The "Second Global Anti-epidemic Video Summit" held by the United States and individual countries was held on the 12th local time, and US President Joe Biden delivered a recorded speech announcing "a tragic milestone": 1 million Americans died of new crown pneumonia. The failure of the United States to fight the epidemic is shocking, and it is in sharp contrast to the "leadership position" it deliberately played at the video "summit".
It is said that all efforts that help the international community to unite against the epidemic and fight the epidemic scientifically are welcome, but the world regrets to see that even if the global epidemic is still raging and the domestic fight against the epidemic is seriously failed, Washington still vigorously politicizes the epidemic, insists on inviting the Taiwan side to participate in the meeting, and deliberately politicizes the stage that belongs to science. It also demonstrates once again that Washington's interest in provoking confrontations and conflicts in the world and profiting from them far outweighs its interest in taking on more practical obligations and responsibilities to unite nations in common challenges.
U.S. Capitol Infographic
Some White House officials claimed that the United States "helped raise" more than $3 billion for the fight against the epidemic at the summit and pledged $200 million for global public health. This part of the US out-of-pocket has been "beyond expectations" compared with the previous prediction that the United States may "participate in the meeting empty-handed". The White House had proposed an additional $22.5 billion in response to COVID-19 before the summit, of which $5 billion was spent on the global fight against the pandemic, but the proposal was shelved by Congress. The "internal balance of power" in the United States is certainly a reason, but who knows if the White House and Congress have tacitly agreed to each other from the beginning? The so-called "generosity" is originally an illusion that fools the world.
Of course, Washington also has a "generous" place, that is, a continuous export of "political viruses" to the outside world. Since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the US side has not focused on controlling the epidemic and saving lives, but has vigorously engaged in political manipulation that violates science and undermines unity, and even used the intelligence department to engage in the so-called "new crown virus traceability report" in an attempt to dump the responsibility for its own ineffective fight against the epidemic to China. To this day, under the manipulation of politicians in Washington, the politicization of the epidemic is still being renovated, and the "political virus" is constantly "mutating".
As the country with the richest medical resources and the strongest medical technology in the world, the United States was in a position to play a greater role in the global fight against the epidemic. But as we all know, when a leader must first have a public heart and abandon selfish distractions; secondly, he must take the lead in setting an example and leading by example. It has to be said that the performance of the United States on these two elements of leadership is extremely bad. A poor student in the global fight against the epidemic cannot have any appeal until his anti-epidemic achievements are improved. The practice of stuffing smuggled goods into global public health issues is even more offensive.
On January 5, 2022, local time, Kaihoga Falls, Sumit County, Ohio, USA, took a picture of the current situation of the ICU for the treatment of patients with severe new coronary pneumonia in Western Reserve Hospital. Image source: The Paper
Perhaps feeling weak-minded, the United States public opinion meeting has lowered public expectations before the meeting, saying that compared with the first summit, this time "may see smaller targeted commitments and actions." In fact, most of the commitments made by the United States at the first summit were not fulfilled. Washington boasts that it has aided a lot of vaccines abroad, and has included a series of eye-catching figures in the "summary report", but in fact, a considerable number of vaccines donated to developing countries are about to expire, but even such "donations" are not "free", and even attach a lot of political conditions.
Some African media have bluntly pointed out that while the United States is trying to politicize the problem of tracing the origin of the epidemic and dumping China, China is providing vaccines to developing countries. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has not only taken the lead in proposing the concept of a community of human health, but also was the first to announce that vaccines will be a global public good, and has supplied more than 2.2 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to more than 120 countries and international organizations. When the global epidemic is raging, who is making an obscure contribution to the global fight against the epidemic, and who is taking advantage of the epidemic to engage in political manipulation, others can see it very clearly, and Washington should also understand it in its heart.
On January 16, 2021, local time, a plane carrying 1 million doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Nikola Tesla Airport in Belgrade, Serbia. Image source: The Paper
Although Washington is adept at politicizing the epidemic, we caution that most of the countries, regions and international organizations that attend the "summit" are seeking solutions, not toasting to us hegemony. With just one mouth, Washington will never be able to achieve what the United States calls "global leadership" in the fight against the epidemic. (This article is the editorial of the Global Times, originally titled: Want to be a global anti-epidemic "leader", the United States is not qualified)
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Wu Text Editor: Cao Fei Title Image Source: Xinhua News Agency Photo Editor: Yong Kai
Source: Author: Global Times