China opposes US intel probe into COVID-19; says 'origin-tracing a scientific question'

With the United States and the United Kingdom pushing hard for the disclosure of facts around the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China on Monday blamed countries for politicizing the origins-tracing work. Addressing the media, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Wang Wenbin, said that the origin tracing of COVID-19 is a scientific question, and should not be dictated by the intelligence staff of other countries. 

"COVID19 origin-tracing work is a scientific question that should not be politicized, but some countries have even asked intelligence staff to look into the matter," said Wenbin, refuting US and UK’s hype of the matter. 

Earlier in the day, through yet another editorial in the Chinese mouthpiece Global Times, China hit out at the US. Citing the Australian and Dutch representatives on the World Health Organization (WHO)'s investigation team that visited Wuhan, the editorial stated that the investigating team concluded that there was no evidence to back up the 'lab leak' theory. Additionally, China also hit out at the US intelligence agencies and stated that they do no possess the research capabilities as compared to the WHO, and also blamed the US intelligence agencies for giving the issue a political angle. It said that it was all being done as a part of its anti-China campaign.

US, UK pushing for Phase-2 study in the origin of COVID-19 

On Thursday, the US diplomatic mission in Geneva issued a statement saying the first phase of the study was insufficient and inconclusive and called for a timely, transparent, evidence-based, and expert-led Phase 2 study, including in the People's Republic of China. The statement coming in the middle of the WHO's annual assembly in Geneva demanded access for independent experts to complete, original data and samples relevant to the source of the virus and early stages of the outbreak.

Backing the US, the UK also went to demand for the second phase of study the same day. UK's ambassador in Geneva, Simon Manley, said the first phase study was always meant to be the beginning of the process, not the end. "We call for a timely, transparent, evidence-based, and expert-led phase two study, including in the People's Republic of China, as recommended by the experts' report", he said.

US President Joe Biden orders intelligence agencies to investigate COVID-19 origin

Before pushing for a Phase-2 study in the origin of COVID-19 in front of WHO, US President Joe Biden informed that he had directed the US intelligence agencies to investigate the origins of the COVID-19, and asked them to 'redouble' their effort and submit a report in 90 days. He also recollected that back in 2020, he had urged the United States CDC to gain access to China in order to 'learn' more about the virus so that it can be combated more effectively.  

It is pertinent to mention here that WHO and Chinese experts issued the first report in March that laid out four hypotheses about how the pandemic emerged. The joint team said that the most likely scenario was that the coronavirus jumped into people from bats via an intermediary animal, and the prospect that it erupted from a laboratory was deemed extremely unlikely. However, the WHO acknowledged that further studies were needed on issues like early detection of cases and clusters, and the possible roles of animal markets, transmission through the food chain, and the lab-incident hypothesis. 

With new reports coming in, in the past few days, like the recent  Wall Street report, which claimed three researchers from China's Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sought hospital care after they fell sick in November 2019, many countries across the world, including the US, the UK, and India are skeptical and are pushing for independent or second-phase of study of WHO into the origin of the virus. 

What do experts believe?

In an exclusive conversation with Republic Media Network,  reputed science author and journalist Nicholas Wade asserted that if the SARS2 virus was naturally occurring, it would have left evidence for this in the environment, just as SARS1 and MERS had. In more scientific terms, Wade also asserted that the extent to which COVID-19 was adapted to infect humans lends itself more to a man-made hypothesis rather than if it were naturally occurring.

(Credit-AP/PTI)