‘The Chinese Communist Party deserves every bit of the blame it’s getting for its malicious response to the outbreak…’
(Michael Barnes, Liberty Headlines) Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wants American pharmaceuticals made in America, and he’s introduced legislation to make it happen.
Like manufacturing, pharmaceutical supply-chains have relocated to China over recent decades, and amid the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic, the lack of American-made prescription drugs has turned into a national-security nightmare.
“We cannot trust China to continue to manufacture our pharmaceuticals, things like antibiotics, penicillin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, to say nothing of dozens of other basic pharmaceutical ingredients,” said Cotton in an interview with Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum on Thursday.
“That’s why I would say the military, Health and Human Services—meaning Medicare and Medicaid and the VA—can no longer buy drugs that are sourced from China, and I would give incentives for companies to bring manufacturing of basic pharmaceuticals back to the United States,” added Cotton.
Last week, Chinese state-run media reported that the Chinese Communist Party could impose pharmaceutical export controls over vital drugs and plunge the U.S. into “the mighty sea of coronavirus.”
Cotton, a decorated Afghan War veteran, has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese government since it first became known that the CCP failed to contain the coronavirus and then hid the fact from the outside world until it was too late.
“In early December, they knew there was some kind of outbreak happening with the novel coronavirus in Wuhan,” Cotton said.
“If they had acted quickly, rather than lying to their own people, suppressing the whistleblowers and lying to the world, then not only China, but U.S. and other scientists and researchers and epidemiologists and other experts from around the world could have helped them contain this in Wuhan or in Hubei province,” he continued. “But look what we have now: a pandemic and a severe global recession.”
Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wisc., has embraced Cotton’s “Protecting our Pharmaceutical Supply Chain from China Act” from within the House of Representatives. Gallagher said China’s “outrageous threats” to withhold lifesaving drugs should “should open our eyes to our dangerous over-reliance on China.”
Cotton also took to Twitter this week to say that the Chinese government will be held accountable.
The Chinese Communist Party deserves every bit of the blame it’s getting for its malicious response to the outbreak. Their own citizens—and citizens around the world—are the true victims of their crimes. We will hold them accountable. https://t.co/Y51zFKsOlD
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) March 18, 2020