Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is urging China to shut down its wet markets where exotic animals are sold for human consumption because of the markets’ role in the transmission of devastating outbreaks like the coronavirus.
“These wet markets in China, people eat bats and they eat monkeys, and bats and monkeys — at least bats for sure — carry this kind of virus,” the South Carolina Republican told “The Story” host Martha MacCallum on Friday.
“This is where ebola came from, this is where the SARS came from, and this lab may be 300 yards away from the wet market in China where they test bats for coronavirus infection, but people literally eating bats 300 yards down the road.”
The senator pointed to comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who said that the global community should help force a closure of the wet markets in China.
“It boggles my mind how when we have so many diseases that emanate out of that unusual human-animal interface, that we don’t just shut it down,” Fauci told “Fox & Friends.”
Trump announces advanced weapons testing ‘super range’ in Montana
MS NOW Falsely Reports Kash Patel Is in Russia – Gets Brutally Fact-Checked Directly by the FBI
Tension erupts during House midterm debate as Lawler fact-checks New York Democrat opponent on immigration
‘Serial Killer’ Concerns Grip Michigan’s Capital as Similarities Are Noted in 5 Recent Deaths
Copper theft suspect’s desperate escape caught on bodycam video before deputies discover what he left behind
Trump torches Democrats at Arizona rally, warns they will ‘destroy our country’ ahead of midterms
Will Trump’s contempt for Zelensky force Ukraine to choose between an election and survival?
FBI Says Saudi OpenAI Employee Bugged Company to Spy on Top Executives
Federal agents seize phone of Rep. Ilhan Omar in raid tied to immigration fraud probe
DOJ threatens emergency legal action against California over suspected noncitizen voters
High School Football Coach Fired, Allegedly for Running Up Score Against Lesser Opponent
House Democrat Reveals Plan to Knock Maxine Waters Off Her Leadership Pedestal, Sparking Internal Turmoil
Fox News Poll: Cost of living concerns weigh on GOP in midterms
Watch: Chick-Fil-A CEO Doesn’t Fold When NBC Interviewer Tries to Bully Him Into Renouncing Christian Convictions
Expert calls California ‘Wild West’ for surrogacy after couple charged with abusing surrogate-born children
“I would like to see the rest of the world really lean with a lot of pressure on those countries that have that, because what we’re going through right now is a direct result of that.”
Graham said he is sending a letter with Democratic Sens. Cory Booker and Chris Coons to the World Health Organization and the Chinese government demanding they permanently close the wet markets.
“Sixteen percent of all deaths in the world are infectious diseases and about 60 percent of them come from animal to human transmission,” Graham told MacCallum.
The senator added that there were wet markets in Southeast Asia and Africa, not just in China.
“We need to stop that. It’s the 21st century,” he said.
By late January, NPR and other outlets reported the novel coronavirus most likely originated in a massive, well-traveled wet market in the city of Wuhan, China.
Medical experts on the ground indicated at the time that Huanan Seafood Market had been the only major common denominator between those individuals admitted to Wuhan hospitals with the first known cases of the virus.
Trump announces advanced weapons testing ‘super range’ in Montana
MS NOW Falsely Reports Kash Patel Is in Russia – Gets Brutally Fact-Checked Directly by the FBI
Tension erupts during House midterm debate as Lawler fact-checks New York Democrat opponent on immigration
‘Serial Killer’ Concerns Grip Michigan’s Capital as Similarities Are Noted in 5 Recent Deaths
Copper theft suspect’s desperate escape caught on bodycam video before deputies discover what he left behind
Trump torches Democrats at Arizona rally, warns they will ‘destroy our country’ ahead of midterms
Will Trump’s contempt for Zelensky force Ukraine to choose between an election and survival?
FBI Says Saudi OpenAI Employee Bugged Company to Spy on Top Executives
Federal agents seize phone of Rep. Ilhan Omar in raid tied to immigration fraud probe
DOJ threatens emergency legal action against California over suspected noncitizen voters
High School Football Coach Fired, Allegedly for Running Up Score Against Lesser Opponent
House Democrat Reveals Plan to Knock Maxine Waters Off Her Leadership Pedestal, Sparking Internal Turmoil
Fox News Poll: Cost of living concerns weigh on GOP in midterms
Watch: Chick-Fil-A CEO Doesn’t Fold When NBC Interviewer Tries to Bully Him Into Renouncing Christian Convictions
Expert calls California ‘Wild West’ for surrogacy after couple charged with abusing surrogate-born children
Virologists and medical researchers suggest that the novel coronavirus is more than likely a zoonotic virus, having originated in bats and spread to other animals within the market before making the jump to humans.
Graham called on President Donald Trump to demand that Chinese President Xi Jinping “crack down” on the wet markets.
“What I would tell President Trump is call up President Xi and say, ‘Listen, you just reopened the wet market in Wuhan where we believe all of this came from. Crack down on bringing exotic and wild animals into these wet markets where they contaminate the food supply and human beings,’” he said.
“Bats carry this stuff, and they literally eat bats. Stop eating bats!”
As of Saturday afternoon, there were almost 1.2 million cases of coronavirus worldwide, roughly 300,000 of which are in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins.
