The mutation of the novel coronavirus in the United Kingdom is highly likely to spread around the world, because the Western countries’ response, although very fast, is reflected in the disconnection of flights with the United Kingdom, which is self-protection in fear.
The disconnection of flights between Europe and the United Kingdom also leads to the association of Brexit being “abandoned” by Europe at a critical moment.
The Christmas holiday in the West is beginning. Despite the epidemic prevention propaganda and corresponding regulations in some countries, the flow of people and gatherings during this period is bound to increase, so that the mutant virus can find more opportunities for transmission.
When the epidemic is turbulent and the situation is unknown, strict social distancing has proved to be the most effective way, but Western society is just difficult to do so, which has become a serious weakness for Western institutions and lifestyles to expose in the face of the epidemic.
Unfortunately, Western society is unwilling to face this weakness at the political and public opinion levels, and lacks the enthusiasm to make up for it. The coronavirus epidemic has been tormenting Western society for nearly a year, but the improvement of their anti-epidemic organization capacity is very limited.
Western countries have developed contact mechanisms and relatively strong financial resources, but the cooperation in the fight against the epidemic is very weak, and this time it is fighting separately. Except for being isolated by traffic from various countries, Britain did not even receive condolence from the leaders of the Allies for the first time.
Which country in the West has suffered a terrorist attack, they still need to express their sympathy and support for each other, but in the face of such a severe impact of the epidemic, it is entirely its own business. Britain has become an isolated island in the turbulent epidemic.
If the United States announced at this time that it would give priority to the British for vaccination, and German and French leaders expressed their willingness to give Britain any help it needed, things would feel different.
The fight against the epidemic originally required joint action by all countries, because national boundaries do not exist for the virus, but this year, countries are doing their own way in the fight against the epidemic to an unprecedented extent.
Western countries have held many meetings in this year, but the leaders of major European and American countries have attended no special meetings to fight against the epidemic.
The lack of two important capabilities of social distancing and effective mutual assistance between Western countries at the same time has led to their weakness in fighting the epidemic.
Now that Pfizer’s vaccine has come out, the United States, which has been at the bottom of the global anti-epidemic performance, seems to regain some confidence.
It seems to intend to reorganize the attitude of Western countries and even the world by distributing vaccines and restore its lost “leadership” in the fight against the epidemic.
The situation in the United Kingdom shows that the vaccine in the United States is “distant water does not quench near thirst”. Although the United Kingdom became the first country to vacculate the United States, the amount is too small to work.
Washington also doesn’t seem to care much about the slow distribution of vaccines, which means more infections and deaths in the world. For it, the results are more important than the process, no matter how cruel the process is.
It would be very dangerous if European countries bet their hopes on the vaccines of the United States. Pfizer vaccines are involved in German companies, but the dominant distribution and use is controlled by Washington.
If European countries are completely dependent on American vaccines, they will form a “vaccine order”, which will best reflect the principle of “America first” and eventually make the United States’ anti-epidemic methods “global”, and Europe can only drift with the tide.
The coronavirus pandemic is likely to be longer than Europeans expected. European governments are generally more willing to face reality than the Trump administration in the United States, but the measures they have taken are relatively temporary and do not settle towards institutionalization.
European countries need to be prepared to fight the epidemic in the longer term and strive for the initiative.
European countries must not ideologicalize the fight against the epidemic. It should be the overriding goal to overcome the epidemic as soon as possible. As long as anti-epidemic cooperation is effective, the more the better, and the same is true of EU-China cooperation.
The way to fight the epidemic is a scientific issue, and there should be no political and ideological position in this. It’s time to let all kinds of labels that have nothing to do with scientific anti-epidemic go away.
