It is going to take some time before the full impact of the coronavirus outbreak will be known on the U.S. economy, or even if the virus will peak or if it will spread, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said Monday.
"There are companies that are going back to work in China as we speak," Navarro told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo. "At the White House, we've got a crack task force working day and night on this issue, to protect Americans."
He adde, in addition to working on fighting the coronavirus issue, the U.S. will also need to examine its foreign dependence on medical equipment, supplies, and pharmaceuticals needed not only to treat the new deadly Chinese outbreak but also other issues in the United States.
"What we need to do is think about how we can get our pharmaceutical production back onshore and cheap," Navarro said.
So far, at least 910 people are dead and 40,000 ill worldwide from the novel coronavirus, which has caused companies from the United States and around the world to reduce operations and governments to ground flights to and from China.
The White House warned last week, the extra $200 billion of purchases China agreed to in phase one of the U.S.-China trade deal will be delayed because of the disease's spread.
Meanwhile, China will "have to be held accountable" for how the new coronavirus strain started, Navarro said.
"Fourteen years ago, when a book, 'The Coming China Wars' that I wrote, I predicted a pandemic from virus from China, precisely because of the way they run their country," Navarro said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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