New Delhi: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday slammed the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for continuing to spread disinformation regarding Covid-19, and obstructing the investigation of the World Health Organization (WHO) in finding out the origin and spread of the virus.

In a press statement, Pompeo said: “Even today, nearly a year after the world first learned of the outbreak, the CCP is still spreading disinformation regarding the virus and obstructing a WHO investigation into its origin and spread. It is also peddling vaccines that lack essential data on safety and efficacy, due to a fundamental disregard for transparency and accountability regarding results from clinical trials. Both actions put Chinese citizens, and the world, at risk.”

He further pointed out that the CCP has punished scientists, doctors and journalists who tried to alert the world to the dangers of the virus, which allowed a ‘controllable outbreak’ to become a global pandemic.

The Secretary of State also called for other nations to demand transparency from Beijing regarding the origin of Covid-19, adding that if not done, China’s record of public health crises makes another future pandemic originating from the country ‘depressingly likely’.

“Time and again, democracies that value transparency, the rule of law, property rights, and free-market capitalism have produced innovative solutions to public health crises. Freedom unleashes human potential, and competition spurs better outcomes, at lower costs. In contrast, authoritarian regimes control information and stifle innovation,” he said.

China has been criticised widely across the world for its alleged role in the spread of the novel coronavirus that has infected over 75 million people across the world. More than 1.6 million people have lost their lives to the virus.

While some accuse it of being complicit, others deem it culpable in the spread.