DeSantis slams China’s COVID-19 ‘cover-up’ in new book, says US response to CCP a ‘major failure’

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EXCLUSIVE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slammed China’s massive cover-up of the origins of COVID-19 and said the U.S. response to the Communist country’s culpability in the pandemic has been a "major failure."

DeSantis made the comments in his new memoir, "The Courage to be Free: Florida's Blueprint for American Revival," which will be released Tuesday by publisher HarperCollins. 

The book, an advance copy of which was provided to Fox News Digital, comes the same week it was reported that the U.S. Energy Department assessed that the COVID-19 pandemic likely originated from an accidental lab leak in China.

DeSantis wrote that "[t]he fact that the US government has not held the CCP accountable for its actions in covering up the origins of the coronavirus has been a major failure."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks to a crowd at the Knights of Columbus in Elmhurst, Illinois, on Feb. 20, 2023. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks to police officers in Staten Island on February 20, 2023, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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"When the coronavirus pandemic hit, it was frightening to see just how much the US is dependent on China for some of the nation’s most critical needs," he wrote. "Everything from N95 masks for medical personnel to testing supplies was made in China."

"That the US had to beg the CCP for key supplies to fight a pandemic that   originated in China was humiliating, particularly because of the CCP’s role in covering up the origins of the virus," he continued. "The initial story was that the virus originated in a wet market in Wuhan, China, but, in fact, the virus likely escaped from the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology."

"Either way, the CCP worked hard to cover up the existence and the origins of the coronavirus—to the detriment of the rest of the world," he added.

Security personnel stand guard outside the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan as members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the COVID-19 coronavirus make a visit to the institute in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on February 3, 2021.

The Energy Department, which was previously undecided on the origin of the pandemic, has joined the FBI’s stance that the coronavirus likely spread due to a mishap at a Chinese laboratory, the Wall Street Journal reported Sunday, citing a classified intelligence report recently provided to the White House and key members of Congress.

The lab leak theory, or the theory that the virus came from a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China, was widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory and "misinformation" by Democrats, major news outlets, scientists and social media companies in the early stages of the pandemic.

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