Hardening its stance against China, US National Security Advisor Robert O'Brien on Tuesday (May 12) said that as many as five plagues have come out of China in the last two decades and it has to stop at some point.
Through his statement O'Brien held China responsible for the origin of the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic which has claimed lives of over 250,000 people across the world.
Addressing a press conference at the White House, O'Brien noted that the global community is going to rise up and tell the Chinese government that "we can no longer have these plagues coming out of China", whether it is from labs or wet markets.
"We know it came from Wuhan and I think there's circumstantial evidence that it could have come from the lab or the wet market. But, again, if you're China, neither one's a good answer," O'Brien said.
"We've had five plagues from China in the last 20 years. We've had SARS, avian flu, swine flu, COVID-19 now and how longer can the world put up with this terrible public health situation that you've got in the People's Republic of China that is being unleashed on the world," he added.
The US official, however, did not reveal the name of the fifth plague to come out of from China.
"I mean, this is -- at some point, it's got to stop. We offered to send in health professionals to help the Chinese. They rejected that," he said.
When asked that the US is still looking for evidence about the origin of coronavirus, O'Brien did not give a definite timeframe.
"I can't give you a timeframe on that. That's something that we're continuing to review and it is obviously a very serious concern. Look, China's got to figure out how to deal with its public health because we cannot have another one of these virus outbreaks and plagues come from China. This was a terrible thing that happened to the entire world, not just to the United States," he said.
The US with 13,95,020 confirmed cases tops the chart of having the most number of COVID-19 cases in the world. The US on Tuesday reported approximately 760 cases.
