Trump's blame on China for COVID-19 waste of time and energy: former U.S. ambassador

Screenshot shows Charles R. Stith's opinion article published by South China Morning Post on Dec. 14, 2020.

U.S. President Donald Trump's consistent act of blaming China for the coronavirus pandemic is a waste of time and energy, said Charles R. Stith, the former U.S. ambassador to Tanzania and non-executive chairman of the Johannesburg-based African Presidential Leadership Centre, in an opinion article published by South China Morning Post on Dec. 14.

Trump's continuous act of "blaming China for the pandemic and the chaos that followed" is a "non-starter," and in the best case, it is merely a waste of time. "At worst, it is a distraction that prevents us from dealing with root issues relative to Covid-19 and getting started on a serious global economic recovery," Stith said.

Stith said that the crisis is not China's fault, as the country "acted quickly in identifying the virus and shared pertinent information as it had been vetted." He also cited a study in the Journal of Medical Internet Research indicating that there might have been COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as early as December 2019.

Stith raised a more critical point that the urbanization and massive global travel make it possible that a virus with the spread potential of a pandemic is "already everywhere if it has been detected anywhere."

The main issue is not playing the blame game, but to focus on dealing with COVID-19. Countries with more capacity should "be vigilant" and "implement prophylactic measures as soon as possible in a coordinated fashion." The world should also mobilize to provide support to countries with weak healthcare infrastructure, said Stith.

Stith concluded that the world needs cooperation to deal with the pandemic.

"Working together, the world can deal with this challenge. Working together, we can see this through. To do that, first and foremost, we have to stop blaming China for the pandemic."

Find the original article at https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3113625/why-trump-blaming-china-coronavirus-pandemic-waste-time-and-energy