File photo: Xinhua

The coronavirus didn’t break America, it revealed what was already broken, staff writer at The Atlantic George Packer wrote in an opinion article.

The virus exposed “a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public” which had been untreated for years and left Americans shocked to find that they live in a high-risk nation, Packer wrote in the article. 

Packer criticized the US government’s reaction to the virus, from the president’s willful blindness, scapegoating, boasts and lies, to a number of senators and corporate executives who tried to profit from it rather than prevent the disease, according to the article. 

When a quick, rational and collective response was needed, the US administration displayed no national plan. When a government doctor tried to warn the public of the danger, the White House took his mic and politicized the message, Packer wrote. 

Packer dubbed the pandemic the third major crisis of the short 21st century, and criticized Trump by saying, “If lying was his means for using power, corruption was his end.”

The pandemic also revealed the social unfairness and a decayed body politic, wrote Packer, adding that the fight to end the pandemic is also a fight to recover the health of the US. 

Click to read George Packer's original article: We Are Living in a Failed State