India Supports U.S. Further Investigation into Origin of New Coronavirus

The Hindustan Times today quoted Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi as saying that the global study convened by the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate the origin of the new coronavirus “is an important first step,” but more data and research are needed to reach a reliable conclusion. But more data and research are needed before reliable conclusions can be drawn.

According to a Central News Agency report today, U.S. President Joe Biden called for further investigation into the origin of the new coronavirus, and India publicly supported it yesterday, noting that the WHO convened a global study to investigate the origin of the virus and further studies to follow. Without naming China, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Bagchi said the follow-up and further study of the WHO’s proposed investigation report deserves the understanding and cooperation of all.

Under pressure from multiple countries, a WHO-led team traveled to Wuhan and the surrounding area for four weeks in January and February of this year to investigate, and released a report at the end of March stating that the Wuhan pneumonia virus could have been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that “it is highly unlikely that the virus was leaked through a laboratory incident. But WHO Secretary General Tan Desai (Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus) admitted that the investigation and research team expressed their difficulties in obtaining raw data related to the Wuhan wet market (South China seafood market) outbreak and other aspects, “could not fully assess the possibility of laboratory leakage (of the virus) ” and therefore more data and studies are needed to reach more reliable conclusions.

WHO is reviewing the recommendations in this report with a view to preparing a proposal for the Secretary-General to conduct the next step in the study of the origin of the virus.

However, China has been obstructing and rejecting outside investigations into whether there is a link between the Wuhan lab and the origin of the virus.

President Joe Biden recently asked the intelligence community to redouble its efforts to identify the source of the outbreak and report back to him within 90 days. Biden also urged China to participate in a full, transparent, evidence-based international investigation and to provide the relevant data and evidence needed.

However, China later criticized the U.S. for playing a “political role” and again denied that the global pandemic of Newcastle pneumonia came from a virus leaked from a research lab in Wuhan.

The Central News Agency said science writer Nicholas Wade cited studies that support the argument that the virus was leaked from a laboratory, including how the virus could have spread to Wuhan, 1,500 kilometers away, if it was found in bats in Yunnan. And unlike the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus, the Wuhan pneumonia virus appears to have fully evolved to be the best virus for humans. Experts also say that China, the world’s most populous country, has not seen a new wave of infections since the Wuhan outbreak, raising questions about what clues China might hold.