US judge holds China accountable for keeping Covid-19 under wraps; demands to pay billions

COVID-19 which was caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, first emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. It quickly spread across the globe like wildfire and led to the World Health Organization declaring it a pandemic in March 2020.
Characterised by symptoms ranging from mild respiratory issues to severe pneumonia, COVID-19 disrupted daily life, healthcare systems, and economies worldwide. The pandemic's impact has been profound, with millions of lives lost and significant changes in how societies function. Recently a judgement by a US judge has once again brought limelight to this topic.

A judge in the US state of Missouri has held the Chinese government responsible for concealing the Covid-19 pandemic and monopolistic behavior to stockpile personal protective equipment (PPE) as the world was reeling from the pandemic that claimed over 7 million lives globally since it broke out in 2019. In his judgment, US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri Judge Stephen N Limbaugh directed China to pay USD 24 billion in compensation.
In 2020, the state of Missouri sued the Chinese government, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and others. The lawsuit claimed that China “caused and exacerbated the Covid-19 pandemic by thwarting the production, purchasing, and import and export of PPE," according to The New York Post. The lawsuit further accused Beijing of "nationalising American factories producing PPE and hoarding protective equipment manufactured or available for sale in the US."
In his ruling on Friday, Judge Limbaugh stated, "China’s campaign to hoard the global supply of PPE was performed in conjunction with its repeated misrepresentations on the existence, and then scope and human-to-human transmissibility of, the Covid-19 virus. Plaintiff has submitted into the record substantial evidence demonstrating as much."

Judge Limbaugh further noted that "China had violated state and federal anti-monopoly laws," and by doing so, the state of Missouri "suffered significant harm in the form of lost net general tax revenue" and "heightened PPE expenditures." He added, "During the early months of the pandemic, Missouri spent millions more on PPE than it otherwise would have because of defendants’ hoarding."
According to reports, Missouri spent over $122 million more on PPE and lost more than $8 billion in tax revenue. Welcoming the ruling, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called it a "landmark ruling in the fight to hold China accountable for unleashing Covid-19 on the world." Bailey stated, "China refused to show up to court, but that doesn’t mean they get away with causing untold suffering and economic devastation. We intend to collect every penny by seizing Chinese-owned assets, including Missouri farmland."

In a tweet on Saturday, the Missouri Attorney General said, "Hey China, You owe Missouri $24 billion."
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said the Beijing government "does not and will not accept" the ruling. "The so-called lawsuit has no basis in fact, law or international precedence. China does not and will not accept it. If China’s interests are harmed, we will firmly take reciprocal countermeasures according to international law," the spokesperson said in an official statement.

The judgment comes almost six years after cases of the novel coronavirus were first detected in China in December 2019. With the virus spreading rapidly to other countries across the world, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in January 2020 and titled it as a pandemic two months later. As of February 2025, there have been 7,087,718 confirmed Covid-19 deaths across the globe, making it the fifth-deadliest pandemic or epidemic in history as reported by India Today.