China rejects WHO’s plan to study the origin of COVID-19 Reuters

Gabriel Crossley

BEIJING (Reuters)-A senior health official said that China on Thursday rejected the World Health Organization’s (WHO) plan to conduct a second phase of investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which included the hypothesis that the virus might leak from Chinese laboratories.

The World Health Organization this month proposed a second phase of research on the origin of the Chinese coronavirus, including an audit of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, and called on the authorities to increase transparency.

“We will not accept such a traceability plan because it ignores common sense and goes against science in some respects,” Zeng Yixin, deputy minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), told reporters.

Zeng said that when he read the WHO plan for the first time, he was shocked because it listed the hypothesis that China’s violation of laboratory protocols caused the virus to leak during the research process.

The head of the WHO stated in early July that due to the lack of original data on the first few days of transmission in China, investigations into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic in China have been hindered.

Mr. Zeng reiterated China’s position that due to privacy considerations, some data cannot be fully shared.

“We hope that the WHO will seriously consider the considerations and suggestions put forward by Chinese experts, truly treat the tracing of the COVID-19 virus as a scientific issue, and get rid of political interference,” Zeng said.

He said that China opposes the politicization of this research.

The origin of the virus is still disputed among experts.

The first known case appeared in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. It is believed that the virus was transmitted to humans from animals sold in urban markets.

In May, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered his assistants to find answers to questions about origins, stating that U.S. intelligence agencies are seeking theories of competitors, which may include the possibility of a Chinese laboratory accident.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the Biden administration was “deeply disappointed” by China’s decision and told reporters that “their position is irresponsible and, frankly, dangerous.”

In a press conference, he worked with other officials and Chinese experts to urge the WHO to extend the traceability work from China to other countries.

“We believe that the possibility of laboratory leakage is extremely small, and there is no need to invest more energy and effort in this area,” said Liang Wannian, the Chinese leader of the WHO Joint Expert Group. He said more animal research should be done, especially in countries with bat populations.

However, Liang said that the laboratory leakage hypothesis cannot be completely discounted, but suggested that if the evidence is assured, other countries can investigate the possibility of it leaking from their laboratories.

A key part of the laboratory leakage theory focused on the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)’s decision to offline its gene sequence and sample database in 2019.

When asked about this decision, WIV professor and director of the National Biosafety Laboratory (NYSE:) Zhiming told reporters that due to concerns about cyber attacks, these databases are currently only shared internally.