CHINESE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OPPOSE THE US FABRICATION OF FALSE REPORT ON COVID-19 ORIGIN-TRACING AND CALL ON SCIENTIFIC ORIGIN-TRACING

For some time, the United States, in an attempt to divert responsibility for its botched COVID-19 response and out of its political motive to smear and suppress other countries, has devoted considerable resources to politicising the pandemic, stigmatising the virus and deploying origin-tracing as a tool. These attempts have done grave harm to a science-based origin-tracing and the global fight against COVID-19.

Origin-tracing is a complex scientific matter that requires science-based cooperation. The United States, however, in an attempt to substantiate its predetermined conclusion of a lab leak, has blatantly discarded scientific method for research and brazenly instructed its Intelligence Community to come up with a conclusion on the origins of the virus within 90 days. According to information disclosed by media and other resources, despite the whole-of-government endeavour by the United States, no substantial evidence or scientific backing has been found to prove that “the virus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV)”. Yet the United States is still cooking up misleading conclusions with a patchwork of disinformation and playing the tricks of “presumption of guilt” as a pretext to smear and contain China.

As China has made it clear on many occasions, none of the staff or post-graduate students at the WIV have ever contracted COVID-19, nor has the WIV conducted any gain-of-function research on coronaviruses. There is no so-called man-made virus. The United States, while turning a blind eye to the conclusions of the joint WHO-China study report, has been hyping up the theory that “the virus was leaked from the WIV”, citing groundless intelligence information or words of certain officials with no solid evidences. Such moves aim to scapegoat China, and even more so to deflect attention and cover up earlier cases in the United States and the truth of its suspicion-shrouded biological laboratories.

According to media reports, Fort Detrick was closed for security reasons in August 2019, which preluded a mysterious outbreak of EVALI in the United States. It was also as early as in 2019 when the US military carried the novel coronavirus to Europe through a blood programme and the earliest victims were some civilian volunteers who entered the US base in Italy in August of the same year. Besides all these, it is the United States that has set up over 200 biological laboratories around the world to conduct bio-military activities under various names. The regions where US labs locate are prone to more outbreaks of diseases such as plague, anthrax and MERS. China, together with countries of the world, is a victim of the COVID-19 outbreak. It is our shared hope to locate the source of the virus as soon as possible so as to stem the transmission of the epidemic. However, it is also a widely shared consensus of the international community that origin-tracing should never involve any malicious frame-up or presumption of guilt for political purposes. If the United States does care about the global origins tracing issue, it should respond as soon as possible to the doubts of the international community, release and review the data of earlier cases in the United States, invite WHO experts to investigate Fort Detrick, its more than 200 biological laboratories overseas and the University of North Carolina, and release the data concerning the sickened American military athletes who attended the World Military Games in Wuhan. What the United States should do is to give the world a clear explanation and help solve the mystery of the virus as soon as possible. In a word, the US should not make itself a blind spot in the global origin-tracing.

The political manipulation of origin-tracing by the United States has been widely rejected by the international community. As of now, nearly 80 countries, in the form of letters to the WHO Director-General, statements and notes, have stressed that tracing the origins of the virus is a scientific matter which should not be politicised, and the joint WHO-China study report should be upheld. More than 300 political parties, social organisations and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions have submitted to the WHO Secretariat a joint statement, calling for the WHO to carry out global origin-tracing study in an objective and fair manner, and to stand resolutely against the politicisation of the issue. More and more experts and scholars have also spoken out against the spread of political virus by the United States. 

China always supports and will continue to take part in the origins tracing efforts, but we will firmly say no to the politicisation of this issue and political manipulation. Origin-tracing of COVID-19 is a complicated scientific issue which should and must be studied by global scientists. Viruses and pandemics know no borders or races. China stands ready to work with all parties to uphold the right direction of science-based origin-tracing, strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation, and make positive contributions towards the ultimate victory of humanity over the pandemic.

Chinese Medical Association

30 August 2021