"Yes, maybe there was a little bit too much trusting of the Chinese" government by U.S. officials in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told CBS News' John Dickerson on Sunday's edition of Face the Nation.
Rice explained that given what the George W. Bush administration experienced with the Chinese government's handling of the SARS pandemic — Rice was the national security adviser at the time and told Dickerson "we couldn't get answers" from Beijing — and the threat of an avian flu outbreak in the early 2000s, in retrospect it "wasn't worth trusting that the Chinese were being transparent" about COVID-19 this time around. For example, Rice said she believes "there was too much of a tendency early on to dismiss the possibility of a laboratory leak," a theory that more experts now consider plausible.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
RFK Jr. scraps Covid shots for pregnant women, kidsSpeed Read The Health Secretary announced a policy change without informing CDC officials
-
New FDA chiefs limit Covid-19 shots to elderly, sickspeed read The FDA set stricter approval standards for booster shots
-
US overdose deaths plunged 27% last yearspeed read Drug overdose still 'remains the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18-44,' said the CDC
-
Trump seeks to cut drug prices via executive orderspeed read The president's order tells pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices, but it will likely be thrown out by the courts
-
RFK Jr.: A new plan for sabotaging vaccinesFeature The Health Secretary announced changes to vaccine testing and asks Americans to 'do your own research'
-
RFK Jr. visits Texas as 2nd child dies from measlesSpeed Read An outbreak of the vaccine-preventable disease continues to grow following a decade of no recorded US measles deaths
-
Shingles vaccine cuts dementia risk, study findsSpeed Read Getting vaccinated appears to significantly reduce the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia
-
Measles outbreak spreads, as does RFK Jr.'s influenceSpeed Read The outbreak centered in Texas has grown to at least three states and Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is promoting unproven treatments
