GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Wisconsin Congressman Mike Gallagher is laying the blame for the COVID-19 Coronavirus at the feet of the Chinese government.
Congressman Gallagher appeared this week on WTAQ’s “The Morning News with Matt and Earl”.
“Think about how this started, this virus probably started because of the incompetence of a Wuhan Virology lab,” Gallagher said, referring to the theory that the virus may have originated from a laboratory near the area where the outbreak was first detected. “It spread within China because the Chinese Communist Party tried to cover it up, jailing journalists and medical officials who were on the front lines, and now the virus has spread to the rest of the world.”
Decrying what he called an active Chinese-led disinformation campaign centered around COVID-19, Gallagher called on Twitter to ban Chinese Communist Party affiliated accounts from the platform.
“Right now we can’t get the PPEs, the Personal Protection Equipment, that we need because the Chinese and others won’t send it to us,” Gallagher said. “Their state run media agency went so far as to threaten to shut down pharmaceutical exports to the US and plunge America into, quote, ‘the mighty sea of coronavirus’.”
China’s state-run Xinhua news agency used that term in an article entitled “Be bold: the world owes China a thank you” earlier this month.
Gallagher says he supports taking measures against the Chinese government down the line.
“We should focus all of our efforts right now on helping our citizens, protecting our country, and whethering the health crisis,” “But when the dust settles, there should be hell to pay.”
Virology experts say the outbreak originally began at a Fish Market in China’s Hubei province.
Gallagher was one of just 40 house “no” votes on the recently-passed, multi-billion dollar Coronavirus bill signed into law by President Donald Trump on Wednesday. It’s a bill Gallagher says may do more harm than good.
“If you force small and medium sized businesses to cover their costs based on the promise of a tax credit that, right now, it’s unclear how it will work and unclear whether it would allow them the requisite cash to avoid shutting down, you’re actually going to hurt the people you’re trying to help,” Gallagher said.
The bill provides tax credits to businesses impacted by the virus. Gallagher says it would be better to give cash assistance directly from the Federal Government.
There is discussion on the federal level on providing direct cash assistance to Americans during the crisis. Gallagher says he would support that as long as it is targeted to Americans who most need it.
