The U.S. Government's actions during the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic have caused serious human rights problems in the U.S., according to an article by the China Society for Human Rights Studies released on June 11. Edited excerpts follow:

The unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is the most serious global public health emergency that humanity has experienced since the end of World War II. It is also a "big test of human rights conditions" for all countries across the globe. The virus does not respect borders, nor is race or nationality relevant in the face of the disease. Given this, to honor our common commitment to human rights, governments of different countries are obliged to adopt scientific measures for the prevention and control of the virus and do their best to ensure the health and safety of their people.

Nevertheless, the U.S. Government's self-interested, short-sighted, inefficient and irresponsible response to the pandemic has not only caused the tragedy in which over 2 million Americans have become infected and more than 110,000 died from it, but also exposed and worsened the long-existing problems within the U.S., such as a divisive society, the polarization between the rich and the poor, racial discrimination, and the inadequate protection of the rights and interests of vulnerable groups. This has led the American people into grave human rights disasters.

Ineffective response

Being distracted, slack and opinionated in the face of the pandemic, the United States Federal Government declared a national emergency on March 13, after tens of thousands of deaths had occurred. For the U.S., which boasts the strongest economic and technological strength and the most abundant medical resources in the world, this is a sad irony.

According to the revisited timeline of the pandemic in the U.S., which was released by The New York Times and Washington Post in April, the U.S. Government had repeatedly ignored the pandemic warnings and slacked off on pandemic control. Instead, it focused on controlling the spread of information, restricted medical experts' freedom to release information on the pandemic to the public, and even published false information to mislead the public, such as calling the virus "a flu," claiming that the virus has low infection and fatality rates, and saying that "one day, like a miracle, it will disappear."

Under such circumstances, the "golden window" period for infectious disease prevention and control was wasted. Even then, many members of the U.S. Senate, including Richard Burr, who was the chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, were involved in insider trading scandals. They used their positions to understand the serious situation of the pandemic earlier, but downplayed the risk of the pandemic in front of the public while selling a large number of stocks before the pandemic triggered a stock market crash.

When the virus broke out in the U.S., some U.S. politicians used it as a weapon to attack political opponents and seek election benefits instead of regarding the drive to protect the lives and health of their people as their top priority. The website of The Lancet, an authoritative medical journal, published an editorial on May 16, which was a rare case for the journal. The article criticized the U.S. Government for not actively adopting basic medical and anti-pandemic measures such as detection, tracking and isolation, placing its hopes on "magic bullets" such as vaccines and new drugs, and hoping that the virus would eventually "magically disappear."

On May 4, the famous U.S. political scientist Francis Fukuyama published an article titled The Wages of American Political Decay on the website of The National Interest, pointing out that the highly polarized party politics made the political checks and balances an insurmountable obstacle to decision-making; that the pandemic, which should have been an opportunity to put aside differences and show unity, further deepened the political polarization.

The website of The New York Times reported on May 20 that research by Columbia University showed that delays in adopting movement restrictions had caused at least 36,000 deaths. According to the research, if the U.S. Government had adopted movement restrictions one week earlier, it could have saved 36,000 lives, and if the U.S. Government had adopted movement restrictions two weeks earlier, 83 percent of the deaths from COVID-19 could have been avoided.

Inequality exposed

In the U.S., both liberal and conservative scholars agree on one basic fact that there is stark inequality within the U.S. society. The deep-seated institutional reason for such inequality is that the U.S. Government and political parties have long been manipulated by interest groups, and are unable to formulate and implement tax, industrial, and social security policies that promote social equality. During the pandemic, the social and economic inequality within the U.S. society has been exposed and exacerbated.

Viral infection does not distinguish between rich and poor, but the limited testing and medical resources were not fairly allocated in the U.S. The website of The New York Times reported on March 19 that many dignitaries in the U.S. somehow underwent virus testing when they had no signs of infection and when nearly every state in the country lacked testing equipment. This obvious injustice has led the public increasingly to raise questions. The website of The Guardian, a British newspaper, published an article on March 21 and commented that in the face of COVID-19, the United States has first rescued the rich and powerful groups. The gap between rich and poor in getting the virus tests in the U.S. has exposed the slackness, confusion and injustice in its pandemic prevention and control system.

The pandemic has made the lives of people at the bottom of the U.S. society increasingly difficult, and further intensified the social polarization between rich and poor. Faced with the COVID-19 pandemic, tens of millions of people in the U.S. are not covered by medical insurance, while intensive care for COVID-19 costs as high as tens of thousands of dollars.

According to data released by the U.S. Department of Labor on May 28, the cumulative number of Americans applying for unemployment relief from March 15 to May 23 for the first time reached 40.8 million. Given the high unemployment rate brought about by the pandemic and the long-existing structural discrimination and polarization between rich and poor, the U.S. working class' ability to resist risks has greatly diminished. According to a report released by the National Restaurant Association on April 20, two thirds of restaurant workers (about 8  million people) have been dismissed or sent on leave due to the pandemic. The U.S. working class was the first to feel the pain of the economic recession brought about by the pandemic, and became the victims of the U.S. Government's inefficient anti-pandemic measures.

Racial discrimination

Systemic racial discrimination is a chronic illness of the U.S. society. Since 2016, white supremacy has revived and racial discrimination has intensified. Social tensions brought about by the pandemic, especially the unequal allocation of limited anti-pandemic resources, have further deepened mainstream society's discrimination against minorities, such as Asian, African, and Hispanic Americans.

The website of The Guardian pointed out on April 1 that when reporting on the COVID-19 situation, some U.S. media always attached photos of Asian faces. The website of The New York Times observed on April 16 that the COVID-19 pandemic meant isolation for Asian Americans. Since the outbreak of the virus, Asian Americans have often been humiliated and even attacked in public places. Some U.S. politicians even deliberately misled the public. After the World Health Organization (WHO) officially named the new coronavirus COVID-19, senior U.S. leaders, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, still insisted on referring to the virus as the "Chinese virus" or "Wuhan virus."

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Tendayi Achiume, pointed out on March 23 and April 21 that politicians have proactively expressed xenophobic opinions or made xenophobic implications by deliberately replacing COVID-19 with other names that linked this particular disease to a particular country or nation, which was an irresponsible and disturbing expression.

In the U.S., which bills itself as a "beacon of freedom," government officials blatantly incite, guide, and condone racial discrimination, which is tantamount to humiliating the modern concept of human rights.

Violent incidents have further exacerbated the social tension during the pandemic, and problems such as a divisive society, racial divide, and the proliferation of guns have worsened. On April 15, nearly 200 U.S. foreign policy scholars and former diplomats jointly issued a statement in USA Today, pointing out that hate crimes and violent attacks against Asian Americans sounded the alarm for the U.S., and that leaders at all levels and in all sectors should take action to oppose racism against Asians and end hate crimes against Asian communities.

African Americans across the country are infected with and are dying from COVID-19 at a disproportionately higher rate than any other group in the U.S. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services released a racial breakdown of the state's confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths on April 2, which showed that African Americans, who make up only 12 percent of Michigan's population, accounted for 33 percent of Michigan's confirmed COVID-19 cases and 40 percent of the state's COVID-19 deaths. National statistics released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that as of May 13, African Americans accounted for 22.4 percent of deaths from COVID-19 in the United States.

Hispanic Americans also have disproportionately higher infection and fatality rates. In early April, New York City released a racial breakdown of the city's deaths from COVID-19. According to it, Hispanic Americans accounted for 34 percent of the city's fatal cases of COVID-19. The website of The New York Times pointed out on April 14 that the fact the pandemic infected and killed African and Hispanic Americans at disproportionately higher rates was the result of a health gap directly created by the historical inequality of wealth and opportunities. The website of Financial Times, a British newspaper, pointed out on May 15 that African Americans and Hispanic Americans were more likely than whites to perform the work that was necessary for the maintenance of social operations, making them more susceptible to poverty, diabetes, high blood pressure and COVID-19.

On May 25, George Floyd, an African-American man from Minnesota, died after a white police officer pressed his knee on Floyd's neck for several minutes during his arrest. This led to large-scale protests and demonstrations across the U.S., once again exposing the dissatisfaction and anger that Americans have for the worsening racial inequality.

Vulnerable groups' struggle

The care for the survival of socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups represents the virtue of a society. It is also a touchstone for the human rights situation in a country. During the pandemic, the features of the U.S.' cruel capitalism have been fully exposed, which have forced the elderly, homeless people and children into a tragic situation.

Unfortunately, during the epidemic in the U.S., the elderly who are naturally at greater risk have been further weakened and marginalized due to age discrimination, and their right to life has not been ensured. On March 23 and April 22, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told Fox News that he would rather die than see public health measures damage the U.S. economy and take the risk of restarting the U.S. economy at the cost of elderly people's lives. The website of The New York Times reported on May 11 that at least 28,100 occupants and staff members of long-term care institutions such as nursing homes in the U.S. have died of COVID-19, accounting for about one third of COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.

The homeless have nowhere to go during the pandemic. The website of USA Today reported on April 22 that more than 550,000 people were homeless every night in the U.S. Given their originally poor physical health and bad living and hygienic conditions, they are susceptible to the virus. During the epidemic, the homeless who are living on the streets are deported and forced to live in temporary shelters for isolation. Reuters reported on April 23 that the crowded shelters made it impossible for the homeless who lived there to practice social distancing, which made it easier for the virus to spread. The website of The New York Times reported on April 13

that the shelters for the homeless had become a delayed-action bomb of a virus outbreak in New York City, where more than 17,000 people lived and slept almost side by side in centralized shelters.

In recent years, child poverty and abuse has been a grave problem in the U.S., exacerbated by the pandemic. Forbes News reported on May 7 that a survey showed a large number of American children were facing hunger during the pandemic. As of the end of April, more than one fifth of American households had been facing food crises, and two fifths of American households with children under 12 have been facing such crises.

Apart from that, a more worrisome fact is that a large number of unaccompanied immigrant children are still being held in detention centers in the U.S. They are currently in an extremely dangerous situation. The website of the United Nations reported on May 21 that since March, the U.S. Government had repatriated at least 1,000 unaccompanied immigrant children to Central and South America regardless of the risk of the pandemic.

Violating international law

At a time when citizens' right to life and health is severely threatened by the spreading pandemic, the U.S. Government, instead of focusing on controlling the pandemic, wields a hegemonic stick and fans the flames everywhere, trying to divert attention and shirk responsibility. Its behavior has seriously undermined the international community's concerted efforts to control the pandemic.

Ineffective anti-pandemic efforts fail the national duty of ensuring citizens' right to life. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights stipulates that every human being has the inherent right to life, and countries are obliged to take proactive measures to guarantee their citizens' right to life. As a party to the convention, the U.S. Government, however, has not given priority to its citizens' right to life and health during the pandemic. Instead, it has been prioritizing the political campaign at home and the political drive to suppress China abroad. Given this, it has missed the best chance to curb the spread of the virus, and caused a grave human rights disaster.

Clearly, the U.S. Government has failed to fulfill its due national obligations to protect its people's lives from the threat of epidemics. The website of The Independent, a British newspaper, commented on April 10 that the U.S., an active advocator for human rights, ignored its own human rights obligations and blatantly overlooked its citizens' lives. The Huffington Post reported on May 6 that after making a rigorous assessment of the U.S. Government's poor performance during the COVID-19 pandemic, Yale University epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves directly pointed out that this was getting awfully close to genocide by default.

In order to shirk its responsibility for its disastrous anti-pandemic measures, the U.S. Government tried to scapegoat WHO by fabricating false charges against the organization and threatening to stop paying its membership fees. On April 14, the U.S. Government announced suspension of its payment of dues to WHO, which was unanimously criticized by the international community. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres issued a statement on April 14 stating that when the world was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it was inappropriate to reduce the resources required by WHO or any other humanitarian organization for operations.

The President of the American Medical Association, Patrice Harris, issued a statement on April 15 stating that combating the pandemic required international cooperation and that the suspension of financial support to WHO at this critical moment is a dangerous step in the wrong direction. Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, expressed on April 15 that at this time, there was no reason to justify such an action.

On April 15, the website of The Guardian, published an editorial and commented that when the world desperately needed to jointly overcome this threat that it had never experienced before, the suspension of WHO dues by the U.S. Government was an act that lacked morality, disrupted the international order, and was a betrayal of global solidarity. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on April 16 that WHO was the mainstay of the global fight against the pandemic, and the suspension of WHO dues "would be nothing other than throwing the pilot out of the plane in mid-flight". Under such circumstances, Pompeo once again attacked WHO on April 22, threatening to permanently suspend the payment of dues. On May 29, the president of the United States announced the suspension of relations with WHO.

U.S. unilateral sanctions violate the spirit of humanitarianism and the principle of international cooperation. International cooperation is the cornerstone of the existence and operation of the international community. It is an important principle for ensuring the implementation of human rights and fundamental freedoms across the globe. It is also a national obligation stipulated by international instruments, such as the Charter of the United Nations.

At this critical moment when the deadly pandemic spreads globally and threatens human life, health, and wellbeing, all countries should work together to respond to the pandemic and maintain global public health security. Nevertheless, during this pandemic, the U.S. Government has still imposed sanctions on countries such as Iran, Cuba and Venezuela, which made it difficult for the sanctioned countries to obtain needed anti-pandemic medical supplies in a timely manner, and posed threats to the people's rights to life and health in the sanctioned countries.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressed on March 24 that in the case of a global pandemic, sanctions would hinder medical work and increase risks for everyone. She argued that to maintain global public health security and protect the rights and lives of millions of people in sanctioned countries, sanctions should be relaxed or suspended in certain sectors.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur on human rights for safe drinking water and sanitation, and the Special Rapporteur on the right to education issued a joint statement on May 6 stating that the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela were seriously harming the human rights of the people in the country. They urged the U.S. to immediately lift sanctions that exacerbated the suffering of the people when the pandemic raged in the country.

Copyedited by Madhusudan Chaubey