The US-China dispute over the coronavirus is being mocked

The confrontation between the United States and China over the course of the COVID-19 disease pandemic has been constant in recent times, with mutual accusations about the origin of the virus and the way it was spread. The latest episode has become a source of mockery due to a video broadcast from the Asian nation in which the Statue of Liberty is depicted playing down the importance of the coronavirus health crisis in the face of the more serious and committed Asian position.   

The video, posted on the state-run news agency Xinhua Youtube website, had more than a million visits and was also widely distributed on social networks, even by Chinese diplomats, according to Reuters.  

The animation, titled 'Once Upon a Virus' and represented with Lego figures, shows Chinese figures alerting about the appearance and extension of the coronavirus and showing the efforts of the Asian giant to tackle the problem; meanwhile, the Statue of Liberty, symbolizing the United States, spreads an image of unconcern before a world pandemic of such magnitude, ignoring the warnings launched by China.  

Washington and Beijing continue to be engaged in a struggle to unravel the origin of the coronavirus, which the US government of Donald Trump has managed to fix in a virological laboratory in Wuhan, where the coronavirus emerged, although without giving further details; China would explain the animal origin of the virus in a Hubei' city market.  
 

The evolution of this clash at the international level comes from a long time, even from a previous stage led by the trade struggle (with mutual imposition of tariffs between both) that had developed for many months before the coronavirus threat exploded. President Donald Trump had taken the economic struggle with the Asian giant to an extreme and had resorted to harsh tariffs on Chinese products, and even to the prohibition of establishing trade relations with Chinese technology companies such as Huawei, which was of course pointed out as industrial espionage. China responded with similar restrictions on American goods, thus establishing an economic duel on a global scale between the two nations, which was mitigated by bilateral contacts in which positions were brought closer to the Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

Following the unleashing of the COVID-19 problem, which has already left hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of diagnosed cases in the world, there was friction between the USA and China, even with veiled accusations about the dubious origin of the virus and about the management of the health crisis affecting the planet.  
 

During the last episode of this series of confrontations, Donald Trump spoke of an alleged report that shows that the pathogen was created in a virology laboratory in Wuhan (city where the beginning of the pandemic is located), something that has been denied by the Chinese authorities and organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), which handles the thesis of the animal origin of the virus. One version, that of the laboratory, is apparently handled by some intelligence services in other countries. In this way, nations such as Germany, the United Kingdom and France have joined the United States in asking the communist regime for explanations about the appearance of the virus.  

The WHO, by the way, has had strong clashes with Trump himself, who accused the international organization of "mismanaging and covering up" the spread of the coronavirus and acting in favor of Chinese interests. This is the reason why he decided to freeze the American funds destined to finance it. In mid-April, the Republican leader referred above all to the WHO's opposition to the veto on travellers from China that Washington applied from 31 January.  

In recent days, however, the WHO has made some progress on the provisional authorisation of the US government to use the antiviral drug Remdesivir in severe coronavirus-infected patients until a specific vaccine or drug against COVID-19 can be discovered, something that is still being worked on at a fast pace, but will take months.  

A couple of days ago the US government gave permission to hospitals to use Remdesivir, originally created to fight Ebola, in the treatment of the most aggressive cases of coronavirus. And just a few hours ago, Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO, said that "there are encouraging signs of Remdesivir being used in a medical trial in the United States. "We will talk to the U.S. and the pharmaceutical company to make it available if it works," Ryan said.  
 

Meanwhile, the Trump Administration had previously been accused of reacting late and poorly to the COVID-19 health crisis. In early April, the U.S. president issued a disturbing statement: “This will be probably the toughest week, between this week and the next week. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately.”. Trump said on April 6. All of this came after the Republican leader had taken the wind out of the sails and indicated, for example, at the end of January that they had "everything under control" and that "everything would be fine. He also used Twitter to assimilate the COVID-19 with a common flu, comparing figures of people affected.  

Finally, the reality proved to be more difficult and the American leader recognized the harsh scenario, although he also gave some priority to reactivating the economy and not paralyzing the country further after the social distancing measures dictated at the international level to stop the spread of the virus. Besides, among the protests of part of the North American population that advocated reducing the decreed confinement.  

After these events, US and Chinese mutual attacks were carried out. The pandemic was officially declared under control in China, even in the epicentre of Wuhan; the Eastern country was also praised for its role in tackling the problem of the coronavirus and for helping many nations by sending material and health professionals.  

For his part, Donald Trump even went so far as to insinuate that the Chinese attacks linked to the problem of the spread of the virus have to do with the desire to get rid of it in the face of the next US presidential elections in November; just at a time when the number of people affected in the American country had been rising.