Although Hua Chunying, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, urged Rick Scott on Monday, to present his evidence, telling him "there is no need to be shy," so far the US senator has been too bashful to do so.

Or perhaps it is because the allegation the US senator made in an interview with the BBC a day earlier is another of the red herrings that some in the US are employing to set Beijing up as the sort of criminal mastermind beloved of Hollywood.

Although claiming "we have evidence" that China is trying to sabotage or slow down the US research on a COVID-19 vaccine, he was clearly not expecting the anchor, who was "stunned" by his "bombshell claims", to express skepticism and ask him what evidence he had, talking vaguely about "there's things I can't discuss ... I get provided information."

It turns out that the information Scott was referring to, as his spokesperson later clarified, was a May announcement from the Federal Bureau of Investigation to "raise awareness of the threat to COVID-19 related research", and a joint advisory issued by the security departments of the United States and the United Kingdom regarding groups targeting organizations involved in COVID-19 responses.

Neither of these two sources supported his fingering of China as a malevolent agent.

Perhaps feeling discomfited at being caught red-handed making such baseless charges, the senator opted to go all in against China calling it "an adversary" of "freedom-loving people" — and why bother offering evidence, if the White House doesn't need to, why should he?

Considering Scott and six other Republican senators introduced a bill last month intended to prevent China from "stealing or sabotaging American COVID-19 vaccine research", his allegations are nothing new. But perhaps he is so keen to wrap himself in the red, white and blue at the moment because an earlier tweet brought him some unwelcome publicity.

"I'm sickened to hear reports that nursing homes are stealing stimulus checks from seniors," he tweeted after the Federal Trade Commission issued a warning about what was happening. "It's disgusting that anyone would EVER take from our most vulnerable, especially during a crisis."

Which prompted people to point out that he might know a thing or two about defrauding vulnerable people, as in the 1990s his for-profit healthcare company was at the center of one of the largest Medicare and Medicaid fraud cases in history.

While Scott will no doubt continue to brashly smear China while shyly hiding his reasons, there is plenty of evidence to show that there are numerous collaborations worldwide, including those between China and the US, working diligently to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. And China has gone on record a number of times saying it will share any vaccine it develops.

It seems that the political anti-China virus that has infected so many in the US is going to display a lot of different symptoms.