The Chinese National Health Commission (NHC) published a statement on Wednesday condemning the administration of President Donald Trump for publishing a website sharing evidence that the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic originated in a Chinese laboratory, accusing America of being the origin nation, instead.
The NHC claimed, without evidence, that “growing information and evidence show” that the novel coronavirus originating in Wuhan, central China, actually emerged in the United States, and called for a “next phase” of origin-tracing to begin within America. The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) completed the first phase of origin-tracing in Wuhan in 2021, over a year after the first cases of infection there were documented, and resulted in a study that found no evidence of the virus originating in nature but nonetheless concluded that a laboratory leak was unlikely. W.H.O. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus would go on to condemn the virus origin report, accusing China of hiding critical raw data, and suggest that a laboratory leak was a potential way that the virus began spreading among humans.
Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, is home to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), one of the world’s most advanced biological research laboratories. The WIV was known to have been studying coronaviruses at the time immediately preceding the first documented cases of coronavirus infection.
The Trump White House debuted a revamped edition of the website Covid.gov, initially used to share information on the novel virus while the pandemic was at its peak, now dedicated to uncovering the origins of the disease and holding any responsible parties accountable. The website lists evidence that the virus originated in the WIV, including the facts that “the virus possesses a biological characteristic that is not found in nature,” “Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) researchers were sick with COVID-like symptoms in the fall of 2019, months before COVID-19 was discovered at the wet market,” and “data shows that all COVID-19 cases stem from a single introduction into humans.”
“A lab-related incident involving gain-of-function research is the most likely the origin of COVID-19,” the website concludes. It also condemns the W.H.O. for its “abject failure” in responding to the public health emergency and warns that “the W.H.O.’s newest effort to solve the problems exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic — via a ‘Pandemic Treaty‘ — may harm the United States.”
The NHC took significant offense at the new website, issuing an outraged statement accusing the United States of being the originating nation of the Wuhan coronavirus.
“The U.S.’s repeated attempts to blame and smear China on the issue of the origins of SARS-CoV-2 only expose its malicious intent to politicize scientific issues, a practice long dismissed by the international scientific community,” the NHC claimed. “Its agenda to use the pandemic as a tool to contain China is doomed to fail.”
“As growing information and evidence show that SARS-CoV-2 emerged in the U.S. at an even earlier date, the next phase of origin-tracing should be conducted in the U.S,” it demanded. “We urge the U.S. to immediately cease its baseless accusations and smear campaign against China, be accountable for its own problem, and provide a credible, responsible explanation to the international community and people worldwide.”
A report citing Chinese government documents by the South China Morning Post identified the first known case of a human being infected with the Wuhan coronavirus being diagnosed in Wuhan, China, on November 17, 2019. No evidence has emerged since the pandemic began of a human carrying this pathogen anywhere in the world before this date. In January 2020, the then-head of the Chinese Center for Disease Control (CDC), Gao Fu, told reporters, “the origin of the new coronavirus is the wildlife sold illegally in a Wuhan seafood market.”
Gao vacated his position after publicly stating that China’s attempted vaccines against the Wuhan coronavirus “don’t have very high protection rates.” After his “retirement,” Gao told the BBC that he did not rule out the possibility that the virus originated in a lab.
“You can always suspect anything. That’s science. Don’t rule out anything,” Gao said. “We really don’t know where the virus came from… the question is still open.”
Despite the evidence, the Chinese Communist Party has repeatedly spread unsubstantiated rumors that the virus originated in the United States. In early 2020, Chinese Foreign Ministry officials publicly claimed that the virus originated in America. Spokesman Zhao Lijian initially began spreading the claim that the virus originated at a U.S. Army laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, offering no evidence for this claim.
Another spokeswoman, Hua Chunying — who has since been promoted to Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs — elaborated on the conspiracy theory, claiming that the shutdown of the Fort Detrick laboratory in summer 2019 was somehow related to multiple documented cases of young Americans diagnosed with e-cigarette lung injuries.
“There are also reports that soon after the closure [of the Fort Detrick laboratory], ‘E-cigarette disease’ broke out in the surroundings,” Hua said in May 2020. “The safety of biolabs in the US now poses the biggest risk to the US regulatory authority.”
The Chinese government never explained the fact that no evidence exists for e-cigarette injuries, formally E-cigarette or Vaping Use-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI), being contagious. No diagnosed case of EVALI has resulted from contact with an affected person. In contrast, the Wuhan coronavirus is highly contagious, a fact the Chinese government and the W.H.O. initially denied.
The distribution of cases of EVALI in the United States also appeared to have no relation to the alleged “origin” location of Maryland, which did not have any elevated rates of diagnosis compared to states far from Fort Detrick.
The Chinese government, through its propaganda arms, has continued to claim for years that Maryland was the “#1 suspect” for origin site of the Wuhan coronavirus. It has also failed to address China’s role in vaping injuries. Poorly manufactured and often illicit e-cigarette devices have been responsible for much of the concern surrounding lung injuries. In 2020, China boasted that over 80 percent of e-cigarettes produced in China were exported to America or the European Union. The Global Times, a state propaganda outlet, has since deleted articles reporting on China’s dominance in e-cigarette manufacturing.
While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has attempted to limit access to dangerous Chinese e-cigarettes in the American market, American officials have demanded more access to protect young Americans.
“Illegal, flavored Chinese e-cigarettes are flooding the U.S. market in flagrant disregard of State and federal laws. The products have never been approved by the FDA and target America’s youth,” a letter signed by 29 Republican attorneys general said in a letter published this week urging more federal action. “While we are doing our best to fight the problem in the States, its nature and scope are international. President Trump can secure our borders against this influx of dangerous products and hold China accountable for preying on American youth.”
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