‘China trying to sabotage vaccine research,’ says US senator
US Republican Senator Rick Scott has accused China of trying to “sabotage” the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme, he said that China had “decided to be an adversary”.
“We’ve got to get this vaccine done. Unfortunately we have evidence that communist China is trying to sabotage us or slow it down,” Scott said.
“If we, or England does it first, or anybody in Europe, we’re all going to share. China won’t share.”
Responding to a question about what evidence he had to justify his comments, he said: “There’s evidence… it came through our intelligence agency… there’s evidence that they’ve been trying to sabotage or slow it down.
“It’s frustrating what China did to all of us… they lied about this, and we could have prepared better.”
China says it briefed the US about the coronavirus as early as 4 January, when the disease was still largely unknown.
President Xi Jinping has also said that a vaccine – if or when it is created by China – will be distributed globally, “which will be China’s contribution to ensuring vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries”.
