Bloomberg's pro-US anti-epidemic ranking serves political gains: epidemiologist

Photo taken on July 7, 2021 shows the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C., the United States. The highly transmissible Delta variant has overtaken the Alpha variant to become the dominant variant in the United States, according to new estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).(Photo/Xinhua)

In Bloomberg's latest COVID-19 resilience ranking under the title “The best and worst places to be as the world finally reopens,” the US jumped to the No.1 spot for the first time with “its fast and expansive vaccine rollout… stemming what was once the world’s worst outbreak,” although it has incurred doubts.

In response to a question about Bloomberg's ranking which placed the US first and China eighth, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Monday that the “always authoritative” Bloomberg had adopted such naive tricks, and it was neither factual nor respectful of science and human life.

US, ranked 13th in June, soared to the top of the list as Bloomberg introduced several new indicators, highlighting the so-called reopening progress with other four major indicators – people covered by vaccines, lockdown severity, flight capacity and vaccinated travel routes.

Bloomberg argued that some in the Asia-Pacific regions like Singapore and the Hong Kong SAR have slipped in the rankings because “strict border curbs remain in place and a zero-tolerance approach.”

“Several of my colleagues and friends have been asking me over the past few days if this Bloomberg report is a misprint,” Zhao said in response to a question from the Global Times.

Zhao pointed out that reports show Bloomberg's so-called ranking omits key elements such as the confirmed COVID-19 cases and number of deaths in order to rank the US first, and considers the implementation of lockdown policies and border exit and entry control measures as negative factors.

Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that an average of 19,455 new cases has been reported in the US in the past seven days. As of Monday, there were 33.8 million COVID-19 cases and over 600,000 deaths in the country.

“The intention of the ranking is evident to all that it is to serve political gains,” Zeng Guang, a former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times on Monday.

Zeng noted that a scientific ranking should at least evaluate basic epidemic data including the rate of deaths and overall infections, which would make the US one of the worst countries in epidemic performance.

Lockdown measures, which are effective in containing the virus spread, should be considered as a positive element that gives extra points. However, they were instead considered negative in the ranking, Zeng said, adding that the ranking failed to give an accurate assessment of the epidemic situation in countries at all. It is just a tool to shape the illusion that the US epidemic prevention and control is under control, the epidemiologist noted.

“Being the top country in medical infrastructure and resources, the US has adopted improper anti-epidemic policies that disappoint American citizens, now Bloomberg makes the US the top above all other countries in COVID-19 resilience ranking,” he said. “what a shame!”