Controlling Covid-19: A tale of two cities

China is among countries that have emerged as the world leaders in fighting this pandemic; first with its rigorous domestic campaign to neutralise the virus within its borders setting benchmarks for the world with its massive treatment centre projects and citizen relief during the lockdown.

Meanwhile, the United States of America first responded to the pandemic through what many analysts described as denial, then dismissal, panic, disputing science logic and now they are looking for a scapegoat to cover own inadequacies.

 One can argue that China has proven a timely ally of many; first with the timely aid – providing aid to various governments with equipment necessary for containing the virus as well as restructuring loans to various economies. Needless to say, China is currently at the forefront of the Covid-19 vaccination donating several million vaccine doses on top of pledging support to the Covax initiative.

In contrast the U.S first chose to hoard most of its domestic vaccines whilst critiquing Beijing for vaccine diplomacy. Consequently, Washington has now adopted what seems to be “blackmail diplomacy” as a major element amplifying the theories around Coronavirus origins with some people in Biden administration going against the position of the Centre for Disease Control and scientists who support world health organization’s (WHO) first results contending a natural origin to the virus.

 President Biden gave US’ CIA 90 days to ‘look into the possibility’ of the virus having originated from a lab in Wuhan, which rises several questions;

Why America? First, there’s an earlier comprehensive investigation into the origins of the coronavirus headed by the WHO which concluded that; the possibility of the virus having originated from a lab is “highly unlikely”.

 Considering the fact that in WHO report, a follow-up research was indicated to look into the possibility of there being an intermediary species in the transfer of coronavirus from bats to humans, isn’t it redundant carrying out both investigations parallel to each other?

Why the lab theory? Most of the evidence quoted by believers of the lab theory is quite circumstantial due to the presence of the viral research institute in Wuhan.

As China aggressively adhered to health experts’ and scientist’s advice, Washington opted to playdown efforts China employed branding them draconian.  An argument can therefore be made that after ignoring science and health experts’ logic and embracing political game(s) in containing Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S which is recovering from covid-19 wreckage must find someone to blame for the death of over 600,000 Americans.

As the world raced to develop coronavirus vaccines, some politicians in the U.S were busy blaming China for what they called stealing their knowledge in vaccine development. When China produced their Covid-19 vaccines, because Beijing had already contained local transmission at home, and in what could be Xi Jinping’s cherished ideology of a shared prosperity for mankind, China decided to distribute vaccines to almost all countries. This happened as the U.S and some other developed countries embraced vaccine nationalism by buying and booking all future productions for their citizens. Surprisingly, Washington branded this gesture political, so-called China’s vaccines diplomacy.

Put differently, the U.S has always been ready to discredit China’s efforts. Such confusion reveals a disconnect with one country seemingly having so much to say about the virus and another (China) having so much to do about the virus, hence, a tale of two cities.

No matter the diplomatic words Biden administration put behind his ordered CIA inquiry on origins of coronavirus, the move is nothing but a cobweb of politics.

By Allawi Ssemanda 

Mr Ssemanda, PhD is a senior Research Fellow at Development Watch Centre, a foreign policy think tank.