Accusations are flying between U.S. and Chinese officials over how each country is handling the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox News on Wednesday that the Chinese Communist Party has a "responsibility to tell the world how this pandemic got out of China and all across the world, causing such global economic devastation.”
The comments came after China Central Television's top evening news program questioned the accuracy of U.S. data tracking of COVID-19 infections, singling out Pompeo for “turning himself into the common enemy of mankind.”
Underlying the heated exchange is an effort by the U.S. State Department to better understand the origins of the outbreak in Wuhan.
"It's not even about the blame game," Morgan Ortagus, a spokesperson for the department, told Cheddar. "It's about us not being able to answer fundamental questions about this pandemic."
She said the agency is focused on "making sure the world has the data and the transparency that it needs, not only from the Chinese Communist Party but also from Iran, North Korea, other places."
Specifically, the department wants to confirm China's claim that the virus originated in a Wuhan wet market by sending in independent scientists to assess the data. Ortagus compared the process to the common practice of getting studies peer-reviewed by a credible source.
"It doesn't matter if it's Americans, by the way," Ortagus said. "We're happy if it's Germans, or French, or British scientists that want to go in, but no one is being allowed to go into Wuhan to investigate."
Other global leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, have called on China to allow an international investigation into the source of coronavirus.
In addition, the State Department is doing a 60 to 90-day review of the World Health Organization to determine "what information they have and don't have," she said.
"Everything that we're doing right now boils down to this: how do we prevent a pandemic of this scale from ever happening again?" Ortagus said. "We know that we can't answer that question until we get the live virus samples, until we have independent, credible scientists and doctors who are able to go into the Wuhan, into the wet markets, into the laboratories, to understand what caused this pandemic."
U.S. intelligence agencies also revealed that they are following up on speculation amplified by the White House that the pandemic may have spread from a lab accident in Wuhan, while also acknowledging that the virus appeared "not manmade or genetically modified."
Matt Hayden, vice president of govtech solutions at Exiger and a former assistant secretary of cyber at Department of Homeland Security, joined Cheddar to discuss the surprise phone call initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin to President Joe Biden, ahead of January security talks about the rising tensions over Ukraine. "We're hoping to hear that we're able to talk about the aggression and the leadup of the Ukrainian militarization," Hayden said. "But we're also looking to hear is how the Kremlin leveraged their talking points to try to test their negotiation stance with the United States leading into this January 10th meeting."
The No Surprises Act begins implementation on January 1, 2022. The legislation is meant to curb the practice of unexpected billing for care from providers the patient was unaware were out-of-network from their insurance. Patricia Kelmar, director of health care campaigns for U.S. PIRG joined Cheddar to describe the hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars charged to unsuspecting patients and how things will change under the new law. "If we are picking an in-network doctor and an in-network hospital, we should not see those added costs from anesthesiologists, radiologists, scrub-in surgeons," she said. "The other area it protects you is in air ambulances — not ground ambulances, unfortunately — but the helicopters or the airplanes you might need to transport you in an emergency situation."
President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladmir Putin are expected to have another conversation surrounding escalating tensions between Russia and Ukraine. Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, joined Cheddar's Ken Buffa to discuss the ongoing tensions and why Putin's request for a conversation with Biden comes now. "This is very serious. This is the worst security crisis we had since the collapse of the Soviet Union," Cohen told Cheddar.
Stocks closed mixed on Wednesday, but two indexes - the Dow and the S&P 500 - ended the session with a new record. Akshata Bailkeri, Equity Analyst at Bruderman Asset Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she says there is a consensus for robust consumer spreading in 2022, especially as the Omicron variant is proving to be milder than other COVID-19 strains.
John Quelch, Dean of Miami Herbert Business School, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says the retail giant is acting in accordance to President Biden's new law banning goods from China's Xinjiang region. Quelch also elaborates on the importance of China in Walmart's overall strategy.
