Hold CCP Accountable for Trillions in Pandemic Losses: Report

A health care staff member at Community Health of South Florida, Inc. prepares to test people for COVID-19 in the parking lot of its Doris Ison Health Center in Miami on March 18, 2020. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) should be held accountable for its “systematic cover-up” of the COVID-19 pandemic that has caused trillions of dollars of economic losses in the United States, a report finds.

“It’s critical the United States take the leadership role in holding the Chinese Communist Party accountable for one of the most catastrophic cover-ups in human history,” Derrick Morgan, executive vice president of The Heritage Foundation, said at a July 8 event in Washington while presenting the 64-page paper. 

The report concludes that as of December 2023, the estimated cost of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States had skyrocketed to more than $18 trillion, amounting to about 13 percent of the country’s net wealth for that year. This figure, according to the report, is “a stark reminder of the profound impact this global health crisis has had on the nation.”

The total cost includes $8.6 trillion in expenses because of COVID-19-related deaths, a $1.8 trillion decline in economic output throughout the three-year pandemic, $6 trillion stemming from lingering symptoms of “long COVID“ experienced by Americans, more than $1 trillion in mental health expenses, and $435 billion in education losses.

The report, by a nonpartisan commission convened by The Heritage Foundation, doesn’t rule out the possibility of other governments, institutions, and individuals having played roles in the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it finds that the CCP has been in “a league uniquely of its own in its active and aggressive opposition to honesty, transparency, and accountability regarding the virus and its spread.

“This behavior by the Chinese government, more than anything else, was the proximal origin of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report states.

‘Systematic Cover-Up’

When the deadly new virus, SARS-CoV-2, first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, Hubei Province, in late 2019, the commission found that there were at least seven weeks during which Beijing could have prevented a domestic outbreak from turning into a pandemic.

Yet the CCP “consistently chose to do otherwise,” the report states, pointing out that in the critical early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Beijing chose to suppress information about the health crisis rather than alert the world.

In December 2019, when COVID-19 quickly spread throughout Wuhan, local officials instructed medical institutions not to share any information related to the virus without authorization. The Party’s propaganda agency in Hubei also deployed trolls to erase any information related to the outbreaks from the Chinese internet.

Additionally, the CCP “aggressively silenced medical personnel, journalists, and other Chinese citizens—at times jailing them—for trying to warn each other and the world about the seriousness of the virus,” the commission states.

The authorities criticized health care workers for wearing masks at the time, when Beijing insisted that human-to-human transmission was impossible, which led to unnecessary deaths and further transmissions, according to the report.

Dr. Li Wenliang, an eye doctor from Wuhan, had been reprimanded by the local police and accused of spreading rumors after publicizing information about the “SARS-like” virus in December 2019. Dr. Li later died after contracting the virus from a patient whom he had treated.

Journalists and activists were imprisoned for trying to offer the outside world a firsthand glimpse of the early COVID-19 situation in the country. Some of them remain in custody or live under police surveillance to this day.

People wearing masks wait for medical attention at Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Jan. 25, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

Aside from silencing whistleblowers and suppressing information Beijing deemed sensitive, the commission highlights that the CCP’s “systematic cover-up” also includes reporting false data and withholding vital information about the virus. In one of the examples in the report, the Chinese health authorities issued an internal notice in January 2020, ordering commercial labs with the virus to destroy the existing samples or hand them over and instructing them to get official approval before publishing research findings.

It wasn’t until Jan. 20, 2020, that Chinese officials disclosed that the mysterious virus could be transmitted between humans.

Even two days before the international community learned of the incident, Wuhan authorities held a potluck banquet with more than 40,000 families attending, which the commission said became a massive superspreader event.

By Jan. 23, 2020, when Wuhan was locked down, 7 million people had already departed the city without being checked for the virus, heading off for the Chinese New Year holiday. This led to outbreaks sprouting in more than 30 cities across 26 countries because of travel from Wuhan, according to the report.

Notably, the lockdown restricted domestic flights from Wuhan but allowed international flights to continue without limitations. According to the report, before the U.S. government imposed entry restrictions on Chinese visitors on Jan. 31, 2020, there had been 1,300 direct flights from Wuhan to 17 U.S. cities.

“Beijing’s actions facilitated the virus’s spread undetected beyond its borders despite knowledge of its lethality and human-to-human transmission,” the report reads.

‘Take Bold Action Now’

“It has been nearly five years since the outbreak in Wuhan, China, and nothing has been done to hold China accountable,” Mr. Morgan said at the July 8 event. “They believe they’ve gotten away with it.

“But inaction incentivizes the CCP to persist in secretive, aggressive, and dangerous behavior.”

Medical staff members wearing protective clothing arrive with a patient at the Wuhan Red Cross Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, on Jan. 25, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

The commission—chaired by former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe and including a nine-member panel of Republicans and Democrats—outlined a series of actions for Congress and the U.S. president to consider.

The report recommends that Congress form a 9/11-style commission and fund it through budget offsets. Its proposed duties, according to the commission, include reviewing the CCP’s “negligence and cover-up,” as well as assessing domestic policies implemented when the virus began spreading in the United States.

The report also recommends that U.S. lawmakers establish a bipartisan reparations or compensation task force to cover claims against Chinese authorities, stating that “U.S. citizens deserve restitution from China for the pain and suffering they have experienced because of COVID-19.”

Actions recommended for the president to consider include prioritizing demands for an investigation into COVID-19 origins during diplomatic engagement with China and imposing economic sanctions on Chinese officials and entities involved in distorting and concealing COVID-19 pandemic-related information.

Only by holding the CCP accountable and liable for “its negligence and malfeasance can [it] provide both China’s government and other governments with the incentives and impetus to act differently in the future,” the report states.

“Better to take bold action now than to ask ourselves why we didn’t do more if an even deadlier pandemic emerges in the future,” the report states.