None of China's numbers on the novel coronavirus can be believed, as there is "no question the Chinese government lied" and then retaliated against scientists who tried to sound the warnings about the potentially deadly disease, Fred Fleitz, of the Center for Security Policy, said on Newsmax TV Monday.
"I think everything China's saying about this is a lie and the problem is it's going to make it so much harder for the international community to understand this pathogen and defeat it," Fleitz told Newsmax TV's "Greg Kelly Reports." "It started in China first.They have the data and they won't share with the world.
"The Chinese government also is still not providing samples of this virus to U.S. health officials," said Fleitz. "We need this information to cure the virus."
He added that there have been several troubling reports coming out of China, including the closing of a skyscraper in Shanghai, "where the virus wasn't supposed to be a problem."
Fleitz said he also believes President Donald Trump is correct when he says the World Health Organization is China-centric.
The WHO's actions are "appalling," Fleitz said, as China did not give full access to the biological labs or what can be seen legally.
"Lives have been lost in this country and all over the world because of their dishonesty," said Fleitz.
Gordon Chang, a columnist with the Daily Beast also commented on the issue, saying that China did not admit until Jan. 20 that there was human-to-human transmission of the virus, and that it may "be the case" that the virus was spread deliberately.
"I think it was deliberate not just to the U.S. but to everybody else," Chang said. "China couldn't control the transmission of a bug once it left China but I think clearly Xi (Jinping) wanted to hobble the United States as a part of getting even with the world."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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