Bloomberg global anti-epidemic work ranking fully deviates from truth, perception

Recently, the US topped the global ranking of anti-epidemic work by Bloomberg, while some well-known East Asian countries who achieved significant results in epidemic containment, such as China, South Korea, and Singapore, ranked after the US. It is ridiculous that China's COVID-19 data in terms of zero diagnosis rate and mortality rate one month ago stand in sharp contrast to the other countries, but China ranked eighth. In contrast, the COVID infection rate and mortality rate of the US are the highest among the top 10 countries. People cannot help asking: what is the reason that the US topped the ranking?

Bloomberg claims that as the COVID vaccine has been popularized globally, the criteria for measuring global anti-epidemic work should be redefined, that is so-called "normalization". Therefore, they introduced "the process of reopening" as the major measuring indicator, including four secondary indicators: vaccine coverage rate, restrictions rigidity, flights availability, and travel routes of the vaccinated. However, the original standards, including pandemic data and residents’ qualities of life, became marginalized. How does such measurement lead to such a surprising conclusion that the US ranked first, and China ranked eighth?

First, it is a wrong beginning that Bloomberg regards lockdown as a negative indicator. Undoubtedly, the normalization of people’s lives could be one of the standards of anti-epidemic achievements. Nevertheless, openness or lockdown never become a recognized criterion. The US under Trump has been criticized by the global community for failing to implement effective lockdown measures timely for the sake of so-called “normalization” and openness, resulting in the spread of the epidemic and high rates of infection and mortality. While in East Asian countries, China in particular, the global community has recognized its rapid and efficient responses and restrictive policies that brought the pandemic under control within months and allowing people to return to their normal life. In fact, in Bloomberg’s indicators, China’s GDP grew 8.5%, which is far above the other countries including the US (6.6%). Is there any other factor that can better illustrate people’s life becoming normalized than economic growth?

Furthermore, there are numerous mistakes in Bloomberg's indicators design and data collection. For instance, in the "reopening process", the newly added first-level indicators, its indicator for restrictions rigidity lacks credibility. Bloomberg claims in the calculation method they published that, in the indicator of restrictiveness, the Government Stringency Index by Oxford University has been used for most countries, but not for China. In the absence of data on China in the Oxford University database, it is absurd that Bloomberg arbitrarily eliminated China's data and ranked China subjectively.

It can be said that Bloomberg tried its best to make the US top the ranking by setting "vaccine possession per capita" in the first edition of the ranking, adding "vaccination indicator per 100 capita" in the second edition, and adding the new indicator "reopening process" for a whole column in the third edition, the latest version.

Bloomberg deliberately keeps revising the indices for the ranking of global anti-epidemic work, which is the US gradually developing its self-propaganda in the post-pandemic period and hiding its terrible responses. China's great success in anti-epidemic work as a "non-democratic state" in the eyes of Western countries has shown its systemic advantages, great cohesion, and governance capacity, which has dealt a heavy blow to Western "democratic supremacy" and undermined US claims as well as moral advantages in the Sino-US "comprehensive strategic competition". Therefore, it can be said that Bloomberg's tricks attempt to construct the narrative that "democratic states" worked better than "authoritarian states" in the fight against the pandemic through a seemingly scientific approach. Such tricks and the "stigmatization" of China in terms of the origin of the COVID virus form a set of interlocking approaches, which finally aim to serve America's "strategic competition" with China and maintain America's so-called leadership and hegemony in the world.

Bloomberg's approach of appearing as "science" is insidious, misleading, and deceptive to international public opinion, but the so-called ranking, which is detached from reality, is destined to fail the test of facts and people's perception of reality. The approach that attempts to rewrite the story to hide its disadvantages and construct an illusionary image as a top student in anti-epidemic work not only is harmful to its prestige and credibility, but also exposes its disrespectful attitude to life. Such a "well-intentioned" but self-deceiving approach is not only harmful to unit global efforts to fight the pandemic, but also inconducive to improving US global image.

Translated by Fei Jinglun