Aspersions cast on WHO’s study more harmful denial of science

If the World Health Organization’s field research in Wuhan had produced findings that fitted the narrative prescribed by those looking to pin the blame on China for the COVID-19 pandemic before the work began, the expert team would have been commended for its professionalism in not only digging out the facts but also breaking through the host country’s alleged obstructiveness.

But since its findings do not conform to the conspiracy mongering that China was the source of the novel coronavirus outbreak and remiss in its response, the team’s professionalism and independence are being questioned and attacked in some quarters.

While the team’s hard work and its productive collaboration with its Chinese counterparts have been recognized by much of the international community, Washington and some hawkish Western media, led by The New York Times, have engaged in malicious speculation aimed at casting doubt on the team’s findings.

The reason why the pandemic has raged out of control in the United States for so long is because the country put politics and bias above science and facts. The pressure it is intent on exerting upon the WHO’s Wuhan mission shows that it has still not seen the error of its ways.

As WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus pointed out during a news conference on Monday, the mission — which the team leader Peter Ben Embarek called “successful in many ways” — was an independent study that “has added important information that takes us closer to understanding the origins of the virus”.

But there are those who do not care about the scientific evidence; their intrigue is to discredit China in the global court of public opinion. That this mudslinging, which originated with the previous US administration, still has its market in the US and some of its allies, such as the United Kingdom, shows that the politicization of the pandemic is set to continue.

The irony is that critics of the previous administration’s prevention and control measures at home, such as The New York Times, have picked up its baton of bias.

The US needs to know that as the worst-hit country in the pandemic, it will directly benefit from scientific efforts to learn more about the virus, endeavors that call for global solidarity. If it really wants to rejoin the international fold, it needs to demonstrate that it is doing so for the right reasons, rather than entering as a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

For effective multilateral cooperation, mutual respect and trust are essential. China is unswervingly committed to building trust, but the US should keep in mind that trust is a two-way street.