一、操弄疫情防控付出惨痛代价
I. A Heavy Price for U.S. Epidemic Prevention and Control文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
美国拥有全世界最先进的医疗设备和技术，却成为全球新冠肺炎感染和死亡人数最多的国家。美国政府不思治理之策，不谋抗疫之举，反而鼓噪“病毒溯源”，热衷“甩锅”推责，大搞政治操弄。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
Despite having world’s most advanced medical equipment and technology, the United States has the biggest number of COVID-19 infections and deaths globally. The U.S. government never rethinks its response measures and still lacks effective anti-epidemic plans. Instead, it stoked the origins-tracing of COVID-19, and has been keen on passing the buck, shifting the blame and political manipulation.文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
漠视民众生命权和健康权。自新冠肺炎疫情在美国暴发以来，疫情防控始终被高度政治化，成为共和党和民主党相互攻讦、否决、对抗的工具和筹码，政客只关注政治私利，却无视民众生命健康。联邦和地方政府各行其是、相互掣肘，不仅使得医疗资源整合和协调管理十分困难，也导致民众对于疫情防控政策无所适从，各种违背科学和常识的反智言行大行其道。部分美国民众受政治操弄误导，不仅拒绝佩戴口罩，甚至掀起“反疫苗”运动，加剧了疫情蔓延。据美国疾病控制和预防中心网站发布的数据，截至2021年底，还有近30%的美国人尚未接种新冠疫苗。美联社2021年12月19日报道称，由于未接种疫苗的人相互感染，导致新冠肺炎感染病例和住院人数持续攀升，医院不堪重负。沃克斯新闻网2021年1月2日指出，美国已经陷入了州、地方政府和公众不得不自求多福的境地。根据美国约翰斯·霍普金斯大学统计的数据，截至2022年2月底，美国新冠肺炎确诊病例数累计超过7800万例、死亡病例数累计超过94万例，其中2021年的死亡病例数远超2020年。南加州大学和普林斯顿大学的研究显示，新冠肺炎使美国人的平均预期寿命减少了1.13岁，这是自第二次世界大战以来的最大降幅。其中，非洲裔和拉美裔的平均预期寿命下降了2.1岁和3.05岁，相对而言，白人的平均预期寿命下降了0.68岁。美政府不科学、不平等、不担当的疫情防控，严重损害了美国人民的生命权和健康权。《纽约时报》2021年11月18日评论说，美国近两年面对新冠肺炎疫情的重重考验表现并不及格，“美国民众对政府的信任已然破产”。文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
Disregard for people’s rights to life and health. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States, the epidemic prevention and control has been highly politicized, which has become a tool and a bargaining chip for Republicans and Democrats to attack, reject and confront each other. U.S. politicians focused only on their political gains in disregard of people’s lives and health. The federal and local governments went their own way and constrained each other, which has not only made it very difficult to integrate and coordinate the management of medical resources, but also made people disoriented about epidemic prevention and control policies. And thus various anti-intellectual words and deeds that reject science and common sense have become prevalent. Misled by political manipulation, some Americans refused to wear masks, and even launched an anti-vaccine movement, which accelerated the spread of COVID-19. By the end of 2021, nearly 30 percent of Americans still had not been vaccinated, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The Associated Press (AP) reported on Dec. 19, 2021 that U.S. hospitals were overwhelmed as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations caused by infections among the unvaccinated continued to surge. States, local governments and the public “have now been left out on their own,” American news website Vox said on Jan. 2, 2021. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, by late February 2022, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States had exceeded 78 million and the death toll surpassed 940,000. Its number of COVID-19 deaths recorded in 2021 has far surpassed the total for 2020. According to the analysis by researchers at the University of Southern California and Princeton University, the deaths caused by COVID-19 have reduced overall life expectancy by 1.13 years, the biggest drop since the Second World War. Life expectancy was estimated to fall by 2.10 years among African Americans and 3.05 years among Latinos, while the decline was 0.68 years among whites. The U.S. government’s unscientific, unequal and irresponsible epidemic prevention and control conducts have seriously undermined its people’s rights to life and health. The New York Times reported on Nov. 18, 2021 that the pandemic has proved to be a nearly two-year stress test that the United States “flunked,” and that the American people’s trust in their government has been “bankrupt.”文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
文章源自英文巴士-https://www.en84.com/13050.html
疫情失控导致民众心理健康恶化。《柳叶刀－区域健康》（美洲）2021年10月在线发表的研究报告显示，新冠肺炎疫情暴发前，美国成年人出现抑郁症状的比例为8.5%，2020年疫情暴发初期上升至27.8%，2021年10月进一步上升至32.8%。美联社2021年12月6日报道，一项民意调查显示，13岁至56岁的美国人中，超过三分之一的受访者将新冠肺炎疫情视作压力的主要来源。疫情失控带来的社会创伤给未成年人留下巨大心理阴影。《洛杉矶时报》网站2021年12月9日报道，美国公共卫生局局长维韦克·穆尔蒂称，与两年前同期相比，2021年美国女孩企图自杀的人数增加了51%。
People’s mental health deteriorated due to the uncontrolled outbreak. A study published in The Lancet Regional Health – Americas in October 2021 found 32.8 percent of U.S. adults experienced “elevated depressive symptoms” in 2021, compared to 27.8 percent in the early 2020 months of the pandemic and 8.5 percent before the pandemic. According to a public opinion poll, more than a third of Americans aged between 13 and 56 said the pandemic is a significant source of stress in their lives. The poll finds teens and young adults have faced some of the heaviest struggles as they come of age during a time of extreme turmoil, the AP reported on Dec. 6, 2021. U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy was cited by The Los Angeles Times as saying on Dec. 9, 2021 that the number of suspected suicide attempts in 2021 was 51 percent higher among adolescent girls compared to the same period in 2019.
无家可归者数量触目惊心。《华盛顿邮报》网站2021年12月7日报道，无家可归是美国面临的最大挑战之一，疫情期间这个问题已经席卷了大小城市。美联社2021年9月9日报道，自2021年1月份以来，罗得岛州没有住房的人数增加了85%以上。根据儿童促进会2021年11月8日发布的报告，2020－2021学年纽约市无家可归的学童曾一度超过10万名，占该市公立学校学生总数的近十分之一。有的学生住在无家可归者收容所，有的学生甚至不得不住在汽车、公园或废弃的建筑物中。《纽约时报》网站2021年12月19日报道，旧金山每100名居民中就有一人无家可归。
The number of the homeless is staggering. The Washington Post reported on Dec. 7, 2021 that “homelessness is one of the United States’ greatest current challenges, no matter the region.” The AP reported on Sept. 9, 2021 that the number of people without permanent shelter in Rhode Island had increased by more than 85 percent since January 2021. According to a report by the group Advocates for Children, more than 100,000 New York City schoolchildren were homeless at some point during the 2020-2021 school year. The total number of homeless students during the school year represented nearly one-tenth of the city’s public school system. Some students had to live in cars, parks or abandoned buildings. The New York Times reported on Dec. 19, 2021 that in San Francisco one of every 100 residents was homeless.
老年人生命权利遭到公然侵害。美国政客奉行优胜劣汰的自然法则，宣称“年长者可为国牺牲”“国家经济比老年人生命更重要”。美国疾病控制和预防中心数据显示，因新冠肺炎疫情死亡的大多数患者年龄在65岁以上。美国“即时医学新闻”网站2021年8月30日报道，截至2021年8月，美国死于新冠肺炎疫情的老年人已超过50万，占死亡总人数的五分之四。联合国老年人权利问题独立专家克劳迪娅·马勒2020年7月21日发布的报告显示，医疗保健服务方面的歧视、应对疫情时没有将疗养院放在足够的优先位置以及隔离政策，使得老年人更容易受到忽视或虐待，美国新冠肺炎疫情期间疗养院死亡人数有严重遗漏。
The elderly’ rights to life are flagrantly violated. U.S. politicians have followed the natural law of “selecting the superior and eliminating the inferior,” declaring that “the elderly could sacrifice for the country” and that “the national economy is more important than the lives of the elderly.” The U.S. CDC said that the vast majority of U.S. COVID-19 deaths have been among people aged 65 or older. According to Stat News, an American health-oriented news website, more than half a million elderly people in the United States have died from COVID-19, accounting for four-fifths of all fatalities. According to a report by Claudia Mahler, the United Nations independent expert on older people, on July 21, 2020, discrimination in the delivery of health care services, insufficient prioritization of nursing homes in responses to the virus, and lockdowns left older people more vulnerable to neglect or abuse. And there was “a significant undercount of nursing home deaths” in the United States during the pandemic.
严重损害国际抗疫合作。华盛顿极力奉行“美国优先”，不仅截留他国抗疫物资，而且禁止本国医疗物资出口，买断可能用于治疗新冠肺炎的药物产能。美国多次胁迫世卫组织，干扰拖累全球抗疫合作。美国大搞“疫苗民族主义”，将一些不发达国家和地区推入“无苗可种”的绝望境地。美国全国广播公司2021年9月1日报道，美国自2021年3月以来在半年内至少废弃了1500万剂新冠疫苗，浪费的疫苗剂量远远超出许多贫穷国家为其整个国家人口准备的疫苗。英国华威大学全球卫生法副教授谢里法·塞卡拉评论称，在以美国为首的发达国家囤积浪费疫苗的同时，“许多非洲国家甚至只有不到5%的人口接种了疫苗，这是一个极大的不公平，是一个悲剧。”南非总统拉马福萨尖锐指出，“富裕国家订购了超过他们本国人口需求的疫苗，而当我们想要疫苗的时候，他们却只给我们一些‘残羹剩饭’，这样的表现的确让人非常非常失望。”美国《外交政策》杂志网站刊文说：“拜登政府仍在以有损世界其他国家利益的方式追求美国利益。”
Serious damage to the global anti-pandemic cooperation. Washington vigorously pursues “America First,” not only withholding anti-epidemic materials from other countries, but also prohibiting the export of domestic medical materials and buying out the production capacity of drugs that may be used to treat COVID-19 patients. The United States has repeatedly coerced the WHO, interfering and dragging down global anti-pandemic cooperation.
The United States has engaged in “vaccine nationalism,” pushing some underdeveloped countries and regions into a desperate situation of having no vaccines to administer.
Since March 2021, the United States has thrown away at least 15 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, significantly more than many poor countries have prepared for their whole populations, according to NBC News on Sept. 1, 2021.
“It’s really tragic that we have a situation where vaccines are being wasted while lots of African countries have not had even 5 percent of their populations vaccinated,” said Sharifah Sekalala, an associate professor of global health law at England’s University of Warwick.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa also slammed rich countries over their hoarding of vaccines, adding that “they are just giving us the crumbs from their table. The greed they demonstrated was disappointing.”
The Biden administration is still pursuing U.S. interests in ways that are detrimental to the interests of the rest of the world, commented an article on the website of the U.S. Foreign Policy magazine.
