A marble lion is seen with a face mask in front of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue in New York, the US, July 8, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying)

As of Wednesday, the COVID-19 pandemic has taken more than 615,000 lives and infected nearly 15 million globally. 

Despite many countries having rigorously driven the infection rates down, six months after the first case of the coronavirus was reported in the US, the country has failed remarkably to tame it. Perceived to be one of the most powerful countries in the world, the US continues to surprise many people with abortive responses.

So far, roughly 4 million people in the US have been infected with the deadly disease, over 141,000 have died from it, and thousands of jobs have been lost in what has been tied to decayed politics, failures of public health due to lack of funding, and an unjustified dash to reopen the economy.

Even though President Donald Trump has claimed that 99 percent of the US coronavirus cases are "totally harmless" and insisted that "we have learned how to put out the flame", the country's response is still dysfunctional, a pointer that the transmission of the disease could go up further, and perhaps get out of control. 

How a nation long proud of its ability to meet calamitous problems got hammered in this battle remains a complicated tale that can only be apportioned to the weak leadership from a president "who has ignored scientific facts" in confronting the pandemic as averred by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi.

Odd as it sounds, how come that China, the country where the first outbreak of the coronavirus infections was reported, has not suffered as much from it as other countries? What is it that China did right to curtail the spread of this virus? Are countries like the US, the UK, and others too proud, and perhaps too envious, to learn from China on how to effectively contain the COVID-19 epidemic? 

In the wake of this pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has routinely reminded world leaders to act in solidarity and innovate ways to diminish the disruptions of the disease on the world's social, political and economic fabric. However, this has not been the case, as US President Donald Trump has openly defied the call, opting to wean WHO off funding and moving to pull the US out of the agency of the United Nations that is charged with international public health. In the meantime, China donated $50 million to the Geneva-based organization, which it said would support the global fight against COVID-19 and strengthen developing countries' health systems.

The arrogance with which the West has responded to the crisis, turning a deaf ear to the WHO's guidelines, has also manifested in the way European countries are struggling to contain the COVID-19 epidemic. As of Wednesday, statistics indicated that the UK had 297,389 cases, Spain 266,194 cases, Italy 244,752 cases, and Germany 203,717 cases. 

The United Kingdom, in particular, has been in a bright spotlight for the inadequacies of its testing regime. The sorry state has been further strained by shortages of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, and failure to give coronavirus the priority and attention it deserved. These are all shortcomings health experts say could have been avoided if the Boris Johnson government had followed the WHO's advice. 

This is in contrast to China, whose response to confront the killer virus has been informed by the WHO's guidelines coupled by the country's deliberate move to put science at the centre of its decisions - hence playing a prime role in the rollout of early quarantine measures and treatments.

With no country being immune to the COVID-19, it is apparent that the unity of world leaders should become a priority to win this monumental battle. No nation is bigger or smaller in this outbreak. Drawing from other countries' experiences will be of no harm in this arduous task. 

The author is a researcher and expert on China-Africa cooperation based in Nairobi, Kenya. Follow him on Twitter @kapchanga. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn