White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Monday said he’s concerned about China’s exporting “low-quality” antibody tests and accused the country of “profiteering” off the coronavirus pandemic.
“One of the things that’s on my radar that’s really troublesome is there’s a lot of these antibody tests coming in from China now that are low-quality, false readings and things like that, and we got to be really careful,” Mr. Navarro said on “Fox & Friends.”
Experts agree that reliable antibody testing, which could determine whether someone is immune to the virus, will be key to reopening the U.S. economy. But many analysts have cautioned that the tests circulating on the market have not been given a proper sign-off by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and can yield faulty results.
Echoing President Trump, Mr. Navarro also said China could have stopped the spread of the new coronavirus before it got out of control. The virus was first discovered in Wuhan, China, late last year.
“They hid it for six weeks. They could have contained it in Wuhan,” he said. “They vacuumed up the world for personal protective equipment — over 2 billion masks — depriving public health care workers around the world from the defenses they need, and today China’s profiteering, basically, from this situation.”
Several U.S. states are either suing or weighing lawsuits against China and the country’s Communist Party seeking monetary damages from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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