On the one-year anniversary of the outbreak of the new coronary pneumonia, the official media in China and overseas English-language channels made a series of efforts to shift the source of the virus overseas. The reports, which cited overseas experts and reports, were cited by the parties involved as citing distortions, misrepresentations, and selective censorship, denouncing China as desperate for political propaganda, and explicitly stating that the new coronavirus originated in Wuhan.
The Xinhua News Agency posted a short video on its English-language Facebook page last Wednesday (February 2) titled “Why the origin of the new coronavirus remains a mystery”. The new virus, which has antibodies to the neocoronavirus, has been reported in the United States. The Xinhua news agency went on to say that this means that Italy was probably already infected with the neocoronavirus last September, before the outbreak in China.
In this regard, our correspondent contacted the author of the study, Giovanni Apolone, scientific director of the National Cancer Institute in Milan, Italy, directly, and he revealed that “I was interviewed by the Chinese media, but my response to the source of the virus was partially censored”.
In an email reply to our station, Apolone said that China was responsible for the outbreak, but that the source was Wuhan. He said, “The discovery of the virus in Italy, France, and the United States appears to have occurred before China’s official announcement on December 31 of last year, most likely due to an initial lack of identification of New Canopy and a communication delay caused by political factors. All current findings point to the virus and pandemic originating in Wuhan.” He added that the details of the situation still require further research, repeated certification, and future collaboration with WHO and two independent laboratories will hopefully help to understand the current outbreak.
In addition to Apollo, German expert Alexander Kekulé was among the victims.
Kekulé’s study was cited by China’s Global Television Network (CGTN) on November 28 as saying that “the outbreak in northern Italy has spread worldwide,” adding that China has been effective in containing the outbreak, and that more than 99% of the cases have spread from Europe to China, without mentioning that Wuhan has already seen cases in 2019.
Later, last Tuesday (1), Xinhua again borrowed from Kekuler’s research and claimed that the global neo-crown epidemic originated in northern Italy.
After learning that China had misrepresented and misquoted him, Kekuler clarified to German television that “Chinese outreach is pure rumor” and denounced China as “doing whatever it takes for political propaganda”. He also stated on his Twitter platform that “the epidemic originated in China and was probably hidden from the beginning”. The German virologist and director of the Institute for Biosecurity Research said that the new coronavirus was first discovered in Wuhan, China. He criticized that when the virus spread from China to Europe, especially Italy, it took too long for European countries to detect the virus, causing the epidemic to spread out of control around the world.
However, the official Chinese media distorted the remarks of German virologist Kekuler and spread reports that were not his intention, which have been widely circulated on the Internet in China. Some have added the phrases “not Wuhan” and “China is innocent” under his portrait. Thousands of netizens have also shared the false news, with some leaving the message “One billion Chinese people thank you! And “there are really not many scientists who dare to tell the truth”, and other comments.
This past Sunday (June 6), the English-language Global Times also published an article stating that it “cannot be ruled out” that the new coronavirus was imported into the Wuhan South China Seafood Market in 2019. However, the Global Times report also failed to acknowledge the lack of supporting evidence.
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