White House called “irresponsible and dangerous” China’s refusal to allow audits to determine origin of COVID-19

The The White House on Thursday criticized China’s opposition to conducting a new WHO investigation into the origins of COVID-19.

“We are deeply disappointed. The position (of China) is irresponsible and frankly dangerous ”White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

“Now is not the time to obstruct,” Psaki said, after China to sharply criticize World Health Organization audit request laboratories in areas where the first cases of COVID-19 were identified, including the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The scientific community is divided concerning theories on the origin of COVID-19. While a few months ago a majority defended the natural origin of the virus, over the weeks The idea that the virus could have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan was increasingly accepted.

The Chinese regime not only refused to cooperate, but called the plan presented by the WHO “disrespectful” and “arrogant towards science”, according to the vice minister of the National Health Commission of China, Zeng Yixin.

The Chinese official denied the theory that the coronavirus came out of a laboratory, arguing that this is a rumor contrary to common sense, despite the multiple complaints that there are on the part of several countries and institutions which designate China as responsible for the spread of the pandemic.

Zeng responded to the WHO statement last week asking to start the second phase investigations into the origin of the coronavirus in Chinawhich would include an investigation of the markets and laboratories of Wuhan, the city where the first epidemics were detected.

According to Zeng, who said he was “surprised” when reading the WHO proposal, subsequent agency surveys should focus on “monitoring efforts in multiple countries and regions” and not be repeated in places already inspected during the first phase of the investigation, which culminated in a visit by international experts to Wuhan last January.

Last week, the Director-General of WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called on China “to be transparent and open” and “to cooperate in particular by contributing raw data on the first days of the pandemic ”.

Ghebreyesus said that knowing the origins of the coronavirus “is an unpaid debt with millions of people who have suffered from it”.

The WHO mission to Wuhan last February He requested access to raw data from patients registered at hospitals in the city with symptoms similar to COVID before the first known case of the disease, but China claimed these had already been investigated by its experts.

The response from the Chinese authorities is coming a few days before Wendy Sherman’s visit to the country this weekend, United States Under Secretary of State, with the aim of restoring the degraded relations between the two countries.

it’s about the High-level diplomatic visit by President Joe Biden’s administration, at a time of maximum tension with China over cross-criticism around the origin of the pandemic, human rights and cybersecurity.

(With information from AFP and EFE)

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