Beijing welcomes probe, Berlin rejects lab theory

BEIJING/BERLIN: China has said that it supports a review led by the World Health Organization (WHO) into Covid-19 after it is declared over, even as Germany rejected the US allegation that the pathogen behind the pandemic originated in a Chinese lab.

The review should be conducted in an “open, transparent and inclusive manner” under the leadership of WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday, adding that the enquiry should be carried out at an “appropriate time after the pandemic is over”. It should be based on the protocols of the International Health Regulations and be authorised by the World Health Assembly or Executive Committee - the WHO’s dual governing bodies - China demanded.

Countries including the US and Australia have pressed for an international probe and others like the UK and Germany have urged greater transparency from China. Until now, Beijing has rejected similar calls for an investigation, accusing the US of “politicising the issue”.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo claimed that the US has evidence that the virus originated from a high-security lab in

Wuhan, where Covid-19 began.

In a shot in the arm for China, Germany’s defence ministry and foreign spy agency BND have privately cast doubt on the lab theory. An internal memo prepared for defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer “classifies the American claims as a calculated attempt to distract” from Washington’s own failings, Der Spiegel reported.

Meanwhile, experts said the constant mutation of the virus is unlikely to have changes in its potency or its contagiousness. Researchers had found that at least 198 sites in the virus’ genome had already undergone sustained mutation.