Reporter's notes: the war of life, the pain of science and the difficulty of Governance - the cumula

Original title: reporter's notes: the war of life, the pain of science and the difficulty of Governance - the cumulative number of new crown deaths in the United States has exceeded 700000
Xinhua news agency, Washington, October 1 - reporter's notes: the war of life, the pain of science and the difficulty of Governance - the cumulative number of new crown deaths in the United States has exceeded 700000
Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shilong
According to the latest COVID-19 statistics released by Johns Hopkins University 1, there are more than 700 thousand cases of new crown deaths in the United States. American media said that this figure exceeded the number of people who died of the 1918 pandemic flu in the United States. Facts have proved once again that the United States is definitely the "world's first failed country in the fight against the epidemic".

On September 17, a white flag with words in memory of relatives was placed on the lawn near the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. From September 16 to early October, more than 660000 white flags were placed here to mourn more than 660000 new crown dead in the United States. Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Jie
The failure of the American anti epidemic war highlights the "war of life" of the United States. Comparing the death toll of the new crown with the pandemic influenza a hundred years ago, the US media itself has a heavy and cruel taste.
According to statistics, the pandemic flu killed 675000 Americans, when the U.S. population was only one third of what it is now. In terms of mortality, it may be said that the pandemic influenza was more deadly, but there was no vaccine or antibiotics at that time. The only way to fight the epidemic was to isolate, maintain hygiene, use disinfectants and restrict crowd aggregation. Now facing COVID-19, the world's richest, most developed, most advanced medical technology, the most abundant medical resources, and the number of new vaccines that have been hoarding the population of our country, but the 700 thousand fresh lives are gone, it is fantastic.
The failure of American anti epidemic also highlights the "pain of science" in the United States. Epidemic prevention science has lost to party politics, leading to a largely avoidable tragedy that continues.
Early detection, early isolation and early diagnosis and treatment can cut off the infection chain and control the spread of the epidemic in time. In the political game of "opposition for opposition" between the two parties in the United States, the election is greater than the epidemic situation, and the political calculation is higher than the needs of epidemic prevention. Various measures formulated by epidemic prevention institutions and infectious disease experts are either delayed or shelved, and even their implementation is greatly reduced. U.S. media reported that in order to meet the requirements of some voters, Republican lawmakers in at least 26 states have weakened the power of local health officials to deal with the epidemic in the form of legislation.
All this has led to an increase in the voice of anti intelligence and anti science, and rumors and false news are flying all over the world. Scientists such as fudge, an infectious disease expert most trusted by the American public, have been suppressed by politics. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the two parties and their supporters are still arguing and litigating over the most basic prevention and control measures such as wearing masks and vaccinations. Whether to implement these measures has become a dispute over values, rising to the level of "violation of individual freedom". Anti mask, anti vaccine and other activities are emerging one after another. The southern state with low vaccination rate has become the hardest hit area in this round of epidemic rebound.

This is a refrigerated car for storing the remains of patients with new crown in a temporary morgue photographed in Brooklyn, New York, on September 6. The cumulative number of deaths in New York state is more than 55000. Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Ying
The failure of the American anti epidemic war highlights the "governance difficulties" of the United States, and the "United States" can not cure the "split country".
Under the federal system of the United States, public health services such as COVID-19 are mainly managed by state and local governments. Under the background of extreme party opposition, high political polarization and serious social tear, the power check and balance politics in the United States has been alienated into "veto politics". This "bulk" decentralization system makes the federal, state and local governments act on their own, restrict each other, criticize each other and shift responsibilities. It is not easy to integrate resources, make it more difficult to coordinate response, and it is difficult to form a national unified anti epidemic plan.
Since Democratic President Biden came to power, the federal government and the "red state" dominated by the Republican Party have been in constant discord over anti epidemic measures, and political entanglements have been staged within the States. In order to speed up vaccination, Biden announced a package of new measures in early September, including requiring employers with more than 100 employees to ensure that their employees complete the new crown vaccination or receive the new crown virus test every week, which immediately led to the unanimous opposition of the Republican governors.

On March 8, medical staff in New York, USA transported patients outside the hospital. The cumulative number of deaths in New York state is more than 55000. Issued by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Guo Ke)
At present, the fourth wave of epidemic in the United States driven by the delta strain of the new crown variant virus is still raging, and the shocking figure of 700000 is probably far from the end. Public health experts worry that with the advent of winter, a new wave of epidemic peak will appear in the United States. The University of Washington predicts that by the end of this year, the cumulative number of deaths in the United States will reach 775000.
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[editor in charge: Zhou Chuqing]