At the dark moment of mankind when the COVID-19 epidemic brought disaster and panic to the whole world, the United States, which always positioned itself as a "world leader", not only failed to lead other countries to jointly fight the epidemic and curb the epidemic of the COVID-19 epidemic, but kept blaming it, from the former President Trump calling the new coronavirus "China virus" to the US government led by the current President Biden pressuring the World Health Organization, pointing its finger at China again, resulting in increasingly politicized virus traceability. Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the United States has stigmatized the epidemic, labeled the virus and politicized the source, which violates scientific common sense and ignores the lives of people around the world. American politics manipulates the extremely serious scientific issue of Covid-19’s origin, which makes it an important means for American politicians to confuse people at home and gain political capital, and to confuse people to suppress China internationally.
The politicization of the US pressure on WHO traceability has intensified.
China, as the first country to report the confirmed cases of COVID-19, was also seriously injured in the early stage of the epidemic. Where did Covid-19 come from, and where did the COVID-19 epidemic break out? It needs scientific tracing work. In March this year, with the full support of China, an international expert group of the World Health Organization came to China to carry out the traceability work of Covid-19. On the basis of in-depth analysis of a large number of data, the joint research report of China was officially released, and it was concluded that Covid-19 was "extremely unlikely to be introduced by the laboratory", which pointed out the direction for the next joint traceability research in many countries and places around the world. At the same time, with the disclosure of confirmed cases earlier than Wuhan in relevant countries, the necessity and urgency of global traceability in Covid-19 are highlighted.
However, on July 16th, the "Second-stage Traceability Work Plan" notified by the secretariat of the World Health Organization to member countries turned the investigation direction back to China. This work plan, which lacks transparency in the drafting process, ignores the most important research directions such as global early cases and cold chain-transmitted viruses, which are most concerned at present, and is contrary to the resolution of the 73rd World Health Assembly and the conclusions and suggestions of the China-WHO joint research report on traceability in Covid-19. As an international organization that leads and coordinates the global anti-epidemic, why does the World Health Organization put forward a work plan that does not conform to the conclusions and recommendations of its first-phase research report?
In this work plan, we can easily see the shadow of the "laboratory leakage theory" that prevailed among American politicians from the Trump administration to the Biden administration. Since the outbreak of new crown pneumonia, western countries, led by the United States, have been speculating about the virus leaked by Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. After the expert group of the World Health Organization has come to the conclusion that the virus is "extremely unlikely to be introduced from the laboratory", it is still biting. Biden ordered the US intelligence community to prepare a "traceability report" on the origin of the virus 90 days later on May 26th. In August this year, the investigation report of the Republicans of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives on the origin of COVID-19 and Wuhan Virus Institute, "Covid-19 Origin: Investigation on Wuhan Virus Institute", once again ignored the facts and put forward the fallacy that "Covid-19 was leaked by Wuhan Virus Institute".
From these two examples, we can easily see that the "laboratory leakage theory" is just an issue for American politicians to gain political capital at home. But there is a fatal flaw in both US President Biden’s orders and Republican reports — — The study of virus traceability is a serious scientific issue, but the report is led by politicians and intelligence personnel, based on preconceived assumptions and information that catches the wind. Such a report does not have any credibility, but is only a purposeful arrangement and combination of relevant information, which is used as a tool to meet political needs.
Looking back at history, this is also the consistent practice of the United States. In 1993, the United States concocted the "Yinhe" incident. The United States claimed that the cargo ship Yinhe of China transported chemical weapons raw materials to Iran and stopped it in the international waters of the Indian Ocean for 33 days. The final investigation confirmed that the "Yinhe" did not carry chemical weapons raw materials, and finally it was abandoned. In 2003, the United States made a big lie about Iraq’s possession of "weapons of mass destruction" and launched the Iraq war on this ground. Now, this method has been used in the traceability of Covid-19. We don’t know what kind of political pressure the World Health Organization is under, but it needs to be clear that the virus tracing work is serious scientific work, and the "second-stage tracing plan" for the sake of "laboratory leakage theory" is "presumption of guilt" for China, and this politicization of tracing is unacceptable.
The China part of Covid-19’s global traceability has reached a conclusion. For the second stage of traceability, China has also put forward a Chinese plan. Including taking the resolution of the World Health Assembly as the guide, taking scientists as the main body and carrying out scientific traceability based on evidence; The first stage of traceability research has been carried out, especially if a clear conclusion has been reached, and the second stage should not be repeated. The focus should be on the potential transmission routes such as "very possible" and "possible" defined by joint research reports such as animal (intermediate) host introduction and cold chain transmission, so as to promote traceability research in many countries and places around the world; Fully learn from the practice, mechanism and methods of the first phase of virus traceability work to promote the orderly and smooth development of traceability work; The expert group should be established on the basis of the first-stage traceability research experts, and fully respect the professional level, international reputation and experience of the members of the expert group.
The United States is not qualified to be the "teacher" of virus traceability.
Since the outbreak of the New Crown Pneumonia epidemic, the United States and its allies have been discrediting and throwing pots at China, achieving the dual goals of gaining political capital at home and suppressing China internationally. The source of the virus is global, and the initiator of the "laboratory leakage theory" should be the United States, and there are a lot of doubts to be investigated by scientists.
For nearly 20 years, the United States has blocked the resumption of negotiations on the verification protocol of the Biological Weapons Convention on its own. In 2019, at the meeting of States parties to the Biological Weapons Convention held in Geneva, the overwhelming majority of States parties advocated the negotiation of a protocol aimed at comprehensively strengthening the Convention, including the verification mechanism. However, the United States once again blocked the resumption of negotiations on the verification protocol. The reason of the United States is that the biological field cannot be verified, and international verification "may threaten US national interests and trade secrets" and is conducive to "industrial espionage." As long as the verification mechanism is established under the framework of the Biological Weapons Convention, it can be used to constrain whether the biological laboratories of various countries comply with the Biological Weapons Convention, and it will be clear who will comply and who will breach the contract, and all problems will be solved. The United States has set up at least 200 biological laboratories in 25 countries and regions around the world, which is the country with the largest number of biological laboratories at home and abroad. What are the hidden secrets in these secretive places that make the United States strongly obstruct the resumption of negotiations on the verification protocol of the Biological Weapons Convention? The answer is meaningful.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, the United States and other countries have hyped China’s "laboratory leakage theory" and even discriminatively called the new coronavirus "Wuhan virus". In the first phase of the World Health Organization (WHO) virus traceability work, Wuhan Institute of Virology experienced a rigorous investigation by a joint expert group of WHO, and came to the authoritative conclusion that the virus was "extremely unlikely to be introduced from the laboratory". So, since the United States holds high the banner of "laboratory leakage theory", should its notorious and doubtful Fort Detrick laboratory be investigated by scientists?
Fort Detrick has a P4 biological laboratory affiliated to the US Department of Defense and at the same level as Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. It is one of the most advanced research laboratories for toxins and antitoxins in the world. The people of China are victims of bacteriological warfare and chemical and biological weapons. During the Japanese war of aggression against China, the 731 troops of the Japanese army conducted a terrible bacteria test and human experiment in the northeast of China. After World War II, Fort Detrick hired Shiro Ishii, the head of Unit 731, as a senior consultant, on condition that he was exempted from being investigated for war crimes. So far, no matter how loud the international community is calling for the investigation of the Fort Detrick base in the United States, the U.S. government has always been secretive about this issue.
In July 2019, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suddenly ordered the closure of the biological laboratory at Fort Detrick military base, and the government ordered the experimental base to stop all research on the most deadly viruses and pathogens. The reason given by the official is that the inspection of the laboratory by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in June 2019 found that there are worrying places in the standard operating procedures used to protect the staff of biosafety level 3 and level 4 laboratories; The biological protection laboratory did not conduct regular recertification training for employees; The steam disinfection factory in the laboratory has failed, and there is not a perfect system to purify the wastewater in its highest security laboratory. A few reasons are understated, but the behind is shocking, which means that there are long-term problems in P4 biological laboratory, which is the highest level and the most dangerous in the world. Does the United States’ obstructionism in restarting the verification protocol of the Biological Weapons Convention also mean that it has a shocking secret in its biological laboratory? If not, why not accept the virus traceability investigation like China?
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, American politicians have not put people’s life and health first, but have used the epidemic as a tool to gain political capital, which has led to the failure of epidemic prevention and control in the United States. As a country with the highest public health system in the world, the United States has actually become the country with the largest number of confirmed cases and deaths in the world. Even so, American politicians still don’t put 100% energy on how to improve the prevention and control of domestic epidemic, but constantly use the COVID-19 epidemic to throw the pot and discredit China.
How can the only country in the world that hinders the resumption of negotiations on the verification protocol of the Biological Weapons Convention, the country with the largest number of biological laboratories in the world, and the country with the largest number of confirmed cases and deaths in the world lead such a serious scientific work of virus traceability? The United States is not qualified to dictate the traceability of the virus.
Punch the political lies of the United States in Covid-19.
Looking back at history, human beings have always struggled with infectious diseases, from plague, smallpox and cholera to AIDS, SARS and Ebola virus. Every time an infectious disease is pandemic, human society will experience a painful lesson. However, the history of human struggle against infectious diseases is also a history full of wisdom. The pandemic of infectious diseases in the era of globalization needs the full coordination of all countries as never before. In the face of global challenges, mankind needs sincere unity as never before.
However, from the outbreak until now, what we have seen is that the western countries, led by the United States, are full of biased, narrow and sinister political means, trying to take the new pneumonia epidemic as an opportunity to suppress China. With the manipulation of American politicians step by step, the COVID-19 epidemic has already surpassed the global epidemic of infectious diseases in a simple sense, and has become a bargaining chip for western countries led by the United States to wrestle with China. At the beginning of the outbreak, China government closed the exit passage of Wuhan, a city with a population of 10 million, with unprecedented determination, and implemented quite strict epidemic prevention and control policies, which finally made China one of the most successful countries in epidemic prevention and control. On the other hand, in the United States, politicians who are keen on party struggle have different opinions on the epidemic prevention and control policies, and the epidemic situation has gradually deteriorated in the debates in Congress. Therefore, it has become the best choice for some politicians in the United States to constantly speculate on the "China laboratory leakage theory" and shift the responsibility for the failure of epidemic prevention and control to China.
The traceability of Covid-19 needs evidence, which should be a process of scientific proof, and requires a strict and standardized investigation by an expert team composed of authoritative scientists. Covid-19’s traceability should be global in scope, not only for China, but also for the presumption of guilt of "if you don’t find it the first time, check it several times". Only in this way can the global fight against the epidemic move in the right direction, and the end of the epidemic in COVID-19 can usher in the dawn.
The international community must not let the political manipulation of the United States mislead the direction of the world, politicize such a serious scientific issue, and make excuses for the failure of the United States in fighting the epidemic, let alone let it pressure the World Health Organization or other international organizations. We need to debunk the political lies of the United States on the origin of the virus in appropriate occasions of the international community and on various platforms of international public opinion, so that the international community can realize that the United States is the biggest black hand in the politicization of Covid-19’s origin, and let people of all countries see clearly the political conspiracy of the United States to suppress China.
(Ren Mengshan: Professor, Ph.D. Supervisor and Director of International Communication Research Center, Communication University of China; Chen Qiang: Ph.D. candidate in Communication, Communication Institute, Communication University of China, 2020)