Over the recent weeks, more and more actors have been calling for China to be held accountable for its response to the Covid19 outbreak. Their argument states that the Chinese government’s (early) handling of Covid19 and failure to adequately report information to the World Health Organization (WHO) allowed Covid19 to spread uncontrollably, first outside of Wuhan, and then, worldwide.
A Banksy mural is modified to depict the current Covid19 pandemic on April 21, 2020, in ... [+]
Some of these calls have now been answered. Among others, in March 2020, Berman Law Group, a Miami based law firm, has launched a legal claim (class action) for “damages suffered as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, against Defendants, the People’s Republic of China and its various government entities overseeing the response to the Coronavirus pandemic in China generally and within Hubei Province and the City of Wuhan.” The claim alleges that China failed to “report the outbreak as quickly as they could have; underreported cases; and failed to contain the outbreak despite knowing the seriousness of the situation.” It further states that China, among others:
“Censored eight doctors on January 1, 2020, from speaking about the outbreak and its dangers.
Even after the first death on January 9th, they continued to downplay the dangers and assured the public that the situation was not serious and that everything was under control...
They knew COVID-19 was spread human to human by January 3rd, but told the public otherwise, and would not confirm the ease of human to human transmission until January 20th, after the virus had already spread beyond China...”
Elsewhere in the U.S., Congressman John Curtis has introduced the Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act, a bill which would “authorize the imposition of sanctions with respect to the deliberate concealment or distortion of information about public health emergencies of international concern, and for other purposes.”
Similar calls for accountability are appearing around the world, including in the U.K. One foreign policy think tank, the Henry Jackson Society, researching the issue has argued that the Chinese government:
“Failed to disclose data that would have revealed evidence of human-to-human transmission for a period of up to three weeks from being aware of it, in breach of Articles six and seven of the IHRs.
Provided the WHO with erroneous information about the number of infections between 2 January 2020 and 11 January 2020, in breach of Articles Six and Seven of the IHRs...
Allowed 5 million people to leave Wuhan before imposing the lockdown on 23 January 2020 despite knowledge of human-to-human transmission.”
As they argue, the delays had real consequences. Research carried out by the University of Southampton suggests that, had strict quarantine measures been introduced three weeks earlier, the spread of disease would have been reduced by some 95%. This may provide a good basis upon which to build a case. These breaches have result in over 177,000 deaths around the world (as of April 21, 2020) but also in significant quantifiable costs assessed at $4 trillion limited to just the G7 nations, and $449 billion in the U.K. only.
Also in the UK, several British parliamentarians have called upon the U.K. Government to re-assess its relationship with China and rethink future cooperation. As a member of the British Parliament, Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP, writes: “once we get clear of this terrible pandemic, it is imperative that we all rethink that relationship and put it on a much more balanced and honest basis.”
At this stage it is not clear whether any other legal avenues will be pursued. However, apart from litigation, more needs to be done to ensure investigation and assessment of the failings that have resulted in the situation that we all are facing right now. Such investigations must include an assessment of the origins of the virus and the handling of the epidemic by Chinese authorities. This is yet to be done.
