With over 39,000 American lives lost forever due to the COVID-19 pandemic — 13 times more than the savage terror attacks on Sept. 11 — multiple reports at Fox News point to China’s sloppy handling of a lethal pathogen in a virology institute in the city of Wuhan as the most likely cause.

Combined with clear evidence of Beijing’s coverup of the severity of the virus — even going to great lengths to silence its own experts who tried to warn an unsuspecting population — it is only the scale of China’s responsibility in the current coronavirus that is up for debate.

While a comprehensive investigation is being conducted at the highest levels of the Trump administration to ascertain the facts, it is not too early for Washington to consider how it will respond.