The US is 'not a global power' thanks to Trump's disastrous coronavirus response as China fills the void, former US officials warn

Reuters

• The US traditionally sets a model for other countries during global crises and uses its resources to assist them, but that has not been the case during the coronavirus pandemic under President Donald Trump. 
• Not only is the US struggling to contain its own outbreak, but close allies like the UK and South Korea that traditionally look to the US for help are fighting the pandemic on their own.
• "Trump's ineptitude is exposed, but more than that, the US is not there to help others. We are not a global power in this pandemic, and people will remember that," Cynthia Schneider, who was the US ambassador to the Netherlands from 1998 to 2001, told Insider.
• Governors in the US have had to handle acquiring crucial medical supplies on their own. After Trump rejected New York's request for more ventilators, the state received 1,000 ventilators from China — a massive influx of critical aid that's more typical of the US reponse to disasters.
• "The lack of a global health defense network that could have been empowered by American medical expertise meant that the virus blossomed wherever underpreparation and slowfootedness prevailed," said Jack Chow, who was a US ambassador for global HIV/AIDS during the George W. Bush administration.
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As Ebola ravaged West Africa in September 2014, President Barack Obama stood in front of the United Nations and implored the leaders of the world to do more. Though Ebola never posed a significant threat to the US domestically, Obama presented it as a problem the globe had to face together. 

"This is also more than a health crisis. This is a growing threat to regional and global security," Obama said at the time. "In an era where regional crises can quickly become global threats, stopping Ebola is in the interest of all of us."

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See Also:

• Trump cutting funding from the WHO amid coronavirus could exacerbate the crisis and cost more American lives
• What's in the Strategic National Stockpile, the US reserve of life-saving materials stashed in secret warehouses that experts worry isn't big enough
• CNN had a field day with its chyrons during Trump's 'meltdown' at his coronavirus briefing

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