Beijing: China rejected on Thursday a World Health Organization (WHO) plan for a second phase of an investigation into the origin of the coronavirus, which incorporates the hypothesis it could have escaped from a Chinese laboratory, a top health official said.
The WHO this month proposed a second phase of studies into the origins of the coronavirus in China, including audits of laboratories and markets within the city of Wuhan, calling for transparency from authorities.
“We won’t accept such an origins-tracing plan because it , in some aspects, disregards sense and defies science,” Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission (NHC), told reporters.
Zeng said he was stunned when he first read the WHO plan because it lists the hypothesis that a Chinese violation of laboratory protocols had caused the virus to leak during research.
“We hope the WHO would seriously review the considerations and suggestions made by Chinese experts and truly treat the origin tracing of the COVID-19 virus as a scientific matter, and obtain obviate political interference,” Zeng said.
China opposed politicising the study, he said.
The origin of the virus remains contested among experts.
The first known cases emerged within the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019. The virus was believed to possess jumped to humans from animals being sold for food at a city market.
In May, U.S. President Joe Biden ordered aides to seek out answers to questions over the origin saying that U.S. intelligence agencies were pursuing rival theories potentially including the likelihood of a laboratory accident in China.
Zeng, along side other officials and Chinese experts at the press conference , urged the WHO to expand origin-tracing efforts beyond China to other countries.
“We believe a lab leak is extremely unlikely and it’s not necessary to take a position more energy and efforts during this regard,” said Liang Wannian, the Chinese team leader on the WHO joint expert team.
However, Liang said the lab leak hypothesis couldn’t be entirely discounted but suggested that if evidence warranted, other countries could check out the likelihood it leaked from their labs.
