Fox News:
White House National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien compared on Sunday China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to that of the Soviet Union’s reaction during the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.
“This was a virus that was unleashed by China. There was a coverup that someday they’re going to do an HBO show like they did with Chernobyl on this virus,” O’Brien said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. O’Brien was referring to the 2019 miniseries that dramatized the 1986 explosion of a reactor at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine and the response from Soviet officials.
O’Brien added that, like Soviet officials in the 1980s, Chinese officials have covered up the extent of the pandemic — which first surfaced late last year in Wuhan, the sprawling capital of Central China’s Hubei province – because “they kicked out all reporters and they wouldn’t let [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] investigators come in and they’re still stonewalling investigators.”
“It doesn’t matter if it was local officials or the Chinese Communist Party, it was a coverup and we’ll get to the bottom of it eventually,” he added.
