Virus magnified 'US-style human rights' crisis: Report

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA (AA) - A state-backed Chinese research network on Thursday termed the US response to the coronavirus pandemic as “self-interested, short-sighted, inefficient, and irresponsible,” saying that it exposed the long-existing problems within the country.

In a 30-page article, the COVID-19 Pandemic Magnifies the Crisis of 'US-Style Human Rights', the China Society for Human Rights Studies said “inequality within the US society was being fully exposed during the pandemic."

“The US response to the pandemic has not only caused the tragedy in which about 2 million Americans became infected with the virus and more than 110,000 have died from it, but also caused the exposure and deterioration of the long-existing problems within the United States, 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,” the article said.

“This has led the American people into grave human rights disasters,” it said, adding that the US response to coronavirus was “ineffective” as the government “prioritized capital interests, politicized the anti-pandemic endeavor” resulting in “catastrophic consequences."

It said that both liberal and conservative scholars agree on "stark inequality within the US society."

"The deep-seated institutional reason for such inequality is that the US 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,” the article said. “During the pandemic, the social and economic inequality within US society has been exposed and exacerbated.”

The rights research group alleged that the US elite class was being “specially treated in coronavirus testing."

“Viral infection does not distinguish between rich and poor, but the limited testing and medical resources were not fairly allocated in the United States while people at the bottom of US society face an increasingly dangerous situation,” it .

High unemployment rates, the article said, led the working class into a “crisis of survival” as racial discrimination was being “intensified within the United States during the pandemic."

The virus, which originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has reached 188 countries and regions, infecting more than 7 million people, and killing over 216,000.

While China has largely controlled the outbreak, the US remains to be the hardest-hit.