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The Chinese Communist Party is liable for $24 billion in damages to Missouri for exacerbating the pandemic by obstructing U.S. access to medical supplies, a state judge has ruled. “This is a landmark victory for Missouri and the United States in the fight to hold China accountable for unleashing COVID-19 on the world,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said.
The state of Missouri brought the case against China, its communist leadership and several subordinate departments and institution, including the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where some intelligence leaders believe the COVID-19 virus originated.
District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. rendered the decision by default after officials from the Chinese government did not appear to plead their side of the case, a common outcome in cases dealing with foreign entities.
“China’s pattern of actions strongly suggests that it had knowledge of the existence and human-to-human transmission of the COVID-19 virus as early as September 2019 and engaged in a deliberate campaign to suppress information about the COVID-19 pandemic in order to support its campaign to hoard PPE from Missouri and an unsuspecting world,” the judgment stated.
The party began amassing global supplies of PPE and other medical equipment, depleting supplies in Australia, Canada and the United States before those nations understood the gravity of the virus emerging in China. “During the early months of the pandemic, Missouri spent millions more on PPE than it otherwise would have because of defendants’ hoarding,” the judgment said. In all, the evidence compiled by Missouri found that the state had lost more than $8 billion related to PPE alone because of both inflated prices and tax revenue losses.
The sum of the judgment was six times larger than the previous largest judgment in Missouri history, suggesting that further state suits against the party may follow. “Missouri is leading the fight,” Bailey said, according to “The Epoch Times.”
