The Chinese government is more responsible for the deaths and economic struggles caused by COVID-19 than the virus itself. As such, the United States should bail out American workers, as President Trump has promised, and deduct the cost of the bailout from our debt owed to China.

Research released by the University of Southampton by Dr. Shengjie Lai found that if China had acted on Dec. 30 (when Ai Fen, a top director at Wuhan Central Hospital, and Wuhan Dr. Li Wenliang posted information about a SARS-like virus on platforms such as WeChat), the cases of the coronavirus could have been reduced by 95%. Instead, the Chinese government reprimanded the two doctors for spreading information about what turned out to be the novel coronavirus.

If the Chinese government had acted on Jan. 7, when President Xi Jinping became involved in the response, Lai’s study found that the incidence of the coronavirus would have been reduced by 85%. Instead, China insisted at that point that the disease was not contagious and let it spread outside China.

Finally, if China had begun acting when coronavirus began to spread to other nations — it was detected in Thailand on Jan. 13 — China could have reduced the number of cases by 66%. Instead, China continued its disinformation campaign, with the World Health Organization insisting that Chinese health authorities had seen “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission of the novel coronavirus.” As a result of this irresponsible cover-up, the annual Wuhan Lunar New Year banquet went forward on Jan. 18. Tens of thousands of people gathered from all over China for a potluck, which served as a breeding ground for the spread of the Wuhan Chinese coronavirus globally.

So, China’s lies did more than the virus itself to cause all the current deaths and difficulties. And even now, Chinese authorities have continued their disinformation campaign, trying to take credit for stopping the spread of coronavirus and inventing conspiracy theories about its origins. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman suggested on Twitter that the U.S. military had brought the disease to Wuhan. You can’t make this stuff up — unless you’re the Chinese government.

Negligence law is not hard to understand. It holds that anyone knowingly or negligently causing harm is liable. China caused this harm, and it was reasonably foreseeable that many people would get sick and die as a result of China’s disinformation campaign. As such, the U.S. and governments around the world should bail out their workers and their economies and send China the bill.

Jonathan Soo Hoo is a Chinese American lawyer, political consultant, and economist.