19 pandemic at home and fantasizing
that the virus will disappear. These conducts have revealed the indifference
and cold-bloodedness of the U.S. politicians, and ran completely against
democracy.
As
COVID-19 cases grew, some U.S. senators sold off stocks and then downplayed the
virus’s risk to the public. This shows that in the face of the pandemic, some
U.S. politicians put their own interests above people’s lives. How
could it curb the spread of the virus and meet the expectations of the voters?
The coronavirus
is not a matter of ideology and to contain the virus calls for the respect for
science. But the U.S. has put politics above science and selfish interests
above human lives in dealing with the virus.
U.S. epidemiologists
were responding to the threats posed by the coronavirus from the very
beginning, but their work was quickly politicized, noted Nobel laureate
economist Paul Krugman.
Rick
Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development
Authority, said the U.S. government “is putting politics and cronyism ahead of science,”
after he was removed from that position.
“The Guidance
for Implementing the Opening up America Again Framework” written by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will “never see the light of day”
because it is too detailed.
A
warning given by top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci about the
dangers of reopening the economy and schools too quickly was described as “not acceptable”.
A democratic
system that worships selfish political gains more than scientific facts and
people’s health is never worth being touted.
May is
traditionally the Older Americans Month. A report published
on the website of the White House said that the government will recommit
to doing what it can to support and care for seniors.
However,
data released this May indicated that more than 1/3 of COVID-19 deaths
in the U.S. were reported from nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
What’s
even worse, some American politicians even inhumanly recommended that old
people sacrifice their lives for the sake of the economy.
The
U.S., which always labels itself as a role model of democracy and human rights,
well explains the inconsistency of words and deeds and
extreme hypocrisy by what it has done.
The
COVID-19 mortality rate among senior people, the poor and non-white people in
the U.S. is higher than that in other groups, statistic showed.
“If
you are a high-income person, you can get tests a lot of times. If you’re low
income, you’re not likely to get tested at all,” said
Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation during an
interview with media.
It’s
not hard to notice that the U.S. human rights are enjoyed only by the rich and
democracy is a game of the rich.
The deep-rooted
problems of the American democracy have long existed, and the pandemic has made
them more prominent.
In
April, Christi A. Grimm, the principal deputy inspector general at the
Department of Health and Human Services, released a report detailing medical
supply shortages at hospitals. The document embarrassed Washington, which then
announced to replace the official.
Since
the explosive spread of COVID-19 in the U.S., a number of officials have been
fired for telling the truth or holding opinions different from that of Washington.
The root cause for this is that the U.S. politics is driven
by money and votes.
Democracy
is nowhere to be found in people who stick to the autocratic thinking that
those who follow will prosper while those who don’t will perish, who act arbitrarily
and appoint favored people, and who are obsessed with political competition and
ignore the interests of the people.
Democracy
is a value shared by all mankind. Though it varies in countries with different
historical and cultural backgrounds, democracy should serve the fundamental
interests of the people no matter in which country.
Facts
have evidenced that it is self-deceptive to claim democracy
exists in a country where there are a complete set of mechanisms and eloquent
words spoken by politicians, but no respect for the people.
We
advise certain American politicians to stop being
arrogant and biased, and reflect on the weaknesses of the U.S. democracy and
the real crises it is faced with, instead of pointing their fingers at others.
This is for the good of both the world and the U.S.
Exacerbating COVID-19 reflects failure of U.S. democracy
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