Washington: Once bitten, twice shy. That’s what the United States of America is at present after getting crushed beneath the burden of the coronavirus pandemic that broke out in China over seven months ago but is continuing to take the US down the slope.

Of the near 18 million infections worldwide, the US alone has accounted for nearly 4.7 million cases, making it the worst-affected country across the globe. Even in death toll, of the 680,000 odd casualties globally, the US has recorded the highest at over 156,000.

A lot has happened in the world since the pandemic broke out in China’s Wuhan in December 2019. Tensions between China and the rest of the world, including India, are at its peak, Uncle Sam is miffed with the Red Dragon over the outbreak and the worldwide economic slowdown, the global powers are unhappy with Beijing’s misadventures in the South China Sea and Hong Kong, among others.

Russia and the US have shared a love-hate relationship for far too long to be elaborated upon.

Now, China and Russia are set to release the first vaccines for the Covid-19 virus, but the United States is wary of the superpowers’ accomplishments as America feels both the countries have developed the vaccine without running tests and authenticating its veracity.

Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease official of the United States, on Friday raised concerns regarding the legitimacy of the Covid-19 vaccines under production by China and Russia.

Everyone’s in the race to bring out the vaccine for the Covid-19 virus and several Chinese pharmaceutical companies are at the forefront of the race, while Russia hopes to be the first to produce a vaccine for the mass with a target of September.

However, the drugs might face heightened scrutiny due to the lack of transparency and opaque regulatory systems in both countries compared to others.

Fauci, when asked whether the US could use the Chinese or Russian vaccines if they arrived first, clearly indicated that was unlikely.

“I do hope that the Chinese and the Russians are actually testing the vaccine before they are administering the vaccine to anyone. Claims of having a vaccine ready to distribute before you do testing, I think, is problematic, at best. We are going very quickly. I do not believe that there will be vaccines, so far ahead of us, that we will have to depend on other countries to get us vaccines,” he said.