Class Action: Medical Professionals Fighting COVID-19 Allege China ‘Hoarding and Stockpiling’ Essential Protective Equipment

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A coterie of healthcare professionals has filed a proposed class action lawsuit in which the individuals allege the People’s Republic of China has harmed those combatting the COVID-19 crisis on the frontlines by “hoarding and stockpiling” protective equipment and forbidding Chinese factories from exporting safety gear to the United States.

According to the 20-page complaint out of Florida, millions of nurses, paramedics, EMTs, doctors and other medical workers face a shortage of personal protective equipment that can be “directly traced to the actions” of China and its communist party. The case alleges that the defendants, “acting from their own economic self-interest and protection of their place as an economic super-power,” actively concealed the COVID-19 outbreak in its earliest stages and failed to contain the crisis “despite knowing the seriousness of the situation.” 

As the United States grapples with its response to the pandemic, front-line medical professionals working within the country’s overtaxed healthcare infrastructure face a shortage of medical-grade face masks, face and eye shields and other protective garments and accessories that can prevent respiratory droplets from reaching the eyes, nose and mouth and thereby slow the spread of the illness, the lawsuit says. Many have been forced to improvise with makeshift protective equipment, the case asserts, or reuse gear meant for only one-time or limited use, while others forego using protective equipment at all. 

Leaning on an April 3 New York Times write-up detailing what two reporters describe as China’s concerted and deliberate effort to both buy up and withhold as much of the world’s protective medical equipment and respirator supplies as available, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants began to hoard protective equipment “just as the world was beginning to see the danger of the coming pandemic.” According to the Times, executives from U.S. manufacturers such as 3M and Honeywell, who run manufacturing facilities in China, stated the country began blocking exports of N95 respirators, booties, gloves and other medical supplies as early as January 2020.

According to the lawsuit, China’s “effective control” of the protective medical supply market means the country can now charge higher prices for equipment desperately needed by front-line healthcare workers. The plaintiffs allege China’s “deliberate and egregious” conduct has resulted in “deaths, infections, and other physical harm” to medical providers worldwide. 

The plaintiffs propose to cover a class of all medical providers—those, including EMTs and paramedics, who provide in-person healthcare services in hospitals or other urgent care settings—in the U.S. who have been unable to acquire proper or adequate protective medical equipment, treated COVID-19 patients and suffered injury as a result.

Two of the suit’s five plaintiffs have tested positive for COVID-19, while the others await test results, the lawsuit says.

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