China upholds science-based Covid-19 origin tracing

THE Covid-19 pandemic is currently raging across the world with over 200 million people infected and 4.4 million deaths recorded. It has become the world’s most devastating infectious disease of the century.

To defeat Covid-19, we must understand the virus. China has actively engaged in origin tracing cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) since the early outbreak of Covid-19, and shared the genome sequencing of the virus at the earliest time possible.

WHO experts were also invited to conduct origin tracing research in China and the teams were given full support. They visited every site on their list and met every individual they asked for.

After that, WHO released the China-WHO Joint Study Report on Covid-19 origin tracing, which clearly concluded that a lab leak of the coronavirus is “extremely unlikely”.

The report also outlined several recommendations, including “searching for possible early Covid-19 cases around the world”, and the “necessity to study the possibility of virus transmission via cold chain”.

There is mounting evidence showing that the virus has long been lurking in human communities. Research conducted by medical institutions and experts showed that Covid-19 was detected in Europe as early as November 2019, and opined that based on the overall situation, it is obvious that the disease has multiple origins and broke out in multiple places.

It is a common understanding among the scientific community that the virus evolves in nature. On July 5, 24 internationally renowned scientists, including a well-known Malaysian virologist, published an open letter in The Lancet noting that Covid-19 generated and evolved in nature.

On July 7, scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia published a pre-print paper on Zenodo, a European research data-sharing platform, pointing out that no evidence showed that Covid-19 originated from the Wuhan labs.

Nonetheless, several countries disregarded these existing scientific evidence. Instead, they politicised the matter of science, instructed their intelligence agencies to carry out origin tracing investigations, and smeared and slandered other countries. They even threatened the WHO Secretariat and international experts.

But the voice of justice shall not be ignored. Over 80 countries, whether through letters to the WHO director-general, statements or diplomatic notes, have expressed their support for the China-WHO Joint Study Report. More than 300 political parties, organisations and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, urging it to conduct Covid-19 origin tracing research in an objective and fair manner.

The virus has no borders, nor does it recognise ethnicity. China, like other countries, is a victim of the pandemic. We all hope to find the source and stop the transmission as early as possible.

China always upholds that Covid-19 origin tracing must be based on science, and any politicisation of the origin tracing effort must be opposed.

Right now, respecting the science and advocating cooperation are the correct approaches. The purpose of virus origin-tracing is to enhance the scientific understanding of viruses, allowing us to deal with major infectious diseases better in the future. From mankind’s experience, the origin tracing of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the 2009 swine flu involved multiple disciplines and fields. The origin tracing of Covid-19 is no different.

Combating the pandemic remains our utmost priority. China has provided over 800 million doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries and international organisations. On Aug 5, President Xi Jinping announced that China would strive to provide two billion doses of vaccine to the world this year and donate US$100mil to the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) programme.

I believe that as long as the whole world stands united and works together, mankind will be able to dispel the dark clouds of the pandemic and usher in a victory soon.

OUYANG YUJING

Ambassador of China to Malaysia