标题: Why America is a failed state in the war against COVID-19? [打印本页] 作者: Interpreter 时间: 2020-8-12 10:03 标题: Why America is a failed state in the war against COVID-19? 回帖下载完整视频、音频及双语文本：
Why America is a failed state in the war against COVID-19?
美国缘何成为抗疫失败的国家
As of July 24th, the US has confirmed more than 4 million COVID-19 cases. That means one out of every hundred Americans has tested positive. Its death toll now tops 140,000, accounting for a fifth of the world's total, more than its total from the First World War.
The rising numbers could just be the tip of the iceberg. Experts have often warned infections could be around ten times higher than what is reported, as many still go untraced. While most European countries have flattened the outbreak curve, the US also flattened the curve, but in a different way.
Let's start with the first C -- contempt of science. Although it is absurd, Americans are still debating about the validity of mask wearing. Some in the US don't take social distance seriously. This contempt or neglect of science or however you want to put it seemss to be the symptom of American individualism, the national culture that values freedom more than anything, even their health. And don't forget the series of astonishing instructions coming directly from the White House.
I means insufficient leadership. When faced with catastrophes, people often expect someone to stand up and show a clear way out of the predicament. However, in the process of responding to COVID-19, US leadership seems to be doing the opposite. It has replaced it with repeated misinformation, ontinuously blaming others and making political calculations for the election.
The second C stands for cleavage of society. Any attempt to contain COVID-19 in the US will have to address this potential spread in low income communities of color to protect the lives of people in those communities. But official data indicates African Americans are disproportionately targeted. As of July 8th, among all the death of COVID-19, 23 percent of them were African Americans. However, African Americans only make up 13.4 percent of the US population. In some areas of the country, the disparity has been even more striking. In April, reports from Chicago's said African Americans made up 72 percent of people dying from COVID-19, although they only compose a third of the population there.
To make things worse, “Black Lives Matter” protests have spread across america since the end of May. As of July 3rd, protests have occurred in over 40 percent of the counties, with more than 15 million people participating, which make these demonstrations one of the largest in the US history. Many protesters did not wear masks properly, and social distancing could not possibly have been carried out. These made flattening the curve a mission impossible.
S stands for system flaws. America's failed response to COVID-19 is largely a failure of its own system. First, the political decentralization system in the United States has become a burden in epidemic prevention. On one hand, the federal government and the states compete for medical supplies such as masks and ventilators in the market. On the other hand, buck-passing and throw it over the wall against the like to play.
Second, over the past few decades, Republicans and Democrats have become increasingly geographically divided. Democrats tend to do best in the nation's urban areas, while Republicans find their strongest support in more rural areas. However, in the US Congress every state gets the same two Senators, regardless of their population size. This Senate map had particularly negative consequences over the past several months because COVID-19 hits America’s urban population centers first and hardest. In early March, for example, as the virus was spreading, the first 15 US states to report cases accounted for 56 percent of America's population, but only 30 percent of America's senators. This explains why the Senate was initially slow to act.
Finally, the power of corporations has been translated into political power with disastrous effects to people's lives. The total money spent on lobbying congress and federal agencies rose from 1.45 US dollars in 1998 to 3.47 billion US dollars in 2019, giving cooperations growing cloud with policymakers. It is hardly shocking that business groups were able to convince the Trump administration to delay and scale back the use of Defence Production Act.