Trump referred to coronavirus as the ¡®Chinese virus¡¯, and the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, accused China of spreading disinformation about the novel coronavirus; but can China be sued by governments of the world and be held legally accountable for the spread of COVID¡¯19??
According to a Fox News report, China CAN be held legally accountable.?
It is believed that China initially covered up the intensity and true information about coronavirus¡¯ emergence.?An Israel-based attorney - who specializes in suing terrorist regimes and state sponsors who orchestrate human rights abuses on behalf of victims - Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told Fox News, "Generally countries like China have sovereign immunity and governments cannot be brought to regular courts or held liable regardless of their conduct. However, an argument could be made that just like support for terrorism, which is legally actionable, a government that engages in such reckless disregard and negligence and covers up an epidemic which has the potential to spread worldwide could be held legally liable.¡±
?Darshan-Leitner further explained, "Cover-ups and deliberate acts to conceal a deadly medical crisis are not [among] the protected acts of a sovereign state or of responsible leaders."
If anyone like a hospital or a chemical company learns of a dangerous and highly contagious disease and then deliberately covers up its existence, they can clearly face criminal and civil liability.
She said, "China is not to blame for creating the virus but for not sounding the international alarm and trying to conceal it from the world."
A study by the University of South Hampton in the UK claims that China could have ¡®prevented 95 per cent of coronavirus infections if its measures to contain the outbreak had begun three weeks earlier¡¯.?
The study said, ¡®Coronavirus cases could have been reduced by 66 per cent if the measures were taken a week earlier, or by 86 per cent if action began two weeks earlier. If action was taken three weeks later, then the situation could have worsened 18-fold¡¯.?
A timeline by Axios states that China reported its first patient that started showing COVID-19 like symptoms on December 10.
China was obligated to report the outbreak of coronavirus early and governments can sue it for not doing so, before international tribunals.?