A road to decimation

The bedrock for the International Health Regulations is collective defense and shared responsibility. As a party to the regulations, the US should observe instead of undermining the fundamental principle that safeguards global public health security.

The regulations require states' parties to notify the World Health Organization efficiently of all events that may constitute a public health emergency of international concern within its territory, so that diseases can be detected swiftly, and international collaboration can be rallied to support countries affected in containing the emergency and saving lives.

If it becomes a new rule that the first country to have reported an infectious disease should compensate, countries will inevitably choose to hide the outbreak information and wait for others to report to avoid huge economic losses imposed by the compensation.

This way the global public health system will fail in stemming the epidemic, and global public health security will suffer a disastrous blow. People's lives and health will be threatened, and the global economy will be shattered.

Some US politicians have turned the battle against COVID-19 into their political shows by spending time on performing farces instead of saving lives.

The virus is still ravaging the US. I suggest those people correct their wrongs as early as possible. After all, cooperation is the only right way to overcome the pandemic in a world where countries' interests are highly interwoven.

The author is an observer of international affairs.