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A group of medical professionals have filed a class action lawsuit against China, claiming the country is stockpiling Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the coronavirus pandemic.
The plaintiffs say that China is forbidding factories, including those owned by United States companies, from sending PPE to the United States.
The virus started in China in late 2019 and due to the defendant’s deliberate acts of concealing information about the coronavirus, COVID-19 quickly spread to other continents, such as Asia, Europe, and North America, the plaintiffs allege.
The medical workers claim that China’s conduct of hoarding PPE has caused harm to them and these injuries will increase in the upcoming days and weeks.
Two of the named plaintiffs in this action have reportedly tested positive for the coronavirus and the others are waiting for their results.
Do you know of a company stockpiling PPE products? Get legal help by clicking here.
China acted in their own self interests and their place as an economic superpower and actively concealed the outbreak of the coronavirus during the early stages of the pandemic and did not contain the virus even though they knew how serious the situation was, according to the coronavirus class action lawsuit.
The medical employees say that PPE equipment includes face masks, face and eye shields and other garments that are used to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.
On April 3, The New York Times published an article about the fact that China purportedly bought up as much of the world’s inventory of PPE and respirators, but also prevented its factories from exporting PPE, just as they were finding out about the dangers of the coronavirus.
The China class action lawsuit also maintains that in January, the country began blocking United States companies, such as 3M and Honeywell from exporting important products such as N95 respirators, booties, gloves, and other PPE equipment that are produced in factories in China.
According to the plaintiffs, China also began “cornering the market” on PPE, by importing 2.46 billion pieces of protective clothing between Jan. 24 and Feb. 29. These items reportedly include 2 billion masks and more than 25 million “protective clothing items” that came from countries such as the European Union, Brazil, and Cambodia.
“Thus, just as the world was beginning to see the danger of the upcoming pandemic, China — which already knew it had actively concealed the dangers of the virus from the world — was hoarding the world’s supply of PPE, including gloves, goggles, and masks, through these massive increased purchases,” the China class action lawsuit states.
In addition, the workers maintain that China censored doctors from speaking out about the coronavirus and its dangers, and downplayed the seriousness of the situation even after the first death on Jan. 9, 2020.
The medical workers allege that China was obligated to promptly report accurate numbers and other information to the World Health Organization (WHO) when they learned how lethal the virus was, but the country failed to do so.
Additionally, the plaintiffs state that hospitals in the United States are beyond capacity with patients and are unable to provide healthcare to those who need it.
The New York Times reported on Jan. 6 that New York City may have to resort to mass graves in order to keep up with the vast amounts of people who are dying from COVID-19.
The medical professionals allege that Florida will soon become a hotspot for the virus as it spreads across the country and that state will be highly susceptible to the virus because of its substantial elderly population.
The WHO has reported COVID-19 is transported between people via “respiratory droplets and contact routes” which can occur when a person is between three to six feet of someone who is experiencing symptoms of the virus, according to the China class action lawsuit.
The plaintiffs say that there is not enough PPE for the front-line doctors, nurses, paramedics, and EMTs who are risking their lives to treat the high number of individuals who are coming down with the virus.
“These deliberate and egregious acts, or at least negligent acts, have caused the deaths, infections, and other physical harms of medical providers throughout the world and within the United State and Florida, who have lacked proper and adequate PPE due to Defendants’ conduct.”
Prospective Class Members include: “All medical providers, as defined herein, in the United States who have been unable to procure proper or adequate PPE, treated COVID-19 infected patients, and suffered injury, damage, and loss as a result.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Matthew T. Moore and Vincent J. Duffy of The Law Offices of Berman & Berman PA.
The China Coronavirus Class Action Lawsuit is Moriah Aharon, et al. v. Chinese Communist Party, et al., Case No. 9:20-cv-80604, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
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