It is heart-rending to see the United States Government doing nothing to end the carnage from the Covid-19 epidemic which has registered more than a million Covid-19 cases and killed another 10,000 Americans since US Presidential Election Day on November 3.
It is a staggering abdication of leadership and responsibility that as the Covid-19 epidemic in the United States rages nation-wide, there is a vacuum of leadership in the US government, as Donald Trump disappeared inside the White House ensconced with his family and advisers on how to win an election already declared lost.
His misinformation in the US Presidential campaign that the media would stop talking about the Covid-19 pandemic that day after the election has proved to be very wrong, as the worsening tragedy of the Covid-19 epidemic after the US presidential election has caused the US 46th President Elect Joe Biden to declare that the Covid-19 pandemic is his first priority.
The United States is leading the world in having the most number Covic-19 infections and fatalities – over 10.7 million cases and over 247,000 deaths out of a global cumulative total of over 52.5 million Covid-19 cases and nearly 1.3 million deaths.
Biden and Kamala Harris, in their first briefing on the Covid-19 pandemic, were told of projections that indicate the United States could lose 200,000 more lives in the coming months, before a vaccine could be made widely available.
Biden has appointed a 12-member Covid advisory board, which is considering a nationwide lockdown, shutting down business and paying people for lost wages for four to six weeks to keep the Covid-19 pandemic in check and get the economy on track until a vaccine is approved and distributed.
It is tragic that Trump’s MAGA campaign to “Make America Great Again” ended up with American becoming the laughing stock of the world, with the deadly Covid-19 epidemic the epitaph of his legacy.
Can the United States avoid the many more millions of Covid-19 infections and another 200,000 Covid-19 fatalities?
It will depend on Biden, who is not getting any help from Trump. In fact, the next 70 days to the US Inauguration Day on January 20 may prove to be the stormiest pre-inaugural period in US history.
(Media Comment by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Parliament on Thursday, 12th November 2020)