Send China the COVID-19 Bill

The government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) bears primary responsibility for the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if the virus itself developed naturally, the PRC’s actions in the early days of the outbreak guaranteed that the world would never have any real chance of stopping it.

First they denied that anything was happening. Then, when they couldn’t deny it anymore, they lied about how serious it was and refused to let outside experts join the investigation or have access to critical data. They used their corrupting influence to undermine the World Health Organization, which became little more than a public relations mouthpiece for the Chinese regime’s lies. Even now, the PRC refuses to cooperate in any meaningful way with investigators trying to analyze how this all happened—how a bat virus conquered the world—and how we can stop it from happening again.

There’s no way to know if the SARS-CoV-2 virus could have been contained in Wuhan. Perhaps, if China had done everything right and the world had been able to impose travel restrictions months earlier than they did, we might have been able to prevent all of this. And if containment was truly impossible, we would at least have bought some more time . . . time to prepare, time to develop the vaccines, and time to learn how to protect the most vulnerable populations without shutting everything down.

The world needs to hold China responsible. But it won’t. As the pandemic comes to its ignominious, whimpering end, that much is clear. So let’s do the next best thing. Let’s send our individual bills to China. Here’s a fillable PDF form you can use:

Fill it out with the COVID-19 related costs that you have incurred over the last two years, add your name and address for payment (which you will assuredly never receive), and mail it off to China. Here’s the address:

First Class International postage is only $1.30 (packs of ten international stamps are available from the United States Postal Service online store).

Obviously you’ll never see any money from the Chinese government. Don’t get your hopes up. And don’t blame me if this gets you put on some list. But, if nothing else, it sends a message. And the more of us who do it, the louder that message will be. We know who’s responsible. And we aren’t going to forget it.