GAZA, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. administration has been handling the COVID-19 pandemic in a "frail and awkward" way, said a Palestinian expert as the U.S. death toll from the pandemic approaches 200,000.
The deadly coronavirus has exposed the fact that the U.S. administration neglects people's lives, Hossam al-Dajni, a lecturer at Umma University in the Gaza Strip, told Xinhua in a recent interview.
The United States is the worst-hit country with the world's highest tally of 6,833,722 infections and 199,812 deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. government's insistence on maintaining economic activities without strict preventive measures is a major reason for the surge in its confirmed cases and deaths, al-Dajni said.
The U.S. medical system "would have been capable of controlling the virus if the U.S. government took stringent measures," he said.
Noting that successive U.S. administrations have been boasting about U.S. democracy and equality, the expert said "the bitter reality today, however, has proven otherwise, particularly in the light of the spread of the pandemic."
He added that the "frail and awkward" way in which the U.S. administration handles the COVID-19 pandemic has also worsened the racial discrimination in the country.
"The rights and interests of the weak groups were not protected enough. This has given rise to huge problems like social division and double standards regarding human rights, consequently leading the U.S. people to lose confidence in the U.S. administration's efforts," al-Dajni said.
This only indicates that the current U.S. administration "has no minimum basics of human ethics, let alone its failure to be committed to international norms, laws and covenants," he said. Enditem
