Sen. Martha McSally wants China and the leaders of the World Health Organization to pay for the global impact of the coronavirus.
Reports circulated on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence officials believe China has lied about its death toll and its number of infected citizens. During a Thursday interview on Fox Business, McSally bashed China for underreporting its coronavirus totals and the WHO for promoting much of the Chinese Communist Party’s misinformation.
“I’ve been studying Communist China my whole life in the military,” the Arizona Republican said. “I’ve never trusted a communist. Their cover-up of this virus that originated with them has caused unnecessary deaths around America and the world. So this report is not surprising at all. They need to come clean.”
She continued: “Another piece of this is the WHO needs to stop covering for them. I think Dr. Tedros needs to step down. We need to take some action to address this issue. It’s just, it’s irresponsible, it’s unconscionable what they have done here.”
WHO, under the leadership of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, promoted Chinese propaganda in January when its official Twitter page shared a study from China claiming that the coronavirus could not be spread from person-to-person contact. The organization also refused to listen to warnings from Taiwan about the coronavirus because the country is not recognized by China.
McSally said that the United States should return all medical manufacturing to America and that any debt owed to China should be forgiven because of its lies that poured fuel on the coronavirus pandemic.
“We need to bring manufacturing home of all the things that we’ve been relying on China, on medicines, our medical supplies. They also hold a trillion dollars of our debt. I think that should be forgiven, as a minimum,” she said. “And we need to look at addressing the WHO as well. We have all sorts of levers in our power. China needs to be held accountable.”
She added: “Right now, we need to save American lives as well and make sure that we defeat this virus, which we will with the American spirit and innovation. But China has got to be held accountable. They still keep lying and covering up today.”
Florida Sen. Rick Scott recently requested a congressional investigation into the WHO’s response to the coronavirus. He suggested that funding should be cut if wrongdoing was uncovered.
