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.”
White House lawyer’s hardball warning to Dems has legal experts on both sides questioning one key threat
Dems seize on midterm rout to demand ICE reform but polls reveal a twist in who prioritized immigration
Woke Formula One Driver Visits, Condemns Wall Imprisoning Palestinians – Clearly Has No Idea Egypt Actually Built It
The Genius Voting System We Could Use That Rewards Working, Military Service, and Age – Penalizes Taking Welfare, Being Criminal
Rep. Ro Khanna Demands We Begin ‘Rejecting This Idea of Heritage Americans’
Anti-Trump Republican courts other defectors as House weighs another vote against Iran war
Pentagon’s former UFO investigator offers simple theory for mysterious jellyfish-shaped object on video
Florida Republican on Democrats’ strategy: ‘That’s the choice they have to make…persecution or policy’
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Explains What Went Wrong as FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop
Natalee Holloway’s confessed killer caught trying to extort $250K from grieving mother in FBI sting video
From Democrats’ midterm romp to the MLB, many victors come out of the blue
Blue wave hits Vance’s 2028 chances
Newsom’s 2028 announcement puts Democrats on notice, but rivals aren’t rushing to follow
Watch: Baby Saved from Planned Parenthood After Sidewalk Counselor Convinces Father to Intervene
Struggling Canadian Vet Calls VA for Help, Says Caseworker Suggested He Consider Killing Himself With Canada’s New ‘Assisted Dying Service’
“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.
White House lawyer’s hardball warning to Dems has legal experts on both sides questioning one key threat
Dems seize on midterm rout to demand ICE reform but polls reveal a twist in who prioritized immigration
Woke Formula One Driver Visits, Condemns Wall Imprisoning Palestinians – Clearly Has No Idea Egypt Actually Built It
The Genius Voting System We Could Use That Rewards Working, Military Service, and Age – Penalizes Taking Welfare, Being Criminal
Rep. Ro Khanna Demands We Begin ‘Rejecting This Idea of Heritage Americans’
Anti-Trump Republican courts other defectors as House weighs another vote against Iran war
Pentagon’s former UFO investigator offers simple theory for mysterious jellyfish-shaped object on video
Florida Republican on Democrats’ strategy: ‘That’s the choice they have to make…persecution or policy’
Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy Explains What Went Wrong as FAA Lifts Nationwide Ground Stop
Natalee Holloway’s confessed killer caught trying to extort $250K from grieving mother in FBI sting video
From Democrats’ midterm romp to the MLB, many victors come out of the blue
Blue wave hits Vance’s 2028 chances
Newsom’s 2028 announcement puts Democrats on notice, but rivals aren’t rushing to follow
Watch: Baby Saved from Planned Parenthood After Sidewalk Counselor Convinces Father to Intervene
Struggling Canadian Vet Calls VA for Help, Says Caseworker Suggested He Consider Killing Himself With Canada’s New ‘Assisted Dying Service’
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.
