Covid-19: WHO receives another refusal from China for an investigation on its soil

Published on : 08/13/2021 – 09:50

The pressure has increased on Beijing in recent hours over the Covid-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) urged all countries to publish “all data on the virus”, but China on Friday (August 13) rejected this call for a new investigation on its territory to find the origins of the virus. coronavirus.

A team of international experts sent by the WHO visited Wuhan in January 2021, the city where Covid-19 was first detected at the end of 2010. Their report, written in collaboration with Chinese specialists, did not had not made it possible to establish a definitive conclusion on the origin of the virus. The leak of the coronavirus from a laboratory in Wuhan is still a possibility.

Beijing replied to the WHO by reiterating its position defended for several months: the initial China-WHO investigation is sufficient and the requests for additional data have political ulterior motives. “We support science-based research,” said Ma Zhaoxu, deputy foreign minister, responding to the WHO who urged a “scientific” and not “political” approach. “We are opposed to the politicization of the search for origins,” added the Chinese representative.

The joint study by the WHO and China notably estimated that the passage of the coronavirus from the bat to humans via an intermediate animal is the most likely scenario. She considered “extremely unlikely” that the virus came from a laboratory.

Ma Zhaoxu rejected WHO’s requests for further investigation. “The conclusions and recommendations of the joint report have been recognized by the international community and the scientific community,” he said. “Future research should, and can only be pursued on the basis of this report. It is not about starting all over again.”

With AFP