Editor's note: Anthony Moretti is an associate professor at the Department of Communication and Organizational Leadership at Robert Morris University. The article reflects the author's opinions and not necessarily those of CGTN.

It's unfair to collapse the global COVID-19 conversation into numbers, but the U.S. media is reporting on an almost daily basis over the expanding number of such cases in China. Let us accept that smugness, "I told you so," should not accompany the reporting of COVID-19 in any nation, whether "friend" or "foe" of the United States. 

This virus, though weakened over time, continues to infect people all over the globe. Opinions about the illnesses, hospitalizations, deaths and more it is responsible for ought never be different because those effects are taking place in one country versus another. 

Nevertheless, we can see such differences in news coming from and about China. 

Almost always lost in that reporting by the Western media is the number about which no one in the West can be happy about: America hit 100 million diagnosed cases of coronavirus. When you realize that the current U.S. population is roughly 331 million that means about three in 10 Americans – 30 percent of the population – have contracted the virus. 

Some people – private citizens and public officials alike – have acknowledged catching it more than once. The stories about the debilitating effects that some people continue to experience, "long COVID" as it is called, must serve as powerful reminders that the virus has had varying degrees of impact on those who have survived it.

Keep in mind that the United States is the undisputed global leader in COVID-19 cases; the next country on the list has not yet reached 50 million. Likewise, no other nation comes close to matching the number of Americans who have died from the virus – an estimated 1.1 million.

We should remember that the worst data about the U.S. came in the roughly 12 months between the initial pandemic wave in the country and when vaccines became available. The period between approximately March 2020 and February 2021 is when the federal government should have kept Americans safe. Nonetheless, we know the opposite took place: Former U.S. President Donald Trump's rhetoric blamed China for causing the pandemic while diminishing the obvious threat it had on the public.

Trump's policies of finger pointing made a dangerous situation worse. But do not ask him if he felt shame about it.

Meanwhile, governors and politicians from multiple states, especially in Republican ones, refuse to support calls from the scientific and medical communities that encourage everyone to keep safe distances from others and wear masks in public, especially in enclosed areas. Granted, social distancing and masks did not guarantee the virus would not spread, but they did ensure that fewer people might catch it. 

Now let us explore what was happening in China during the same 12-month period. The country's leadership rolled out the dynamic zero-COVID policy, and it was created with an overarching goal: The lives of the Chinese stood paramount. 

When scientists across the globe raced to create a viable vaccine, the Chinese government authorized lockdowns, mass testing and deep cleaning in areas where pandemic numbers were prevalent. Later, when vaccines were available, a national vaccination effort commenced.

Today, approximately 90 percent of the Chinese population has been vaccinated; by comparison, roughly 68 percent of Americans were. 

Now, China has disclosed that in recent weeks they are convincing the elderly to get vaccinated is a priority; flu season has begun throughout the northern hemisphere, and expectations are it will affect the young and old in the coming months, putting health care systems under stress. Ensuring the elderly in China are vaccinated from coronavirus would keep the number of hospitalizations down at a time when it is most necessary.

The Chinese model isn't perfect. No system that attempts to keep people safe during a pandemic is without flaw. Saying that, only the most strident anti-Chinese groups, which are not that hard to find in the United States, would disagree that China's roughly 1.4 billion people were kept as safe as possible for nearly three years.

China is optimizing many of its coronavirus-related policies that were defined by the West as "draconian." As cases rise, it is all too common for reporting to take on a kind-of "we knew China was doomed to fail all along" tone. Apparently, it's not draconian that nearly 100 million Americans have caught the virus and that 1.1 million have died.

What word is more appropriate? 

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com. Follow @thouse_opinions on Twitter to discover the latest commentaries in the CGTN Opinion Section.)