China Rejects WHO’s Plan to Probe Wuhan Lab Leak
Friday, 23 July 2021 | PTI | Beijing
China on Thursday categorically rejected the WHO’s plan for the second phase of coronavirus origin-tracing in Wuhan, especially to probe the lab leak theory, as it dismissed reports that some of the employees of the facility were infected with the deadly virus before it spread to the city and the world.China will not follow the World Health Organisation’s suggested plan on the second phase of COVID-19 origin-tracing, Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), told a media briefing here.
The work plan on the second-phase origins study proposed by the WHO contains language that does not respect science, he said.
China’s broadside against the WHO and its Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who previously won Beijing’s praise and support for praising President Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus, came after he asked China to be transparent and provide raw data.
“Asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic. We owe it to the millions who suffered and the millions who died to know what happened,” he had said.
State-run Global Times reported that the WHO on Friday last proposed a second phase study into the origins of the coronavirus in China, which includes all the laboratories and markets in Wuhan.
Zeng said the plan has listed the hypothesis that China had violated lab regulations and leaked the virus as one of the major research objectives, and he was “very shocked” after reading the proposal, state-run China Daily reported.
Instead, the next-phase origin tracing should focus on various regions and countries, he said, reiterating Beijing’s oft-repeated claim that the coronavirus broke out in several places in the world and China was the first to report about it in December, 2019 when it emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Zeng said he was shocked by the WHO’s work plan as it has been compromised by political manipulation and disrespect of scientific facts.
He said China had allowed the WHO experts to visit all places they wanted to go and meet all people they wanted to see early this year, adding that the results of the WHO-China joint study are able to stand the test of time.
“We hope the WHO can carefully consider the advice by Chinese scientists, take investigating the origin of the COVID-19 virus as a scientific question free from political interference,” the vice minister said.
(Source : PTI & The Pioneer)
China on Thursday categorically rejected the WHO’s plan for the second phase of coronavirus origin-tracing in Wuhan, especially to probe the lab leak theory, as it dismissed reports that some of the employees of the facility were infected with the deadly virus before it spread to the city and the world.
China will not follow the World Health Organisation’s suggested plan on the second phase of COVID-19 origin-tracing, Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), told a media briefing here.
The work plan on the second-phase origins study proposed by the WHO contains language that does not respect science, he said.
China’s broadside against the WHO and its Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who previously won Beijing’s praise and support for praising President Xi Jinping’s handling of the coronavirus, came after he asked China to be transparent and provide raw data.
“Asking actually China to be transparent, open and cooperate, especially on the information, raw data that we asked for at the early days of the pandemic. We owe it to the millions who suffered and the millions who died to know what happened,” he had said.
State-run Global Times reported that the WHO on Friday last proposed a second phase study into the origins of the coronavirus in China, which includes all the laboratories and markets in Wuhan.
Zeng said the plan has listed the hypothesis that China had violated lab regulations and leaked the virus as one of the major research objectives, and he was “very shocked” after reading the proposal, state-run China Daily reported.
Instead, the next-phase origin tracing should focus on various regions and countries, he said, reiterating Beijing’s oft-repeated claim that the coronavirus broke out in several places in the world and China was the first to report about it in December, 2019 when it emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.
Zeng said he was shocked by the WHO’s work plan as it has been compromised by political manipulation and disrespect of scientific facts.
He said China had allowed the WHO experts to visit all places they wanted to go and meet all people they wanted to see early this year, adding that the results of the WHO-China joint study are able to stand the test of time.
“We hope the WHO can carefully consider the advice by Chinese scientists, take investigating the origin of the COVID-19 virus as a scientific question free from political interference,” the vice minister said.
(Source : PTI & The Pioneer)
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