U.S. and Britain question WHO’s new crown traceability report Why is the U.S. worried about lab leaks?
A consensus
After about a month of investigation in mainland China, on March 30, World health Organization experts released a report on the traceability of the New Guinea virus, conducted jointly with the Chinese Communist Party, which was appreciated by Beijing and questioned by many countries around the world.
The report explores four possible origins of the virus: direct transmission from animals to humans; transmission from animals to humans via intermediate hosts; transmission through cold-chain products; and leakage from laboratories. The 120-plus page report devotes less than two pages to the possibility of a laboratory leak, describing it as a “highly unlikely event.”
The report has attracted international attention and debate at a Time when the new coronavirus has infected nearly 130 million people and killed 2.82 million. Experts now have a consensus on the report: more than a year after the pandemic broke out, we still do not know for sure where the virus came from.
The U.S. led 14 countries in questioning the basis for why?
“This report lacks critical data information and pipelines, and it represents a one-sided and incomplete picture of events.” White House spokeswoman Sharkey said on 30, the Biden administration did not accept the report in its entirety, which is still being reviewed by 17 U.S. experts.
The U.S. also issued a joint statement with 14 countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan, questioning the report and calling for a second phase of the investigation, led by independent international experts with access to data unencumbered by the Chinese Communist authorities.
The reporter further asked the White House for its view on the possibility of a laboratory leak. Sharkey emphasized that “the Chinese Communist Party is not transparent, they have not provided the underlying data, and this certainly does not qualify as cooperation. The analysis that our experts have done so far, their concern is the lack of additional supporting research for any of the hypotheses about the origin of the virus. Compared to six months or nine months ago, this report does not make us more informed or gain more knowledge, nor does it provide us with relevant guidelines or recommended steps to prevent the same scenario from happening in the future.”
Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO expert mission to mainland China and one of the report’s authors, was positive about the White House’s arguments. He tweeted that the report was intended to pave the way for a second phase of the study. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also admitted that the assessment of the laboratory hypothesis was “still not comprehensive” and needed further investigation, adding that he was prepared to deploy more experts to study the possibility.
“I agree with the U.S. criticism of the (WHO) report that the investigation is very incomplete. Even though I personally believe that a laboratory leak is low probability and more likely to be animal-to-human, it is too early to conclude that a laboratory leak has been completely ruled out.” Stephen Morrison, an expert on global health policy research and senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank, told the station.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Trump-era U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said in a documentary aired March 26 on CNN that as a virologist, he believes the new coronavirus originated in a lab in China. In the preceding weeks, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said there was “overwhelming evidence” to support the notion that the virus was leaked from a Chinese laboratory.
The claim that the new coronavirus was leaked from a laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virus remains a focal point (Photo by Radio Free Asia)
White House National Security Council: CCP Sets Bad Precedent
Unlike the questions raised by scientists around the world, Beijing has its own way of interpreting the report, arguing that the cooperative investigation demonstrates the CCP’s “open, transparent and responsible attitude.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying was repeatedly asked about the report by international media reporters at a press conference on the 31st. She repeatedly emphasized the report’s “important conclusion” that it is highly unlikely that the virus came from the Wuhan lab leak. But when asked whether Beijing would allow more experts to visit the Wuhan lab and when the second phase of the investigation would begin, Hua did not respond directly, instead pointing the spotlight at other countries, saying the traceability work “needs to be carried out in multiple countries and places”; she also mentioned again the conspiracy theory of the U.S. military base, which has no scientific basis.
“We all know that the Wuhan Institute of Virus Research has been examined, so when will international experts be allowed to go to Fort Detrick, the U.S. biological base with a big question mark?” Hua Chunying also criticized the U.S. joint statement, “The U.S. gathered a very small number of countries to issue a so-called ‘joint statement’ to blatantly question the denial of the China-WHO Joint Expert Group Report, which is conclusive evidence of their disrespect for science and political maneuvering through retroactivity. “
Stephen Morrison (D-Mich.) criticized this throwing of insults and accusations, which only served to stalemate the traceability of the outbreak.
A spokesman for the White House National Security Council replied in writing to Radio Free Asia on the 31st, “If there is a reasonable, scientifically credible reason to take this step (to investigate the U.S. military lab), we would certainly support it, but there simply is not. If there is a future pandemic outbreak here (in the U.S.) or elsewhere, we will need to similarly insist on a prompt, transparent, science-based assessment effort. Indeed, one of the reasons we are concerned about the traceability process is that it must not set a bad precedent for the future.”
Who doesn’t respect science?
For scientists, the importance of outbreak traceability is to prevent the next disaster. And it took more than a year before the Chinese Communist Party approved an investigation report co-authored by 17 WHO experts and 17 Chinese scientists. Not only that, but their research trips, locations and report wording in mainland China had to be approved by the Chinese Communist Party authorities, making it difficult to obtain immediate data and impossible to interview local people independently.
“The CCP’s lack of openness or transparency has prevented the experts from completing their work.” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights and professor of global health law at Georgetown University.
Gostin agreed with U.S. Secretary of State Blinken’s statement that “the Chinese Communist Party influenced the findings”: “This report does not provide a clear explanation of the actual origin of the new coronavirus, and while Tandusai is right and brave to call for further research at the Wuhan virus laboratory, it is probably unlikely that China will cooperate fully. cooperation.” He mentioned pessimistically that given the year-long delay and lack of transparency, it is likely that the exact root cause of the pandemic will never be fully understood, which will make the battle with the new coronavirus and preventing the next pandemic even more difficult.
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