The U.S. continues to rank first on the global lists of COVID-19 cases and deaths despite having the highest health expenditure among developed countries.

"Flying in the face of stark reality, some U.S. media have rated the U.S. as 'number one in the world' for its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is contrary to basic human ethics and facts," said a research report jointly released earlier this week by three Chinese think tanks – Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University of China, Taihe Think Tank and Intellisia Institute.

The report, entitled "The Truth about America's Fight against COVID-19," said the U.S. is the world's No. 1 anti-pandemic failure. It was compiled by dozens of former politicians, intellectuals, scholars, policy- and decision-makers.

A country with the most COVID-19 cases and deaths

As of Sunday, the U.S. has reported more than 36,099,344 cumulative confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 614,267 deaths, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO). In terms of both numbers, the U.S. ranks first in the world.

Wave after wave of COVID-19 outbreaks

As the globe's largest economy, the U.S. health expenditure has long been unmatched. The country boasts abundant medical resources, an excellent public health team and a complete emergency management system.

However, it has not been able to bring the coronavirus situation under control. The curve has never flattened as the country has experienced three infection surges since 2020 and is now dealing with a more devastating fourth wave fueled by the more contagious Delta variant.

The U.S. has been registering new record-high COVID-19 infection numbers in the past week, with the seven-day average topping more than 135,000 cases, according to data from the WHO.

In late June, there were about 10,000 new cases a day on average. Since July 1, there's been a 700-percent increase in the week-over-week average of COVID-19 infections in the country, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Anti-science and anti-common sense

Why has the U.S. seen wave after wave of infections and failed to enact effective containment measures? The report found that the Trump administration had repeatedly ignored early warnings about the outbreak and tried to downplay the risk. An anti-science and anti-common sense attitude was the direct reason why the U.S. failed to contain the epidemic.

In the spring of 2020, scientists had already obtained some knowledge of COVID-19, and the WHO was continuously raising the alarm about the risk of a global pandemic, pointing out that active detection and isolation of infected cases is the key to cut off the spread of the virus, the report noted.

However, the U.S. government ignored scientific facts and spread false information through various channels such as the White House press conferences, mass media, and social media.

At first, the White House held a "don't panic" attitude and the federal government took few specific measures to prevent the outbreak. Then President Donald Trump even publicly said several times that there would be no major outbreaks in the U.S. and that the virus would "suddenly disappear like a miracle." Many people in the U.S. went so far as to say that COVID-19 was no different from an "ordinary flu."

The Trump administration "failed to plan, prepare, and honestly assess and communicate the threat to the country, leading to catastrophic results," current President Joe Biden said in a signed article in April 2020.

Therefore, the U.S. missed the "golden window period" to control the first wave of the outbreak, the report said.

Besides, the prevention and control measures in the U.S. all went against common sense, it said.

For example, on the question of whether people should wear masks to prevent the spread of the virus, the U.S. government failed to convey the information correctly. In addition, Trump had promoted high-risk "anti-COVID-19 magic medicine" hydroxychloroquine on his Twitter account, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration later warned against and highlighted its potential serious side effects. He also confused people about COVID-19 testing, claiming that too many tests in the U.S. led to soaring cases, and called for people to "slow down the testing."

A Cornell University study revealed that by May 26, 2020, about 38 percent of the fake news about COVID-19 in English media mentioned Trump.

The false information has not only greatly misled the American people and underestimated the risk the virus posed, but also resulted in the infection of countless people who trusted such dubious messaging.