China rejects WHO study into origin of Covid

CHINA cannot accept the World Health Organisation’s plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of Covid-19, a senior Chinese health official said.

Zeng Yixin, the vice minister of the National Health Commission, said he was “rather taken aback” that the plan includes further investigation of the theory that the virus might have leaked from a Chinese lab.

He dismissed the lab leak idea as a rumour that runs counter to common sense and science.

“It is impossible for us to accept such an origin-tracing plan,” he said at a news conference called to address the Covid-19 origins issue.

The search for where the virus came from has become a diplomatic issue that has fuelled China’s deteriorating relations with the US and many US allies.

The US and others say that China has not been transparent about what happened in the early days of the pandemic.

China accuses critics of seeking to blame it for the pandemic and politicising an issue that should be left to scientists.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of WHO, acknowledged last week that there had been a “premature push” after the first phase of the study to rule out the theory that the virus might have escaped from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan, the city where the disease was first detected in late 2019.

Most experts do not think a lab leak is the likely cause.

The question is whether the possibility is so remote that it should be dropped, or whether it merits further study.

The first phase was conducted earlier this year by an international team of scientists who came to Wuhan to work with their Chinese counterparts.

The team was accused of bowing to demands from the Chinese side after it initially indicated that further study was not necessary.