China shuns WHO’S plan for more lab studies

Organisation’s proposal to delve further into leak theory attracts wrath of Chinese health officials

‘We believe a lab leak is extremely unlikely and it is not necessary to invest more energy and efforts in this regard’

‘We hope the WHO reviews suggestions made by Chinese experts and gets rid of political interference’

CHINA will “not accept” further audits of Wuhan laboratories as part of a World Health Organisation (WHO) inquiry into the origins of Covid-19, a top Chinese health official has said.

Zeng Yixin, vice-minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), said the WHO’S plan for second phase studies “disregards common sense and defies science”.

Central to the WHO’S proposals – outlined last week – are further audits of laboratories and markets in Wuhan, as well as plans for member states to renominate a new team of scientists to investigate how Sars-cov-2 jumped from animals to humans.

Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, has struck an increasingly tough line on China, urging authorities to be fully transparent and share raw data from the early days of the initial outbreak, which has previously been withheld.

But Mr Zeng said the latest plans had been politicised, and that it would be “impossible” for China to accept them.

He added that he was taken aback as the proposal includes further investigation of the hypothesis that the virus might have leaked from a Chinese lab.

“We hope the WHO would seriously review the considerations and suggestions made by Chinese experts and truly treat the origin tracing of the Covid-19 virus as a scientific matter, and get rid of political interference,” he said.

The spat comes amid heightened geopolitical tensions around the origins of the pandemic, which have contributed to deteriorating relations between China and the West.

The theory that the virus may have emerged from a lab, which has gathered momentum in recent months, is especially controversial.

Last week Dr Tedros conceded that there had been a “premature push” to discount the hypothesis in early stages of inquiries, though stressed evidence to date suggests the most likely scenario is the virus jumped from bats to humans via an as-yet-unidentified animal.

But China has reacted with anger to all suggestions that the virus may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan, where the first known Covid-19 cases were detected, dismissing the hypothesis outright and claiming the world risks politicising investigations.

“We believe a lab leak is extremely unlikely and it is not necessary to invest more energy and efforts in this regard,” said Liang Wannian, the Chinese team leader on the WHO joint expert team.

Instead, the next stage should focus on animal-tracing, including studies in other countries with large bat populations, he said.

Yuan Zhiming, director of the National Biosafety Laboratory at the

Wuhan Institute of Virology, insisted Sars-cov-2 has natural origins, and maintained that the facility had not seen any leaks or staff infections.

China has repeatedly attempted to deflect accusations that the pandemic originated inside its borders, and then spread thanks to bureaucratic missteps.

More recently, authorities have pointed to labs in America – particularly Fort Detrick, a US army biological research facility in Frederick, Maryland – asking what “secrets” the “suspicion-shrouded” facility may be hiding.

Many international scientists are increasingly concerned that the mudslinging may prevent a breakthrough in efforts to establish how Sars-cov-2 spilled over to humans, a finding that could help avert future pandemics.