ORIGIN-TRACING. Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu (center) briefs members of the diplomatic corps in China on Covid-19 origin-tracing at the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Friday (Aug. 13, 2021). The briefing was attended by more than 160 diplomatic envoys and representatives of international organizations in China. (Contributed photo)
MANILA – The Chinese government is willing to work on a "science-based" global origin-tracing of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) but opposes any attempt to politicize such initiative.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, in a briefing for diplomatic envoys in China on August 13, said origin-tracing is a matter of science and must be left to scientists.
"It should be and can only be left to scientists to identify, through scientific research, the virus’ zoonotic source and animal-human transmission routes. No country has the right to put its own political interests above people’s lives, nor should a matter of science be politicized for the purpose of slandering and attacking other countries," he said in a statement forwarded by the Chinese Embassy in Manila on Friday.
Ma pointed out that Beijing has taken a "scientific attitude" as it engaged with the international community to trace the virus' origin and did all it can to contribute to global public health security during the pandemic.
He added that China has twice invited experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) and even submitted a proposal on the second phase of origin research.
"China has all along supported and will continue to take part in science-based origin-tracing efforts. What China opposes is politicizing origin-tracing, or origin-tracing that goes against the WHA (World Health Assembly) resolution and disregards the joint study report," Ma said.
The WHO-China joint team published its phase one report on the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 in March 2021 and outlined the next series of studies that need to be undertaken.
It did not draw firm conclusions but presented four theories on how the pandemic started. It said out of the four, "direct zoonotic spillover" or transmission of the virus from animal to human was the most possible scenario and that introduction through a laboratory incident was "considered to be an extremely unlikely pathway."
However, to address this “lab hypothesis”, the WHO on August 12 said access to all data is needed.
"China and a number of other Member States have written to WHO regarding the basis for further studies of the SARS-CoV-2 'lab hypothesis.' They have also suggested the origins study has been politicized, or that WHO has acted due to political pressure," it said.
"On review of the phase one study report, WHO determined that there was insufficient scientific evidence to rule any of the hypotheses out."
The WHO further noted that analyzing and improving lab safety and protocols in all laboratories around the world, "including in China, is important for our collective biosafety and security."
Meanwhile, it stressed that the search for the origin of SARS-CoV-2 is "not an exercise in attributing blame, finger-pointing or political point-scoring" but to know how the pandemic began "to set an example for establishing the origins of all future animal-human spillover events."
It added that the organization has also worked with several other nations that detected SARS-CoV-2 in samples from their stored biological specimens from 2019.
"Sharing raw data and giving permission for the retesting of samples in labs outside of Italy reflects scientific solidarity at its best and is no different from what we encourage all countries, including China, to support so that we can advance the studies of the origins quickly and effectively," it said. (PNA)
