Eric Schmitt, the Attorney General of Missouri, has said the “Show-Me” state will hold China to account for “the enormous death, suffering, and economic losses they inflicted on the world, including Missourians”.

However, legal experts have said the lawsuit has little chance of success under US federal law, which generally prohibits lawsuits against other countries.

Any US lawsuit targeting China “will be dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds, among other likely bases for dismissal”, international law professor Chimène Keitner recently wrote.

She told The Guardian: “The legal problem is it’s just not possible.”

Missouri has nearly 6,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and has seen 189 deaths. There are over 855,000 confirmed cases across the entire US and nearly 48,000 have died.