U.S. vicious slanders on China over COVID-19 origins tracing and the truth (Part 10)

Source: Xinhua| 2021-11-06 19:31:09|Editor: huaxia

◆The blame game between the two parties in the United States on anti-epidemic issues has never stopped. Since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, some politicians from both parties have been fighting over how to treat and respond to the pandemic, politicizing anti-epidemic measures and prioritizing "party rivalry." As a result, the U.S. federal government and local governments, even states dominated by different parties, have taken different measures to fight the pandemic and made uneven distribution of resources. Even the simple question of whether to wear a face mask or not has sparked a political battle. Some U.S. media said that the response of the U.S. people to the pandemic has laid bare the political lines of Red-Blue divide.

In June 2021, 16 Republicans in the House of Representatives jointly proposed a bill to prohibit commercial companies, hospitals, nursing homes, universities, insurance companies and others from forcing or otherwise requiring their employees, customers or students to be vaccinated.

In late June in 2021, Ted Cruz, Susan Collins and other senior Republican senators jointly launched a motion urging the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP) to lift the mask mandate, which took effect in February 2021. The mandate, one of President Joe Biden's new policies, requires all people taking public transportation to wear masks, and stipulates that offenders may face criminal punishment. However, Cruz and other Republicans said that vaccinated people do not need to follow the mask order.

6.The U.S. government downplayed the epidemic, delayed reporting and concealed the facts, which led to the massive spread of the pandemic.

◆Bob Woodward, a U.S. investigative journalist, revealed part of the interview recordings of then U.S. President Trump in his new book "Rage," confirming that Trump had known the seriousness of the COVID-19 outbreak since the beginning of the crisis but still deliberately downplayed it in public. On Feb. 7, 2020, Trump told Woodward that he thought the novel coronavirus was thorny, while on Feb. 10 that year, Trump said at a public event at the White House that the United States was in good shape, and the virus would go away by April due to the warming weather. "I wanted to always play it down," the president told Woodward on March 19, adding that "I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic." On March 25, Trump said at the White House press conference that no one could have predicted the epidemic situation. In an interview in July, Trump cleared himself of responsibility for the outbreak, saying that it was not his fault. Trump, Woodward said, could have underscored the COVID-19 threat in his State of the Union address in early February, but he failed to seize the opportunity. If Trump had told the U.S. people the truth in the first place and done a better job in fighting against the virus, so many innocent lives would not have been lost.

◆In early March 2020, the U.S. CDCP stopped updating and deleted data related to the COVID-19 tests and deaths on its official website.

◆In an op-ed published in August 2020 by British newspaper The Guardian, Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of medical journal The Lancet, said that Chinese doctors rapidly gave early warnings to the Chinese government, which quickly issued warnings to the whole world, but Western countries did not listen to these warnings. To blame China for this pandemic is to rewrite the history of COVID-19 and to marginalize the failings of Western nations, said Horton.

◆In May 2020, Rebekah Jones, who was a Geographic Information Systems manager for the Florida Department of Health and managed Florida's COVID-19 Data and Surveillance Dashboard, said in an interview that she was repeatedly instructed by the government to revise the confirmed COVID-19 cases, delete the data showing suspected cases earlier than the confirmed cases, and create false public opinion for the state to restart economic activities. As she refused to "manually change data," she was fired for "insubordination" and for being "disruptive."

7.The United States has muted the voices of professionals on the epidemic, and silenced scientists who hold different viewpoints, causing serious consequences.

◆On March 10, 2020, The New York Times published a report, titled "'It's Just Everywhere Already': How Delays in Testing Set Back the U.S. Coronavirus Response." The report recorded a series of efforts made by Helen Chu, an infectious disease expert in Seattle, at the beginning of the outbreak in the country, and the constant obstacles and suppression against her during that period.

In late January 2020, the first confirmed COVID-19 case occurred in where she lived. As Chu's lab was not certified for clinical work, she needed to apply for the authorities' approval to carry out the COVID-19 tests. But almost all the officials she approached rejected her request, and state regulators even asked her to stop testing altogether.

"We felt like we were sitting, waiting for the pandemic to emerge," Chu was quoted by The New York Times as saying. "We could help. We couldn't do anything." On Feb. 25 2020, Chu and her colleagues began performing COVID-19 tests without the government's approval. The outcome confirmed their worst fear. They quickly had a positive test from a local teenager with no recent travel history or contact record with a confirmed case. "It must have been here this entire time," Chu said. "It's just everywhere already."

◆Captain Brett Crozier was removed by the Pentagon on the grounds of "misjudgment" from his post as commanding officer of aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, after he boldly decided to disembark and isolate the crew who were grappling with the spread of COVID-19, so as to avoid the death of sailors out of a war. Later, Democratic members of the House Armed Services Committee issued a statement saying that "the COVID pandemic presents a set of new challenges and there is much we still do not know. Captain Crozier was justifiably concerned about the health and safety of his crew, but he did not handle the immense pressure appropriately. However, relieving him of his command is an overreaction."

◆Anthony Fauci, who has led the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and has advised six U.S. presidents on matters of public health, was frequently criticized by the White House for refuting the absurd remarks from Republicans. Fauci disclosed that his family had received death threats and had to seek help from the security services. More than 3,000 U.S. health experts signed a joint open letter criticizing the White House for deliberately damaging Fauci's reputation. The letter said that the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge the United States has ever faced, while the White House deliberately "discredited" Fauci, "marginalized" him and diverted the public's attention, all of which were "very dangerous."

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/08/05/899415906/fauci-reveals-he-has-received-death-threats-and-his-daughters-have-been-harassed

◆Australian virologist Danielle Anderson received an email telling her to "eat a bat and die" after critiquing the "lab leak" theory based on her own experience in China. As she was attacked and sworn at by "vile" extremists from the United States, the expert had to call the police.

https://www.smh.com.au/national/eat-a-bat-and-die-vile-threats-against-wuhan-lab-conspiracy-buster-20210701-p5861i.html (more)

KEY WORDS: US,Origins Tracing,Slanders,COVID,19
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