Yang Wangming

As the pandemic registers another wave of spread due to the Delta option, stronger international alliance is becoming increasingly necessary to tackle the pandemic and is pushing scientific parameters to track the origins of the virus to avert potential risks and prepare for a possible major infection. – a large-scale health crisis in the future.

Following the vision of a common future for the community, China has shared its experience of prevention and control with the international community since the beginning of the pandemic, offered all possible assistance in the fight against Covid-19, and spearheaded the largest global vaccine collaboration initiative. To date, China has provided over 800 million doses to over a hundred countries, contributing to global public health security. At the same time, the investigation into the origin of this virus is also among the priorities of the Chinese government, which from the first moment notified WHO of the outbreak and provided the genetic sequence of the pathogen, and also invited WHO experts to field research in China on two cases.

The report on a joint China-WHO study published in March this year presented the public with the most reliable, professional and scientific findings, including that a laboratory leak is “extremely unlikely” and, moreover, “not related to business “. Until December 2019, an outbreak of the disease was detected in Wuhan. ” In addition, the document contains specific recommendations such as “continue to search for early cases on a wider global scale”. These statements and proposals, made in accordance with WHO procedures and scientific methods, have received universal recognition and respect from the international community and academia. Chinese experts have also taken the initiative to submit to WHO a proposal from China for a second phase of work, requesting research in multiple countries and in multiple locations, based on the final reports of the first phase. Such research must be consistent with the resolution of the World Health Assembly, conducted primarily by scientists and be evidence-based.

China has always supported and will continue to participate in the investigation into the origin of the virus, while rejecting any attempts to politicize and manipulate the issue. These works are strictly related to the field of science. Thus, the determination of the zoonotic origin of the virus and the route of transmission of the virus from animal to person depends only on scientists. It is regrettable to see any single country acting contrary to scientific common sense, fabricating intelligence information without factual justification, and preparing reports based entirely on lies. He assumes the blame of the other, speculates on the alleged “laboratory leak” and even threatens and restrains academics and researchers. This violates the independence of WHO’s actions and pursues the political goal of discrediting and putting pressure on other countries. Meanwhile, it says nothing about the progress in the chronology of the first cases and strong suspicions about the safety of various biological laboratories. These dastardly actions seriously poison the objective and impartial investigative environment and undermine the efforts and solidarity of the international community to combat the pandemic. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief of The Lancet, said that “a pandemic of conspiracy theories about the origin of the virus could be as dangerous as a pandemic caused by the virus itself.”

Given the continued complexity and severity of the global epidemic, the use of tracing the origin of the virus for political maneuvers has been widely questioned and denied by the international community. More than 300 political parties, civil society organizations and think tanks from more than 100 countries and territories recently submitted a joint statement to the WHO secretariat, in which they express their support for the joint China-WHO study on this issue and their strong opposition to attempts at politicization. Topic. Many experts, academics and the media in Brazil have also defended the same position.

The virus knows no boundaries and the pandemic is affecting everyone. China, like any other country, is also a victim of this health crisis and is therefore willing to work with everyone to steer the tracking work in the right direction and to combat political manipulation that stigmatizes the virus and makes it easier to investigate its origins. … Together, let us make our positive contribution to the final victory of humankind over this disease.

* Ambassador of China to Brazil