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.”
Police Say Mom and Boyfriend Murdered 12-Year-Old, Lied to Continue Collecting Food Stamps
Trump, Zelenskyy to meet Sunday, as Ukrainian leader vows country will ‘do whatever it takes’ to end war
Tragic: Man Plunges 230 Feet to His Death During Ski Lift Collision with His Wife Sitting Next to Him
How drone warfare developed in Ukraine in 2025
Ranking the four best and four worst Trump administration Cabinet members
‘Unlucky’ Honduran woman arrested after allegedly running red light and crashing into ICE vehicle
Elon Musk warns ‘people will die’ over Mamdani’s FDNY commissioner pick, Lillian Bonsignore
FBI ramps up counter-drone efforts as Patel warns of growing threats from criminals, terrorists
DHS official rips Kilmar Abrego Garcia for ‘making TikToks’ while agency faces gag order
Walz slammed in wake of viral video that raises daycare funding questions: ‘Needs to be held accountable’
Florida bell ringer allegedly tries to ‘impale’ store manager with donation tripod while drunk
Year in focus: Images that defined America in 2025
Affordability: The issue that boosted Trump and Republicans in 2024 deflated them in 2025
We’re Headed for a ‘Build, Baby, Build’ Energy Revolution in 2026
Murder in small-town America: The crimes that tore quiet communities apart in 2025
“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.
Police Say Mom and Boyfriend Murdered 12-Year-Old, Lied to Continue Collecting Food Stamps
Trump, Zelenskyy to meet Sunday, as Ukrainian leader vows country will ‘do whatever it takes’ to end war
Tragic: Man Plunges 230 Feet to His Death During Ski Lift Collision with His Wife Sitting Next to Him
How drone warfare developed in Ukraine in 2025
Ranking the four best and four worst Trump administration Cabinet members
‘Unlucky’ Honduran woman arrested after allegedly running red light and crashing into ICE vehicle
Elon Musk warns ‘people will die’ over Mamdani’s FDNY commissioner pick, Lillian Bonsignore
FBI ramps up counter-drone efforts as Patel warns of growing threats from criminals, terrorists
DHS official rips Kilmar Abrego Garcia for ‘making TikToks’ while agency faces gag order
Walz slammed in wake of viral video that raises daycare funding questions: ‘Needs to be held accountable’
Florida bell ringer allegedly tries to ‘impale’ store manager with donation tripod while drunk
Year in focus: Images that defined America in 2025
Affordability: The issue that boosted Trump and Republicans in 2024 deflated them in 2025
We’re Headed for a ‘Build, Baby, Build’ Energy Revolution in 2026
Murder in small-town America: The crimes that tore quiet communities apart in 2025
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.
