A COVID-19 testing site in Jiayuguan, in China’s northwestern Gansu province. AFP.
Beijing: China, which has been accused of spreading of Covid-19 from a Wuhan lab, has now asked the World Health Organization to launch a new investigation into the origins of the virus in the US.
Rejecting the recent US claims that the deadly Covid-19 escaped from a high-security virology laboratory in Wuhan, China asked the World Health Organization (WHO) to “carry out the origins-tracing study in the US, among other countries.”
China shared ‘more data’ than any other country
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently called on China and other countries across the globe to reveal all available information on the origin of Covid-19.
“WHO continues to call for China to be transparent in sharing data and to conduct the necessary investigations and share the results,” said Tedros.
Commenting on Tedros’ comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning affirmed that Beijing has “shared more data and research findings than any other country and contributed the most on origins-tracing.”
US politicising Covid-19 issue
Mao further said tracing the origins of Covid-19 is a matter of science and “this study should be and can only be conducted jointly by scientists around the world.”
“The US government has only hampered those efforts by politicising, weaponising and instrumentalising the issue,” she added.
“China hopes that the WHO Secretariat will take a science-based, objective and just position, not let politicisation get in the way, and carry out the origins-tracing study in the US, among other countries, and play a positive role in science-based global origins-tracing,” Mao said.
Hitting out at FBI Director Christopher Wray’s claims that Covid-19 “most likely” originated in a leak from Chinese lab, the Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson accused the US of “spreading myths” without “supporting evidence”.
“The allegations have only poised the atmosphere for science-based global origins-tracing,” Mao said.
The Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said WHO had already visited China on two occasions to probe the issue and concluded the leak hypothesis was “extremely unlikely,” but no similar investigation had been carried out in the US.
US never invited WHO expert groups to the US
Mao claimed that the US has been ignoring science-based conclusions and recommendations and has instead been putting pressure on WHO into repeatedly demanding origins-tracing in China.
“It is quite clear what the US is trying to achieve,” Mao said, adding, “While claiming to take origins-tracing seriously, the US has never invited WHO expert groups to the US for joint study, or shared any early data. Instead, it has turned a blind eye to the world’s concerns about US bio-military bases at Fort Detrick and around the world.”
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