Pompeo Calls on Countries to Provide ‘Transparent’ CCP Virus Information to Save Lives

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a media briefing at the State Department in Washington in a file photograph. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times)

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said other countries should ramp up efforts to share “transparent” information about the CCP virus as the world battles the new illness from China.

Trump administration officials need data from Italy, China, and Iran, Pompeo told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday night.

“We need every country to step up and provide accurate, transparent information. And if we can’t have that, if we have disinformation instead, there are more lives that will be at risk not only today but in the weeks ahead as we battle this enormous challenge,” he said.

When other countries share information with the United States, America will then share information it has, Pompeo said. “And we’ll keep people safe not only here in the United States but all across the world,” he said.

Internal documents obtained by The Epoch Times show the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has repeatedly skewed figures on how widespread the pandemic is inside the country. It falsely claimed recently that there were no new cases in Wuhan, where the illness emerged last year.

A woman wearing a face mask opens a makeshift barricade wall built to control entry and exit to a residential compound in Wuhan, China on March 31, 2020. (Getty Images)

Pompeo and other American officials have become increasingly vocal about Beijing’s disinformation push, which includes propaganda about the origins of the virus.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday in Washington, Pompeo said he would leave the analysis of specific datasets released by China to health professionals.

Pompeo told Hannity that the United States still wants to cooperate with China “to get the right information so that we can do all that’s needed to find therapeutics, to find a vaccine, to do everything we can to reduce the risk that there will be more lives lost as the world moves forward.”

Figures from Iran, one of the most affected countries in the world, have been widely questioned by experts. Iranian leaders declined an American offer of humanitarian assistance but the offer still stands, according to the secretary of state.

“Sadly, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s regime, the leadership, has rejected those offers of humanitarian assistance from us here in America. It’s really unfortunate for the Iranian people. There will be Iranians who die,” he said.