U.S. Congress held a hearing on the coronavirus outbreak last week. There were three experts attending the hearing. One of them is Jennifer Huang Bouey, a senior policy researcher of RAND Corporation and a research fellow of Tang Chair in China Policy Studies. She criticized the discrimination against China and presented Congress how the U.S. government should work with its Chinese counterpart on the virus. In an interview with CGTN's Senior Correspondent Tian Wei, she shared more of her insights.

"We made a strong suggestion to the U.S. government so that they not only think about other social distancing policy but also think about how to control the rumors as well as discrimination against Chinese Americans," said Bouey. She added that "With a parallel to an epidemic of health issues, there are usually another two epidemics. One is the epidemic of rumors and conspiracy series. This happens every time when there is a scary epidemic happening."

Earlier, there were rumors that the virus was a China-invented biological weapon. Rumors, as many observers suggest, are a result of people's ignorance. When people see something they cannot understand, their hypothesis theories come out, most of which have no scientific evidence.

"The other epidemic I want to mention is discrimination," Bouey said. As a scientist, Bouey insists that science is the best defense against virus. "It (the battle) is not between a person to another person, it's not between a political party versus another political party, and it's not between countries to countries," Bouey emphasized.

However, people with ulterior motives just want to make waves and take advantage of the virus to attack China. Geopolitics is usually the motive. Bouey also sincerely expressed her hope for more U.S.-China collaborations on public health. After the SARS outbreak, there were a lot of collaborations between China and the international community. Experts from all over the world are willing to help China to set up a surveillance system in the fight against the virus. 

"I think this is a good time that the U.S. should provide public health expertise as well as humanitarian aids to China. ... I still have hope that U.S. and Chinese scientists can work together," said Bouey.

World Insight with Tian Wei is an international platform for debate and intelligent discussion. It is the meeting point of both the highly influential and rising voices, facilitated by host Tian Wei. It provides nutrition to form your own thoughts and ideas through a live 45-minute debate and interviews.

Schedule: Monday-Saturday

Time (GMT): 1415, 2015

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