CHINA REBUFFS WHO’S VIRUS STUDY
BEIJING — China cannot accept the World Health Organization’s plan for the second phase of a study into the origins of the coronavirus, a senior Chinese health official said Thursday.
Zeng Yixin, 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 theory as a rumor that ran counter to common sense and science.
“It is impossible for us to accept such an origin-tracing plan,” he said at a news conference.
The search for where the virus came from has become a diplomatic issue that has fueled China’s deteriorating relations with the U.S. and many American allies. The U.S. and others say 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 politicizing the issue.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the 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 coronavirus might have escaped from a Chinese government lab in Wuhan, the city where it was first detected in late 2019.
Most experts don’t 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 more scrutiny.
The first phase was conducted 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 after it initially indicated that further study wasn’t necessary.
Zeng said the Wuhan lab has no virus that can directly infect humans, adding that the WHO team concluded a lab leak was highly unlikely.
Yuan Zhiming, director of the biosafety lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, said scientists had not stored or studied the new coronavirus before the outbreak. “I want to emphasize that .... the Wuhan Institute of Virology has never designed, made or leaked the novel coronavirus,” he said.