InvestigationSocial and racial inequalities, inadequate health care system, political disunity between states… The pandemic has thrown a crude light on the multiple vulnerabilities from which the United States suffers.
On May 4, in the virtual space that coronavirus diplomacy now imposes on world leaders, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, announces the launch of a global fund for research into a vaccine against the Covid-19. Among the many heads of state and government gathered in mosaic on the screen in front of her, the Japanese Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, rubs shoulders with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and we recognize the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, not far from Emmanuel Macron. A leader shines by his absence: the President of the United States.
Donald Trump did not see fit to participate in this international operation, which raised 7.4 billion euros from the outset, or even to be represented there. In fact, there is one American participant, whose face appears on the screens: Melinda Gates, co-president, with her husband Bill, of the foundation that bears their name. Very active in the field of public health, the Gates Foundation will announce the same day that its donations for research on the Covid-19 amount to $ 300 million.
That the American presence at a world summit is ensured by a private philanthropist, however rich it may be, and not by a political leader, says a lot about the wiping out of American power on the diplomatic scene. The day before, Melinda Gates did not hesitate to criticize this absence: "The lack of leadership from the United States is extremely disappointing, she confides to Echoes. That’s why we turned to Europe. "
Begun gradually since the beginning of the XXIe century, the American downturn accelerated under the Trump presidency. Coronavirus shock accentuated it. In the space of a few weeks, Washington has turned its back on the international community. In the middle of a pandemic, Donald Trump used Beijing’s maneuvers at the World Health Organization (WHO) to suspend the American contribution – the most important of the WHO. Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley Even Calls For Abolition Of World Trade Organization (WTO): His Country, He Says, Must "Recover economic sovereignty".
The varnish cracks
Seen from the outside, this is the very negation of the American model. This world from which they withdraw, it is they, the United States, who have largely contributed to shaping it. But if the Covid-19 has done damage everywhere, its offensive in the United States is particularly cruel: beyond the human toll – nearly 80,000 dead, 1.3 million cases -, it reveals the deep flaws in the economic, social and political system of the world's leading power.
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