Reporter’s Notes: The pain of life, the pain of science, the difficulty of governance-the cumulative number of deaths from the new crown in the United States exceeds 700,000

Xinhua News Agency, Washington, October 1st, reporter’s note: The pain of life, the pain of science, the difficulty of governance-The cumulative number of deaths from the new crown in the United States exceeds 700,000

Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shilong

The latest statistics of the new crown epidemic released by Johns Hopkins University in the United States on the 1st showed that the cumulative number of deaths from the new crown in the United States has exceeded 700,000. According to American media, this number exceeds the number of people who died in the 1918 flu in the United States. Facts have once again proved that the United States is definitely “the world‘s number one country that failed to fight the epidemic.”

This is September 17, and white flags with words of memory of loved ones are placed on the lawn near the Washington Monument in Washington, the capital of the United States. From September 16 to early October, more than 660,000 white flags were placed here to mourn the death of more than 660,000 new crown victims in the United States.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie

The failure of the American anti-epidemic has highlighted the “life” of the United States. The US media compares the death toll of the new crown with the pandemic a hundred years ago, which is inherently heavy and cruel.

According to statistics, the pandemic caused 675,000 deaths in Americans, when the American population was only one-third of the current population. As far as the fatality rate is concerned, it may be said that the flu is more deadly, but there was no vaccine or antibiotics at the time. The fight against the epidemic could only rely on isolation, maintenance of sanitation, use of disinfectants, and restrictions on crowd gathering. Faced with the new crown epidemic, the United States, which is the world‘s richest, most developed, most advanced medical technology, richest in medical resources, and hoarding doses of new crown vaccines several times the country’s population needs, has watched 700,000 live deaths. Incredible.

The failure of the American anti-epidemic also highlights the “scientific pain” of the United States. The science of epidemic prevention has lost to partisan politics, leading to the continuation of largely avoidable tragedies.

Early detection, early isolation, and early diagnosis and treatment can cut off the chain of infection and control the spread of the epidemic in time. In the political game of “opposition and opposition” between the two parties in the United States, the election situation is greater than the epidemic, and political calculations are higher than the need for epidemic prevention. Various measures formulated by epidemic prevention agencies and infectious disease experts are either delayed or shelved, even if they are implemented. Greatly discounted. U.S. media reported that Republican lawmakers in at least 26 states in the United States have weakened the power of local health officials to respond to the epidemic in order to cater to the demands of some voters.

All of these have led to an increase in the volume of anti-intellectual and anti-science, and rumors and false news spread all over the sky. Scientists such as Fauci, the most trusted infectious disease expert in the American public, have all been suppressed by politics. Since the outbreak, the two parties and their supporters have been arguing and litigating over the most basic prevention and control measures such as wearing or not wearing masks and vaccinations. Whether to implement these measures has become a dispute over values, rising to the level of “infringement of personal freedom”. Anti-masks, anti-vaccination and other activities have emerged one after another. Southern states with low vaccination rates have become the hardest hit areas in this round of epidemic rebound.

This is a refrigerated truck that stores the remains of a new crown patient in a temporary morgue taken on September 6 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. The cumulative number of deaths in New York State exceeds 55,000.Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Ying

The failure of the Americans to fight the epidemic has highlighted the “difficulties of governance” in the United States. The “United States” cannot rule “secession.”

Under the US federal system, public health affairs such as the new crown epidemic are managed by state and local governments. Against the background of extreme antagonism between parties, highly polarized politics, and severe social tearing, the politics of checks and balances in the United States has been alienated into “veto politics.” This “bulk” decentralization system makes it difficult for the federal, state, and local governments to work independently, constrain each other, attack each other, and shirk their responsibilities. It is not easy to integrate resources, and it is more difficult to coordinate and respond to the epidemic. It is difficult to form a unified national anti-epidemic plan.

Since Democratic President Biden came to power, the federal government and the “red states” governed by the Republican Party have been discordant about anti-epidemic measures, and political tussles have continued within the states. In order to force vaccination to be expedited, Biden announced a new package of measures in early September, including requiring all employers with more than 100 employees to ensure that their employees complete the new crown vaccination or receive weekly new crown virus testing. This move immediately drew the Republican governors. Oppose in unison.

This is March 8th. Medical staff in New York, USA, transported patients outside the hospital. The cumulative number of deaths in New York State exceeds 55,000. Issued by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Guo Ke)

At present, the fourth wave of the epidemic in the United States driven by the delta strain of the new crown mutant virus is still raging. The shocking figure of 700,000 is probably far from the end. Public health experts worry that as winter approaches, there will be a new wave of epidemic peaks in the United States. The University of Washington predicts that by the end of this year, the cumulative number of deaths from the new crown in the United States will reach 775,000.