The communist Chinese government continues to claim they have the coronavirus under control, but a lack of transparency and leaked videos out of the partially locked down country show otherwise.
Doctors who sounded the alarm about the rapid spread of the virus have been imprisoned. At least one journalist has disappeared and the government continues to keep independent health inspectors out of the country.
Lawyer and citizen journalist Chen Qiushi vanished while documenting the coronavirus lockdown in Wuhan. He spent weeks filming patients and overrun hospitals pic.twitter.com/2oHU9UCtwn
— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) February 10, 2020
People don’t resist like this when they’re only going to see a doctor.
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) February 4, 2020
What’s really going on in China?
pic.twitter.com/mqbGTd1528
BREAKING: Prominent Chinese doctor who was punished by police when he tried to warn his fellow medics about the coronavirus has died from the disease, officials at the World Health Organization say. https://t.co/jjKTnyNTbW
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 6, 2020
Now, U.S. Senators are demanding answers and calling out China for its failures and dishonesty. They're also calling on the World Health Organization [WHO] to do more to protect everyone around the globe.
"As the world continues to grapple with the threat of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, I urge the World Health Organization (WHO) to make every effort to keep people of all nations informed and protected. While there are reports the virus has infected 40,000 people globally, I do not trust Communist China to coordinate in a transparent and efficient manner when it comes to combating the Coronavirus," Republican Senator Rick Scott wrote in a letter to Director General Tedros Ghebreysus this week. "We need to know exactly how many cases are confirmed, where they are confirmed, fatality rates, and where and how the virus is being transmitted. We also need to know how long the virus can persist on inanimate surfaces so we can ensure that products and produce coming from China are not harmful to our citizens."
"I urge you to do this review as quickly and thoroughly as possible so we can get an up-to-date picture of the extent of the threat we face," he continued. "Communist China cannot be trusted with truthfully respesenting critical information about the Coronavirus. An independent analysis must be done immediately to protect the scientific integrity of the research for data for epidemiologists and other researchers."
Communist China has proven that it cannot be trusted, which is why I asked the @WHO to do their own in-depth analysis on the extent of the spread of #Coronavirus.
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) February 12, 2020
We need to get an up-to-date picture of the threat we face. pic.twitter.com/mBRE3iJUal
Meanwhile, Republican Senator Tom Cotton has called for a complete shutdown of air travel between the United States and China.
As a defensive measure, we must shut down commercial air travel between the United States and China.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) January 30, 2020
As an offensive measure, we need a Manhattan Project level effort to work with our best research scientists and laboratories to develop a vaccine as quickly as possible. pic.twitter.com/arKHvuMxaG