Trump Administration Claims China Withheld Vital Information About Coronavirus

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed there is “enormous evidence” that coronavirus originated in a research lab in Wuhan. This comes after months of consensus that the virus had originated in bats in the Huanan Seafood Market.

The White House isn’t currently accusing the Chinese of releasing and spreading the virus deliberately. However, President Trump said during a virtual town hall on Sunday night with Fox News, the Chinese government “made a horrible mistake. They tried to cover it, they tried to put it out. It’s like a fire.”

In response to the accusations, the editor of the Chinese tabloid has called for Pompeo and the US government to present the evidence and not to “fool the American public”, later releasing a satirical propaganda video made with Lego, mocking the US response.

The C.I.A. launched a full investigation into China’s underreporting of cases, believing Chinese government officials downplayed the real figures out of fear of punishment. China also appears to have wholly disregarded the number of asymptomatic cases in the country, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate may be up to 25% of the overall number. So far, the Chinese government has reportedly not cooperated with US intelligence.

According to the South China Morning Post, the first confirmed cases of coronavirus were reported as far back as November 17. Doctors became more aware of the spreading disease throughout December, as cases grew by 180 by the end of the month.

Researcher Shi Zhengli, a virologist from the Wuhan Institute of Virology has been accused of covering up the spread of coronavirus when it was initially discovered. Zhengli admitted to being “skeptical” upon first hearing reports of a possible new virus in the city from concerned health care workers.

The Coronavirus situation in the US appears to be finally stabilizing, after many months of being the epicenter of the virus with over 70,000 deaths. Now, Washington is looking at gradually lifting the restrictions, which is expected to cause a slight spike in deaths before leveling off and finally plateauing.

Coronavirus has only worsened tensions between the US and China, who were already in the midst of a trade war, with Trump levying several heavy tariffs on China, claiming the country has benefitted economically at America’s expense. The coronavirus has only accelerated the decoupling of the US and Chinese economies, with Trump now keen to ensure less of the US’s medical supplies are produced in China in the future.

It’s expected that there will be a recession in the wake of the pandemic, which will probably be exacerbated if the US and China are doing less trade with one another. Director of the Hutchins Center on Fiscal & Monetary Policy, David Wessel, said we are not headed for another global depression and that today’s leaders “learned both from the mistakes of the 1930s and from those made just a decade ago in the Great Recession.”

Despite this optimistic tone, it is unlikely the global economy will recover to its previous numbers until a vaccine is discovered and made widely available. Even then, growth will be slow and it will take many industries a long time to recover, particularly those in the travel and hospitality sector. For airline companies, who must fill 80% of their seats just to break even, a world where passengers must sit with one seat between them will prove very difficult indeed.