Five Republican senators are demanding that President Joe Biden implement a ban on travel from China in response to reports of a “mystery illness” infecting Chinese children.
In a letter sent Friday, Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott of Florida, J.D. Vance of Ohio, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, and Mike Braun of Indiana called on Biden to help prevent the spread of the pneumonia-related disease by restricting travel between the two nations until more information is gathered about the health outbreak. The lawmakers urged the White House to take immediate action, given the Chinese Communist Party’s “long history of lying about public health crises” such as Covid-19.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, the CCP’s obfuscation of the truth, and lack of transparency, robbed the United States of vital knowledge about the disease and its origin,” the letter reads.
The senators cited former president Donald Trump’s decision to implement a China-U.S. travel ban in late January 2020 as the correct course of action, and one that Biden should follow. “Many officials and commentators — including you — criticized his decision as being influenced by ‘xenophobia.’ But history and common sense show his decision was the right one,” they added.
Chinese health officials have detected clusters of unexplained respiratory illnesses that have been primarily infecting children in northern China since mid-October. Since then, the World Health Organization has asked the Chinese government to provide more information about the undiagnosed pneumonia. WHO stated last week it remains unclear if the spike in cases is due to an overall increase in respiratory infections, or caused by separate events.
“If history is any indication, we have cause to be concerned,” the senators wrote.
However, Rubio and others don’t want to wait for WHO or the CCP to act. Rather, they are calling for federal action to protect the American people and U.S. economy by preventing the spread of the mystery illness.
“That means we should immediately restrict travel between the United States and [China] until we know more about the dangers posed by this new illness. A ban on travel now could save our country from death, lockdowns, mandates, and further outbreaks later,” the letter concluded.