Right from the beginning of the pandemic, questions have been raised as to where the coronavirus, which has been plaguing the world for more than a year, actually originated. The virus, which was first found in November 2019 in China’s Wuhan province, then spread around the world from January 2020 and putting the entire world in lockdown.
China responded to the accusations placed on them by accusing President Trump of claiming that the Coronavirus, which was the main cause of the Trump administration’s defeat in the US and China’s trade war, came from China, and reversed the blame on the US, saying that it had in fact come from the U.S. military. Similarly, when Australia mobilized countries in its favour to have WHO research into where the coronavirus originated, the Chinese government became furious, and resorted to name-calling, calling Australia the ‘dog of the United States.’ It then proceeded to launch a severe commercial crisis for Australia.
In light of this, recently, the World Health Organization had sent a number of experts to China to submit a report. Research into where the spread of the coronavirus began should have been the result of this team’s visit.
Sadly, it was a nightmare returns of sorts. The 319-page report provided by the World Health Organization is the World Health Organization’s investigation into the origin of the virus that led to the COVID-19 infection. This statement does not give any solid explanation as to where the source of the virus is. Despite the fact that the WHO has given assurances are given that more investigations will take place, it is obvious that they are unlikely to happen.
A popular theory that has been going on is that this is the result of a trade war that has already been going on between China and the United States, and that China had carried out this so-called bio-war. The virus has caused a major earthquake. There is no denying that the World Health Organization (WHO) is in cahoots. But no one really believes this is an investigation, despite the Chinese continuously insisting that this is a scientific joint study.
This in itself proves that is not a report that was written entirely by the World Health Organization but by a team of World Health Organization’s experts and Chinese scientists. The group had a four-week reprieve.
The Tedros effect
Commenting on this, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyseus, the director-general of the WHO said that although the teams said the cases were diagnosed only on December 8, 2019, scientists should be given full data, including biological sample data from at least September-2019. He also revealed the problems involved. Although the panel denied the possibility that the virus was formed as a result of a laboratory accident, the head of the World Health Organization noted that this estimate was insufficient and that more data were needed for strong conclusions.
It has been widely recognised that Tedros has been having a pro-China stance and seeking to cover up China’s role in the virus. The Commune did an extensive expose about him in the past, that you can read here.
He said that although the teams said the cases were diagnosed only on December 8, 2019, scientists should be given full data, including biological sample data from at least September-2019. He also revealed the problems involved. Although the panel denied the possibility that the virus was formed as a result of a laboratory accident, Tedros noted that this estimate was insufficient and that more data were needed for strong conclusions. He said they have only cleared the surface of this complex study and there is still much to research to be done. He added that the team also examined allegations that China got the virus from the United States through the Seventh World Military Games in October 2019.
But it was confirmed from the recent research that nothing similar to COVID-19 was found in the clinics conducted for that sport. Further this report considers 4 hypotheses. One of the most plausible hypotheses is that the virus had gotten propagated to the people from the wet market in Wuhan through an intermediate source. Another hypothesis suggests that this might have infected humans through bats. Yet another hypothesis states that this strain spread from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan. A fourth hypothesis says that it was spread from frozen food, which China argues is the reason. The report also leans towards China’s reason. This is why more investigation is needed in this category.
Global response to WHO’s report
It is to be noted that China has been reluctant to provide data and access to the World Health Organization team. Thus it is not possible to conduct in-depth and detailed investigations.
In light of this, all of America’s closest allies, including Australia, Canada, Norway, Japan, the United Kingdom and Israel, have issued a joint press release containing 14 statements. The release alleges that complete original data and samples were not made available to the investigation team from the WHO by China and that this went against WHO’s attempts to find out the truth behind the source of the COVID-19 virus. Notably, the press release was not signed by France, Germany and New Zealand.
Responding to this, a Chinese spokesman said a number of countries had accused the World Health Organization of being insincere while taking an initiative to find the source of the virus, which was unfair to the WHO. He went on to suggest that instead of focusing only on China, the WHO should seek to focus on conducting investigations to find the source in other countries as well.
It is significant to note that the United States withdrew from the World Health Organization in July 2020, but, as one of their first steps after assuming power, under the now-incumbent Biden administration, the United States is set to rejoin the organization. The US should realise that the pandemic has given the United States and its allies an opportunity to mobilize against China. The importance of dealing with the Coronavirus was also discussed as one of main objectives of the recent QUAD summit.
An important milestone in this process is Japan’s initiative to provide funding for using India as a manufacturing base for vaccines developed in the United States. This leads to equal competition between regional countries that are not part of the US-China war. In the journey towards battling the wreckage that the virus has caused, the important part comes where the countries should stand united against the common enemy, the COVID-19 virus, but more importantly, China.
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