GOP senators: Halt travel with China to stop ‘mystery illness’

Key Facts

| Ng Han Guan/AP Five Republican senators wrote to President Joe Biden on Friday, asking him to restrict travel to and from China until more is known about a surge in cases of pneumonia among children there.
The senators said a travel ban was needed because of China’s “long history of lying about public health crises” and because of the World Health Organization’s “slavish deference” to the country’s rulers.
The WHO last month requested information on the outbreak, then held a teleconference with Chinese authorities in which officials said the pneumonia was caused by a common bacteria, mycoplasma, as well as seasonal viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus, adenovirus and the flu.
They said it was likely that China, which only ended its Covid-19 lockdowns in January, was experiencing the same return of seasonal respiratory diseases that the U.S. and other nations did earlier.