The class action suit brought by the Berman Law Group in Florida against the Chinese Communist Party has so far signed up 10,000 people, including grieving family members of those who have died after contracting COVID-19 and healthcare workers who have suffered as a result of a lack of personal protective equipment.

Jeremy Alters, the chief strategist behind the lawsuit in Florida, told 60 Minutes getting China to pay up is about taking accountability for the tragic human and economic devastated that has crippled the world.

China President Xi Jinping (Nine)

"We are now in the depth of this economic and human crisis that could have been mostly prevented, if not all prevented," Alters told 60 Minutes reporter Tara Brown.

"This lawsuit is based on the fact that [China] knew about this virus. They failed to contain the virus. They failed to let us know in a timely fashion about the virus and have unleashed hell on our communities, on our countries, the United States, Australia and everywhere else."

For New Yorker Lorraine Caggiano, one of the members of the class action case, the affect of the coronavirus has been profound and brutal. Ten members of her family contracted COVID-19, including herself.

On the 25th of March, Lorraine's elderly aunt Isabella Rizzo succumbed to the virus. Then just 52 hours later, Lorraine's dad Nick Caggiano died alone in hospital.

Ten members of Lorraine's family contracted COVID-19, including herself. (Nine)

Lorraine says knowing her father was alone and frightened in his final days has broken her heart.

"It was happening in China… I really never dreamed that it would affect me in such a way or my country or the world. Everywhere you turn, people that we know we here are dying," she told Brown.

Lorraine says her family joined the class action not for money but as a symbolic action for "the truth."

"I put my name there to say I'm fighting back against this," she said.

"For… the truth for my dad, for my aunt, for my friend, Helen, who died yesterday. Just the truth. And then after that, that measures are put into place where this can never happen again."

Jeremy Alters, the chief strategist behind the lawsuit in Florida, says China should pay up. (Nine)

The Berman Law Group has clearly tapped into not just the overwhelming grief many are experiencing after losing loved ones to COVID-19 – but also a deep well of anger.

"Nothing we can do will ever bring the members of Lorraine's family back from this tragic, tragic outcome," Jeremy Alters told 60 Minutes.

"But we hope to be able to gain compensation for them to help them get on with their lives the best way they can, and to try to put people back to normal."

While critics of the class action say the chances of the case ending up in a court room are slim, Jeremy Alters says he is confident in the suit and the existing legal precedent that allows it.

"The chances are not nil. They are very good. We will be able to pursue this in court and it will be up to our judge or judges," he said.

"And at some point, bring China to bear so that they have to pay for what they've done."

(Nine)

While Australia can't be a part of the legal process in the United States, as it's brought under domestic legislation, there are still legal avenues at the international level available to our nation.

There's even talk of China facing a Nuremberg-style hearing to investigate its role in this disaster.

"The Health Assembly… has the power to do something that I think is really valuable, and that is to set up an investigation into what truly happened to let this virus get out of control," Queensland Liberal Senator Amanda Stoker told Tara Brown.

The Senator also believes Australia needs to be part of a global push to force the Chinese Government to turn over its records to reveal when it knew and what it knew about the coronavirus threat.

Queensland Liberal Senator Amanda Stoker (Nine)

"The Chinese government have practice of taking those parts of international law that work for them, and rejecting those where they might have to meet an obligation," she said.

"The nations of the world have the power to establish, through the International Court of Justice, an inquiry. There'd need to be international will to do that."

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