Pandemic must be No 1 priority for whoever is in the White House: China Daily editorial

The just-concluding US presidential election has in many ways been defined by the public health crisis in the country and its wider impacts.

No matter which of the two candidates finally gets his hands on the keys to the White House in January, it will be whether or not he and his administration heed and implement effectively the advice of medical experts and scientists that will shape the next four years.

As Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious diseases expert, warned would happen, the daily increase in the number of new infections has surpassed 100,000 for days.

This saw the total number of novel coronavirus infections in the country hit 10.18 million on the weekend, with the number of deaths more than 243,200.

That the number of lives lost to COVID-19 in one day has surged over the past four weeks from about 600 to more than 1,000 should be a poignant reminder to the nation that the virus is not simply going to disappear.

Over the past week, according to Johns Hopkins University, the quantity of nucleic acid tests has increased 4.52 percent from the week before, while the number of new cases has risen 21 percent, indicating the government is still well behind the curve.

Scott Gottlieb, a former US food and drug commissioner, suggested on Friday that the true number of new infections per day in the country could be more than 500,000, and even if the next administration is able to do what should have been done from the beginning, ideally with the full support of the country, the pandemic will undoubtedly still be dragging a destructive long tail.

It's going to be a difficult winter in the US.

While the two candidates vying for occupancy of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington D.C. were able to take some time out from answering questions about the pandemic at the weekend with either golf or fireworks, the bitter reality of the situation in the country has not changed.

No matter what else is on the agenda, the immediate priority for the leader of the country over the next four years has to be the pandemic.

It is to be hoped that the tussle over who is going to have the White House keys does not drag on, because as the virus has shown elsewhere, it is ready and able to exploit any opportunity that presents itself.