The nonpartisan commission concluded the pandemic was due to Beijing’s actions, and called on the United States to lead in bringing the CCP to account.
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 new 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 pandemic in the United States had skyrocketed to over $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 comprises $8.6 trillion in expenses due to 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, over $1 trillion in mental health expenses, and $435 billion in education losses.
The report, by a nonpartisan commission convened by Heritage, does not rule out the possibility of other governments, institutions, and individuals having played roles in the pandemic. However, it finds 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.”
‘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.
By Dorothy Li
