Facts are the best rumor dispeller

By Ren Ping, People’s Daily

Openness and transparency are what China has underlined in its COVID-19 response, as well as objective evaluation of the international society on China’s anti-pandemic experience.

However, some U.S. politicians are always lying through their teeth, saying China underreported the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths and covered up relevant information while knowing the severity of the disease. This time, they cooked up a new story, slandering that China was stealing the COVID-19 vaccine research from the U.S.

It's unusual and unbelievable that dignitaries of a country are lying without remorse and taking double dealing as a routine.

Facts are the best rumor dispeller. Wuhan, the former epicenter of COVID-19 in central China’s Hubei province, recently tested 9.9 million people in just 19 days, and only found 300 asymptomatic cases. Besides, no infection has been caused by asymptomatic patients so far.

The test results were in line with the previous data released, which further indicated the reliability of China's statistics. “If China is forging statistics, they must have a time machine,” remarked Nobel prizewinner Michael Levitt, refuting the U.S. false accusation. Facts revealed not only the absurdity of the U.S. slandering, but also the true intention of the U.S. politicians.

Facts proved that to understand and control an unknown virus takes a process. When the virus firstly broke out, there was almost no scientific evidence suggesting that the novel virus might lead to a dangerous pandemic. Even so, China still reacted in an amazing speed. It reported the viral pneumonia of unknown cause to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. on Jan. 3, and unprecedented measures were taken by the country 20 days later to sound a stunning alarm for the world.

Even some U.S. politicians lauded China’s epidemic response at first. However, they had a turnabout due to their incapability to control the epidemic, trying to duck responsibilities and pass the buck to China. How could such self-contradictory practice watertight?

A Chinese internet user once asked what kind of transparency the U.S. politicians were demanding. If such transparency was based on assumption and used to frame others, then they would never be satisfied with China’s transparency.

It is recognized that these U.S. politicians, draining their brains to shift the blames to China, are absolutely not seeking for “truth” or “transparency”. What they are trying to do is just finding a scapegoat for their incapability and hyping international confrontation to win elections.

The New York Times pointed out that some U.S. politicians increasingly believe that elevating China as an archenemy culpable for the spread of the virus, and harnessing America’s growing animosity toward Beijing, may be the best way to salvage a difficult election. The Washington Post was blunter, saying the White House is guilty of exactly what it accuses China of doing.

The COVID-19 pandemic is something that certain U.S. politicians seek private gains from, but for plain American citizens, it is an unbearable trauma. According to a research by the Columbia University, if the United States had begun imposing social distancing measures one week earlier than it did in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the coronavirus outbreak, and if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, the vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided.

Till today, these U.S. politicians are still weighing people's lives and political interests, and even diverting attention and shifting responsibility by defunding the WHO and interfering in other countries’ domestic affairs.

Lies will always be lies no matter how they are disguised. “The world has loved, hated and envied the US. Now, for the first time, we pity it,” said the Irish Times in a commentary. From this we see the world’s compassion for U.S. citizens, and also the contempt for the practices of certain U.S. politicians.