The Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC claimed that after President Biden ordered an intelligence review of the origin of the virus, people became suspicious of “political manipulation.”

Politicizing the source of COVID-19 will hinder further investigations and undermine global efforts to contain the pandemic. After President Biden ordered a review of US intelligence on how and where the virus first appeared Said.

The Washington, D.C. embassy said in a statement on its website on Wednesday night: “Some political forces have focused their attention on political manipulation and (non-)accusation games.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) is preparing to start the second phase of research on the origin of COVID-19, and China is under pressure to provide investigators with more access, because some people accuse SARS-CoV-2 from the laboratory’s research. The laboratory leaked. Wuhan City, the first COVID-19 case appeared at the end of 2019.

China has repeatedly denied that the laboratory is responsible, accusing the United States and other countries of trying to divert attention from its failure to control the virus.

Biden said on Wednesday that U.S. intelligence agencies had disagreements over whether COVID-19 “derived from human contact with infected animals or laboratory accidents.”

Earlier this week, news showed that U.S. agencies were reviewing reports on: Three researchers in the Wuhan laboratory became ill in November 2019, so much so that they sought hospital care.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an expert on biosafety and emerging infectious diseases, told Al Jazeera: “We are starting to see a large flow of evidence that the Chinese government has not yet been transparent.” “We heard that it is in Wuhan. People who work in the Virus Research Institute are sick. We know that this situation has been spreading since November 2019. We have seen that the Chinese government is very reluctant to let the press investigate its origin. This virus, so I think it triggered the relevant The question of adapting the Chinese government to what might happen in the early stages of the pandemic.”

Huang Yanzhong, a senior researcher for global health at the Foreign Relations Committee in Washington, DC, said that China’s lack of openness is a key factor in China’s re-emergence. Laboratory leak theory.

“There is nothing new to prove this hypothesis,” he said. “When investigating the origin of the pandemic, it is really important to maintain transparency to build trust in the results of the investigation.”

“Comprehensive Research”

After the successful suppression of the virus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, China has stepped up its efforts to control the influenza pandemic. Wuhan is a city in central China. At the end of 2019, a mysterious new type of viral pneumonia was discovered for the first time.

Informers, reporters and families of the victims are here Under pressure. Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist, was one of the first to warn the public about the virus and was detained by the police for spreading “rumors.”. In December last year, former reporter Zhang Zhan, a citizen journalist, was accused of “provoking and causing trouble” and sentenced to four years in prison for his work in the early stages of the outbreak. Others will also face trial on similar charges.

The Chinese Embassy stated that it supports “a comprehensive study of all early COVID-19 cases discovered around the world, and a thorough investigation of some secret bases and biological laboratories around the world.”

The “Global Times” tabloid of the ruling Communist Party “People’s Daily” newspaper group stated on Wednesday night that if it wants to further study the “laboratory leak theory”, the United States should also allow investigators to enter its own facilities, including the Ford Fort’s laboratory. Trik

Jamie Metzl, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said: “It is clear that they are trying to get their way out of trouble,” and he has been fighting for a new independent investigation.

A joint study published in March by China and the World Health Organization stated that this is The possibility of SARS-CoV-2 leaking from the laboratory is extremely smallAnd added that it is very likely to spread from bats to humans through an unidentified intermediate species.

China also continues to point out that COVID-19 may have originated elsewhere and entered the country through frozen food or infection from the wildlife trade network in southeastern China.

In February last year, COVID-19 received intensive care in a hospital in Wuhan [File: China Daily via Reuters]

“The epidemic started in China,” Metzl said. “Let’s start with a full investigation there and expand as needed. In short, this [statement from the embassy] It is a cruel insult to everyone and their families who have lost their lives in this terrible tragedy. “

CFR’s Huang said that further investigations into the origin of COVID-19 are at a “stalemate.”

Huang said: “Ideally, you want China to be more cooperative and more transparent.” “But now this issue has become so politicized, and the risk of investigation is so high.”