The Trump administration is escalating an effort to blame China for the novel coronavirus pandemic as global pressure grows on Beijing to cooperate with an …
The Trump administration is escalating an effort to blame China for the novel coronavirus pandemic as global pressure grows on Beijing to cooperate with an investigation into the origins of the outbreak.
President Trump, who has endured consistent scrutiny for his own lagged response to the virus domestically, has accused China of covering up the outbreak and suggested that the virus wouldn’t have spread globally if Beijing had been more transparent to begin with.
“I think they made a horrible mistake and they didn’t want to admit it. We wanted to go in, they didn’t want us there,” Trump said during a Fox News virtual town hall Sunday. “This virus should not have spread all over the world. They should have put it out.”
The Trump administration is weighing steps to punish Beijing, including leveling new tariffs on imports from China.
After initially complimenting China’s handling of the virus, Trump has hardened his rhetoric as the COVID-19 disease has spread across the United States, infecting over 1 million Americans and devastating the U. S. economy.
Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have claimed there is significant evidence that the virus emanated from a lab in Wuhan — though neither have actually provided any evidence.
The intelligence community is investigating the virus’s origins, including whether it could have come from a lab.
Heath and virology experts broadly believe the virus was transferred from an animal to human in nature. WHO officials at a Monday briefing said evidence based on nearly 15,000 fully-sequenced samples of the coronavirus suggested it is of natural origin, and that they had seen no evidence that a laboratory was involved.
“We have not received any data or specific evidence from the United States government relating to the purported origin,” said Mike Ryan, director of the WHO’s emergency program. “From our perspective, this remains speculative.”
Trump has also targeted the WHO, halting U. S. funding to the organization and saying it has been biased toward China.
He has more broadly criticized China’s handling of its outbreak, arguing it “could have been stopped at the source.
