MISSOURI - Attorney General Eric Schmitt put the Midwest state in the country's history on Tuesday as they file a lawsuit against the Chinese government claiming that the country and its authorities mishandled the coronavirus pandemic.
Accusing the communist government's officials, the Midwest state's lawsuit against China was filed in United States federal court by Schmitt on Tuesday for the negligence and deceit seeking damages for the human suffering, economic turmoil and most of all the loss of tons of life. Several class-action lawsuits have been filed in the courts of United States by private groups.
The action of Schmitt makes Missouri the first state to file a lawsuit due to the alleged mishandling by a foreign government. The lawsuit also included the possible hoarding of PPEs or Personal Protective Equipment such as masks after publicly revealing the existence of coronavirus in December of 2019.
On Tuesday's tweet of Missouri's Attorney General, he emphasized the suit against the government of China seek recovery for the devastating loss of life and economic burden that Missourians face due to the coronavirus pandemic. He also stressed that the bottom line of the lawsuit is they lied to the world and should be held accountable.
Tallying 5,941 coronavirus cases in the state and 189 marks in the death toll, the Department of Health of Missouri reported the numbers through April 21.
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Schmitt's lawsuit tails the move of 22 Republican lawmakers in Congress who requested U.S. President Donald Trump to push the case against the Chinese government in the ICIJ or the International Court of Justice alleging the same pandemic response failures. However, international law experts shared their insight about the possible move and discussed that the legal efforts to hold China liable for the spread of COVID-19 in the United States courts are almost certain to fail. This is because of the possible speculations that the GOP-led move is an election year stunt. Attorney General Schmitt is currently running for re-election and present on the ballot for the state's GOP primary on August 4.
An international law professor at the University of Chicago, Tom Ginsburg shared that we are seeing a lot of people on the political right focus on the China issue to cover up for the United States' government's own errors.
Initially praising China and Beijing government's leader Xi Jinping, US President Trump's tone later shifted and began labeling coronavirus as Chinese virus after its damages in the United States in February. But, despite the allegations officials from the Chinese government denied the accusations from the Trump administration that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan where bats are tested for coronavirus strains.
On his Tuesday statement, Schmitt shared the impact of the virus infecting thousands. A lot died forcing families to be separated from dying loved ones. Small businesses shut their doors as they fall to bankruptcy. Those who are living paycheck to paycheck also struggled to put food on their table.
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