III. Political manipulation makes global fight against epidemic more difficult

U.S. political manoeuvring has taken the world further and further away from overcoming the epidemic. From the very beginning of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. politicians have placed geopolitics above science. The United States has given the pandemic a "Cold War" narrative, "Cold War" language and political overtones of "Cold War" attacks, smearing and vilifying China and seriously disrupting international origins-tracing and global anti-pandemic cooperation.

The United States is politically polarised and mired in partisanship, unable to heal social rifts. It is difficult for the government to focus its efforts on effectively combating the pandemic. This has not only aggravated the pandemic in the country, but also affected the global anti-pandemic fight.

1. Shirking responsibility for pandemic prevention and undermining international anti-pandemic efforts

In order to get rid of the dilemma of ineffective anti-pandemic efforts, U.S. politicians have taken the initiative to direct the "dirty water" to the international arena, shifting the responsibility to China, making unreasonable accusations against China's anti-pandemic policy, discrediting China's transparency in combating the pandemic, trying to make the Chinese government responsible for the U.S. anti-pandemic failure, and even demanding the Chinese government to "pay for it." Trump himself once used the term "Chinese virus" to refer to the coronavirus, undermining China-U.S. cooperation in the fight against the pandemic.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also been the subject of blame shifting by the United States. The Trump administration claimed that the WHO failed to play its due role and was also responsible for the U.S. fight against the pandemic. Not only did the U.S. government announce the suspension of funding to the WHO at a critical moment in the global fight against the pandemic, but also investigated whether WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has properly responded to the pandemic.

To tackle the pandemic in the shortest possible time, all countries need to work together and join forces in prevention and control. U.S. politicians' blame-shifting subterfuge has increased the cost of global anti-pandemic fight, created differences between countries, and severely hindered the global fight against the pandemic, which in turn has worsened the situation in the United States and prolonged its own fight against the COVID-19.

2. Obsession with political self-interest and refusal to take up responsibility

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. has exposed to the fullest its obsession with political self-interest featuring unilateralism, "America First", "American supremacy" and its mentality of hegemony. Tracing the origins of COVID-19 within the U.S. arguably helps detect problems at an early date and prevents future outbreaks. But the U.S. has employed double standards on the issue of origins-tracing. On one hand, it has hyped the "lab leak theory" and actively promoted the WHO's investigation in China. On the other, it has disregarded questions and calls from the international community, refusing to investigate Fort Detrick and a biological laboratory at the University of North Carolina, both of which are suspicious. It is therefore evident that the U.S. has incessantly hyped COVID-19 origins tracing not to be responsible for the people of the world, but to fabricate lies, distort truth, attrite China's diplomatic resources and gain bargaining chips against China.

The United States, as the world's number one superpower, has absolutely insufficient responsibility and accountability to match. While it always boasts humanitarianism and human rights, the country practices "America First" and adheres to "vaccine nationalism" on the matter of COVID-19 vaccine distribution. The U.S. hasn't cooperated in the global planning of vaccine distribution and has made accusations against China's vaccine aid; it has implemented export controls over raw materials for vaccine production and has hoarded a large number of COVID-19 vaccines far beyond the needs of its people; it has been reluctant and slow to provide aid to the developing countries afflicted by the pandemic. It in doing so has worsened the global vaccine inequality and left the vaccine gap to be continuously widened.

The U.S. politicians who champion unilateralism appear to have defended U.S. interests, but their behavior is backfiring. It is becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. government is the biggest troublemaker.

3. Political polarization causes harm to America itself and world at large

The United State's COVID-19 response has fallen victim to the country's partisan battles since the very beginning. The Democrats and the Republicans fight not for effectively controlling the epidemic and saving lives, but for using the pandemic as an opportunity to gain support from the voters. When the pandemic was at its worst in the U.S., which coincided with the 2020 presidential election, many politicians were more concerned about their own prospect in the government transition than how to handle the pandemic. This has cost the U.S. precious time for controlling the disease. At that time, the epidemic data of many U.S. states were delayed for several weeks before being reported to the federal government, which seriously affected the country's epidemic decision-making. The situation has remained unchanged after the Biden administration came to power. Despite recurrences of COVID-19 cases, Biden has not taken tough measures against some Republican governors' resistance to wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, nor has he acted strictly on swing voters due to the outbreaks.

The uncontrollable pandemic, the constantly mutating virus, and the ingrained ideological differences have made Americans confused and furious. The U.S. political system can hardly manage and control an extremely divided society, nor can it protect the country from a new round of man-made disasters, to which the American people and the people of the world are all victims.

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, especially with the emergence of mutant strains, which has increased uncertainties over future global pandemic response, the U.S. should abandon its obsession with political self-interest, reflect on its major mistakes in epidemic prevention and control, stop politicizing the coronavirus, stop undermining international anti-epidemic cooperation, actively share its vaccines with the world, carry out origins tracing research in a scientific manner and facilitate global economic recovery, so as to finally defeat the COVID-19 pandemic.