The lawsuit claimed China aggravated the COVID-19 pandemic by hindering the manufacture, procurement, import, and export of PPE.
It alleged that China had nationalized American factories producing PPE and had hoarded protective equipment available for sale in the US.
Missouri District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr. said, "China's campaign to hoard the global supply of PPE was performed in conjunction with its repeated misrepresentations on the existence, and then scope and human-to-human transmissibility of, the COVID-19 virus."