在新冠疫情期间，美国遭受了发达国家中最惨重的人口损失，累计死亡人数超过110万人，相当于每百万人中约有3500人丧生。相比之下，德国每百万人死亡人数约为2000人，加拿大低于1400人；若美国的死亡率能达到两者的中间水平（每百万人约1700人），全美本可减少约54万例死亡。到2021年9月，美国的死亡率已达到其他富裕国家的约8倍。然而，美国国会至今对探究这种系统性失误缺乏真正兴趣，未能从中汲取应对未来大流行的制度性教训。
造成高死亡率的核心原因除了慢性基础病高发外，还在于政府早期的严重失职：2020年初美国每天仅检测100人，而其他国家日检测量已达数万；口罩与封控政策推行混乱，接触者追踪几乎失效；最致命的是，大量民众因政治化反疫苗言论而拒绝接种疫苗。尽管特朗普政府主导的“曲速行动”促成了疫苗的快速研发，但共和党内部在肯定该项目成就与迎合反疫苗选民之间陷入了严重的认知撕裂，甚至反过来质疑疫苗的安全性和有效性。
美国参议院国土安全委员会近期针对85岁的前国家过敏和传染病研究所所长福奇（Anthony Fauci）举行的听证会，进一步沦为党派倾轧的闹剧。在经历了54年国家卫生研究院（NIH）生涯后，福奇因担忧委员会主席兰德·保罗（Rand Paul）设置的伪证陷阱，在听证会上被迫反复援引宪法第五修正案保持沉默。议员们执着于实验室泄漏、比尔·盖茨阴谋论及流产伪证等指控，将精力消耗在个人攻讦上，彻底掩盖了公共卫生治理的真实教训。
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States suffered catastrophic mortality compared with other wealthy nations, losing more than 1.1m lives—equivalent to roughly 3,500 deaths per million people. By contrast, Germany recorded around 2,000 deaths per million and Canada fewer than 1,400; matching the midpoint of 1,700 per million would have saved approximately 540,000 American lives. By September 2021, the American death rate stood eight times higher than the rest of the rich world, yet congressional inquiries continue to evade the structural reasons behind this lethal divergence.
High US fatalities stemmed partly from underlying health conditions, but overwhelmingly from institutional bungling: in early 2020, America was testing just 100 people daily while other nations tested tens of thousands, alongside chaotic mask guidance and failed contact tracing. Most devastatingly, millions refused life-saving vaccines developed under Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed. Caught in political doublethink between praising Trump’s vaccine development and courting anti-vaccine voters, Republicans shifted focus toward questioning vaccine safety rather than addressing vaccine skepticism.
This political dysfunction culminated in recent Senate Homeland Security Committee hearings targeting 85-year-old Dr Anthony Fauci, who spent 54 years at the National Institutes of Health, including 38 directing NIAID. Facing perjury threats from Committee Chairman Rand Paul, Dr Fauci repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment. Rather than assessing pandemic preparedness, lawmakers pursued conspiratorial tangents and unsubstantiated allegations regarding pregnancy risks, reducing critical oversight of a historic public health disaster to partisan retribution.
Source: The real covid-19 scandal is still unfolding
Subtitle: The failure to reckon with lives needlessly lost will make the next pandemic deadlier
Dateline: 8月 20, 2026 03:29 上午