Through the lens. Illustration: Liu Rui/GT
BEIJING: "An adult returns to the White House," the Democrats, their media representatives and Washington Beltway thought leaders were proclaiming when Joseph R. Biden was sworn in as US President on Inauguration Day last January. The Establishment figures had insisted that Donald J. Trump's four-year presence at the White House was just an "accident of history" and when Biden and Democrats return to power they can undo the damage of the Coronavirus pandemic. Instead it appears the Covid-19 has not only continued to spread rapidly but has placed the US on the precipice of a public health catastrophe that could wreck havoc on the US economy and its once vibrant and long-held social structures.
After Biden entered the Oval Office, he pledged 100 million Americans would get vaccinated in 100 days. Well, a promise was made but the promise was not kept. Additionally, Biden vowed 70 percent of all US citizens would be vaccinated by July 4th and Americans could celebrate with family BBQs. The good news is that Americans went ahead to enjoy BBQs on US Independence Day but the bad news, the nation didn't reach the 70% vaccinations' target. And the news has gotten much worse ever since with the Delta Variant of Covid-19 looming and set to infect many good people in the USA. So what happened and who deserves blame?
If you are an American elected official with plans to stay in office with an upcoming re-election bid, you could conclude China is at fault, not because that's true but just because it's for political convenience' sake. And that's exactly what the world is witnessing right now. The US government is playing the blame game and pointing their hypocritical fingers at Beijing. They are hatching nonsensical conspiracy theories and driving fake news media narratives. Some have hinted the virus had originated and leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The lab leak theory makes no logical sense and independent third party scientists have visited the Wuhan virus lab earlier and concluded that the possibility of Covid-19 origins tracing being man-made are "extremely unlikely" in a draft report signed off by the WHO (World Health Organization) and China's NIH (National Institute for Health) officials. Besides the Wuhan metro population stands at over 12 million and it's silly to conclude Chinese officials would be creating bio-weapon pathogens in the city's center. But the lab leak theory is starting to run its course and fading into obscurity with the Western media and public.
So let's circle back to how Biden's failed leadership has added to much confusion and disorganization in regards to the nation's epidemic control efforts. The Biden administration has lifted a number of stringent social distancing measures and wearing face masks requirements. Washington did not impose vaccines' mandates on US citizens. Nonetheless, the relaxing of rules sparked an atmosphere of befuddlement. NIH (National Institute of Health) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci did not help matters with his frequent public flip flops and face masks' rules. He would demand stringent enforcement on face masks for shoppers at a grocery store, but if a person participated in a BLM (Black Lives Matter) protest or riot, he would not insist on face masks' compliance. Dr. Fauci flipped again by saying vaccinated persons should not wear face masks but the new regulation caused further confusion. Most Americans stopped wearing them and those not vaccinated had a legal right to refuse to answer questions on their status in order to meet medical health privacy regulations.
The shifting of US policies to tackle the Coronavirus could place more Americans at risk of getting infected by the Delta Variant. US citizens may have observed Biden giving press conferences and delivering speeches where he looks visibly confused and speaking in incoherent sentences and they could interpret that as him having an inability to lead the country and to curb the virus. Hence, the American people lack trust in their own government and that could explain the low vaccine rates. From this standpoint, US politicians trying to "blame China" will not succeed as they had wished, since American voters are not stupid and they can decipher between the facts from fiction.
Biden will have some tough choices to make in the near future as the Delta Variant could spark a huge upsurge of infection rates in the US. He could assume responsibility over prior mistakes and vow to take strong measures to curb Covid-19. But US politicians will never blame themselves for the problems they had caused so it's fantasy thinking to believe otherwise. However, the US government should take a closer look at the "China Model" to battle the pandemic. China has very low Coronavirus rates and results matter most of all. China has succeeded in the fight against the pandemic so why not consider implementing similar measures that Beijing has already enacted. The "consider the China Model" might be a better approach than the "blame China" in future efforts to tackle the Coronavirus. Follow the success patterns.
(The views don't necessarily represent those of the CCTV.com.)
