Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called on a number of countries to provide clear and accurate data about the coronavirus outbreak within their borders so that the worldwide risk from the pandemic can be estimated.
“When you hear Drs. Fauci and Birx talk about risk and talk about fatalities trying to think about how to model, what they need is data. And they need data from Italy, data from China, data from Iran,” Pompeo told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Monday, referring to White House task force members Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx.
“We need every country to step up and provide accurate, transparent information. And we can’t have that if we have disinformation instead. More lives will be at risk not only today but in the weeks ahead as we battle this enormous challenge,” he added.
China, where the virus broke out in December in the city of Wuhan, has reported 82,272 cases, according to the Communist Party. The Chinese government has said the outbreak is beginning to stabilize, but those claims are being met with skepticism.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government has called out Beijing for spreading disinformation and said coronavirus cases in the country have been downplayed by a “factor of 15 to 40 times.”
Italy, one of the hardest-hit countries, has recorded 101,739 cases and Iran has 44,605, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Later in the Hannity interview, Pompeo defended President Trump referring to the outbreak as the “Chinese coronavirus,” a term adopted following Chinese propaganda efforts to blame the US Army for the outbreak.
“President Trump was very clear and even said it again this morning, he talked about it being the Chinese coronavirus,” Pompeo said.
“What we’ve been looking for here all along is we simply want to make sure we understand what’s happened so that we can prevent the loss of life moving forward,” he said.
Pompeo went on to say that the US would cooperate with all countries to get information to fight the pandemic.