US administration should put priority on saving lives first: China Daily editorial

That the US economy still seems to be in shape despite the pandemic ravaging the country for more than two months should not only be attributed to its resilience, but also the privilege the United States enjoys from the dollar being the international reserve currency.

And with its unemployment rate being the highest since the Great Depression — 14.7 percent, last month — and the unprecedented downward pressure on the world economy brewing further headwinds, the US government should appreciate the urgency of getting a grip on the country's worsening crisis.

Having squandered the two-month opportunity to prepare for what was coming by ignoring the warnings given by China and the World Health Organization from early January to early March, the US administration has subsequently bungled its response to the virus by not taking testing and contact tracing seriously.

Now it needs to deliver on its claims to have a handle on the situation by immediately boosting the testing capacity nationwide, particularly in nursing homes and senior care facilities where the death rate is disproportionally high. Its lack of attention to the most vulnerable among the population is in itself testimony to the extent to which the administration has missed the point in its response to the pandemic.

To better coordinate domestic efforts to mobilize and concentrate the country's strengths to save lives, the US administration must work with state governments and professional agencies such as the WHO. It should also reconsider its relentless China bashing, since it still needs to obtain essential medical and life supplies from China and can learn from its experience in fighting the virus.

Despite the US administration's smears, China remains willing to extend a helping hand and stand alongside the US in the battle against the pandemic.

Not only because we know that before the virus withdraws from its last foothold in the world, no country, including China, will be safe, but more importantly because we mourn every life taken by this common enemy — among which about one-third have occurred on US soil, 81,795 to be exact as of Tuesday noon.

That the White House has not been spared becoming a site of infection should serve to remind the US leader that while he may be claiming that under his watch the country is transitioning to greatness, at the moment the country's most notable achievement is to be top of the tables for reported deaths and infections.

To declare that the US has risen to every challenge and prevailed is all very well as a rallying cry. But no matter how exceptional the US sees itself as being, the virus just views it the same as any other country. The White House must be more sober-minded and realize that to defeat this common enemy, the world must be all for one and one for all.