A Republican group of legislators announced plans to introduce the Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act designed to address foreign officials who attempted to conceal early onset COVID-19 public health information.
The Act would also sanction any foreign official who may conceal a future outbreak.
Rep. John Curtis (R-UT), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who is co-sponsored the legislation with Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Mike Gallagher (R-WI), Ted Yoho (R-FL), Jim Banks (R-IN), Rob Bishop (R-UT), Chris Smith (R-NJ), Dan Crenshaw (R-TX). Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) will introduce the legislation in the Senate soon.
“As Dr. Li Wenliang said, ‘A healthy society shouldn’t only have one voice,’” Curtis said. “By suppressing critical public health information, officials in China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and elsewhere have demonstrated they care more about maintaining their grip on power than the health and wellbeing of their people. The Li Wenliang Global Public Health Accountability Act, named after the heroic Chinese doctor whistleblower, will ensure that dictators and their cronies think twice before once allowing a local health crisis spiral out of control into a pandemic that endangers the globe.”
The lawmakers maintain Chinese officials accelerated the spread of COVID-19 by choosing not to take early action to stop the virus, even after Li Wenliang blew the whistle on the capabilities of the virus.
He was reprimanded by local authorities and later died from the virus, officials said.