VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

• Code of Virginia
• Virginia Administrative Code
• Constitution of Virginia
• Charters
• Authorities
• Compacts
• Uncodified Acts
• RIS Users (account required)

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

• Bills & Resolutions
  session legislation
• Bill Summaries
  session summaries
• Reports to the General Assembly
  House and Senate documents
• Legislative Liaisons
  State agency contacts

ACROSS SESSIONS

• Subject Index: Since 1995
• Bills & Resolutions: Since 1994
• Summaries: Since 1994

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2021 SESSION

• history | pdf | print version

21102379D
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 237 Offered January 15, 2021 Expressing the sense of the House of Delegates in condemning the Chinese Communist Party for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic. ---------- Patrons-- Miyares and Freitas ---------- Referred to Committee on Rules ----------

WHEREAS, the COVID-19 virus emerged in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, where the virus spread rapidly through the community and, within weeks of the first reports of the virus reaching the United States, through the entire world; by March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic; and

WHEREAS, as the governing party of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese Communist Party is responsible for the well-being of its citizens; as one of the largest political powers in the world, the Chinese Communist Party's actions are of global consequence; and

WHEREAS, the severity of the COVID-19 virus became quickly apparent to the medical workers who witnessed it firsthand in the earliest stages of the outbreak, but under the power of the Chinese Communist Party, an atmosphere of fear and secrecy caused the truth of the severity of the crisis to be suppressed until the outbreak was too large to contain; and

WHEREAS, it is believed that the numbers of infections and deaths from the COVID-19 virus in China were underreported, and information concerning the virus was concealed by the Chinese Communist Party, leaving other nations unprepared to deal with the crisis; and

WHEREAS, the pandemic has taken a direct toll on the citizens of Virginia; the effects of the loss of life due to the pandemic are incalculable, and the far-reaching consequences of the widespread loss of livelihood that occurred in the economic downturn of 2020 will take years to recover from; and

WHEREAS, according to the 2020 State of the Commonwealth Report from Old Dominion University's Strome College of Business, prior to the pandemic, Virginia had experienced 11 consecutive quarters of economic growth and, between February 2010 and February 2020, had added 502,000 jobs; April 2020 saw the furloughing or loss of 438,000 jobs, and while nearly half of those jobs were recovered by the end of 2020, hundreds of thousands of Virginians remain unemployed as a direct result of the pandemic, and job growth remains slow; and

WHEREAS, the report found that existing economic disparities were exacerbated, and the pandemic's toll on Black and Hispanic communities was disproportionately large, as those communities experienced higher death rates, higher job losses, and a greater toll on mental health due to increased rates of anxiety and depression; and

WHEREAS, the effects of the continued disruption of education may set the Commonwealth's students back for years to come; the effects of the pandemic have reached every generation and every community of Virginians; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Delegates hereby condemn the Chinese Communist party for its role in the COVID-19 pandemic; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates transmit a copy of this resolution to the President of the United States, the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the members of the Virginia delegation to the United States Congress in order that they may be apprised of the sense of the Virginia House of Delegates in this matter.