Whitewashing House and its pandemic wrecking-ball binge

Over the past few months, instead of setting an example in handling the coronavirus pandemic as it should, the White House has been throwing wrecking balls home and abroad, and has turned itself into the "Whitewashing House" in a rush to cover up its mess-up.

There is ample evidence now showing that decision-makers in Washington had been fully warned about the magnitude of the public health crisis, yet they chose to downplay the threat of the pathogen.

In the United States, the White House's chaotic and behind-the-curve responses all along have helped put the country first in the global tally of infections and death tolls.

"We don't have a single point of leadership right now for this response, and we don't have a master plan for this response," Rick Bright, a whistleblower who had been ousted as head of a federal medical research agency, told a U.S. congressional testimony last week.

While shamelessly demonstrating their torpor towards lives, some politicians in this U.S. administration, like Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, have put up a show of zeal for blame games and disinformation campaigns.

They have made up all sorts of false charges against a team of scapegoats like China, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the previous U.S. administration over transparency, the virus's origin and pandemic preparedness. They rush to lie for two ends: to cover up their own incompetence, and to sway public opinion for the coming election in November.

Instead of helping other countries to fight off the deadly disease, Washington is making the battles of others much tougher.

Despite a ballooning global COVID-19 caseload, Washington has kept up with its economic sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela and Iran, and even sought to block Iran's emergency loan attempt from the International Monetary Fund, seriously crippling their pandemic response ability.

Washington's traditional allies have also fallen victim to this White House's reckless acts. Germany and France have both accused the United States of blocking or diverting their medical supply orders. U.S.-based manufacturer 3M said in April that it got directions from Washington to stop exporting N95 respirators to Canada and Latin America.

A survey last week by the British Foreign Policy Group found only 28 percent of Britons trusted the United States to act responsibly on the world stage, down by 13 percentage points since January.

"The U.S. is not helping anyone. The U.S. isn't even helping itself, much less other countries. And, thanks to 24/7 global communication, that is visible for all the world to see," former U.S. Ambassador to the Netherlands Cynthia Schneider told Business Insider.

While screwing up domestically, Washington has also failed to contribute positively to global pandemic cooperation, and has been exercising a doctrine of what Jane Halton, a top Australian health expert, dubbed as "vaccine nationalism."

Earlier this month, Washington was absent from a coronavirus global response pledging event, which sought to raise funds for research for effective treatments and vaccines. In mid-March, the White House reportedly offered a large sum of money to German biotech firm CureVac for the sole rights to its vaccine.

Moreover, the White House has kept on marginalizing the WHO by smearing the organization and freezing its funding to the world health body. In its latest move, it even threatened to permanently cut off funding and withdraw from the organization while over 100 countries were in the middle of a virtual World Health Assembly to reaffirm global solidarity and their support for the WHO's key role in international health coordination.

What is also shockingly absurd is that the United States has blocked this month a vote on a United Nations Security Council resolution that called for a global ceasefire aimed to help troubled nations better fight the coronavirus pandemic.

On Tuesday, the global COVID-19 cases have topped 5 million, another grim milestone in the pandemic. Now is the time for all members of the international community to put the interests of humanity front and center in this high-stake fight, and form a united front to beat their common enemy.

The United States, the world's most developed nation, should stop whitewashing its own failures with lies, and wake up from its fantasy that it can survive the crisis without caring about the wellbeing of others. Enditem