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Elliot Ziwira Senior Writer
With the new coronavirus remaining on the warpath against humanity, claiming millions of lives and destroying sources of livelihoods globally, the persistent need to depoliticise the contagion and its origin-tracing refrain cannot be overemphasised.
Politics should, indeed, be “quarantined” for the quest of fashioning a united onslaught against the pandemic, as World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus once said.
Recently, WHO called on all governments to depoliticise Covid-19 origin-tracing, and forge a united front so as to come up with shared frameworks, not only for the current menace against humanity, but emerging pathogens of endemic potential.
While accepting that there was a need for a second phase of studies into the origins of the new coronavirus, as planned by the WHO, and pleading to remain committed to origin-tracing efforts, China believes that whatever agreed on should neither be unilaterally enforced, nor politicised.
“China will continue to support efforts to trace the origins of Covid-19. We’re actually implementing and will continue to practice relevant suggestions based on the China-WHO joint research report,” Ma Zhaoxu, China’s Deputy Foreign Minister told journalists in Beijing recently.
Ma maintained that Beijing’s position is that origin-tracing is a scientific matter and should only be carried out by scientists.
“What we oppose is politicising the tracing of the virus, tracing against the WHO’s resolutions, and tracing that abandons the China-WHO joint research report,” Ma told CGTN.
Covid-19, mankind’s worst enemy today, should see the international community coming all out to curb its spread, and defeat it outright.
However, as the giant global political screen relentlessly beams, the political virus continues to virulently spread like a veld fire, leaving smaller nations in a quandary. Since the identification of first cases of the virus in Wuhan, China, despite politicking and smearing by countries like the United States of America, the Asian economic powerhouse has not been lying on its laurels.
Working with experts from 10 countries, including the US, Japan and Australia and its own specialists, China conducted a 28-day joint research in its territory, early this year.
Following field studies, the WHO-China joint report on the first phase of studies on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, was published in March 2021.
Thereafter, WHO outlined the new series of researches to be commenced and emphasised that the institution will continue engaging member states and experts in discussions on the way forward.
As WHO rightly pointed out in a statement, Covid-19 origin-tracing is best left for scientists, who would pivot their research on the first port of studies, and implement recommendations outlined in the March 2021 report. This is meant to speed up scientific efforts on hypotheses.
Speaking at a media briefing last month, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the plan for the second phase of studies into the origins of the virus, though well-intentioned, was forwarded by the WHO Secretariat without the sanction of all member states, who enjoy the right to make adjustments.
“The mandate of the Secretariat is to provide convenience for member states to have full consultation and reach consensus. It is not entitled to decision-making on its own,” said Zhao.
Fighting in China’s corner, many other countries have expressed concern and opposition to the second phase of the origin-tracing plan proposed by the WHO Secretariat.
The plan falls short in mirroring the latest outcomes of global studies into the origins of the coronavirus, Zhao affirmed, and cannot therefore, be used as the basis for another phase of joint-origin research.
At least, 60 countries have written to the WHO Director-General, Dr Ghebreyesus welcoming the joint WHO-China study report and rejecting the politicising of origins studies.
According to Xinhua News Agency, Beijing’s stance carried the day for the over 160 diplomatic envoys and other international representatives, who were part of a discussion that included the Russian ambassador to China Andrew Denisov.
Denisov said Russia was opposed to and condemned the politicisation of Covid-19 situation, calling for a coordinated effort among the international community to promote transparency in origin-tracing, for only that way can the pandemic be defeated.
Somalia’s ambassador to China, Awale Ali Kullane, whose country was one of the 48 nations that have penned letters to the WHO decrying the politicisation of the origins of Covid-19, weighed in.
“At the moment it seems that we have scientific cooperation and medical cooperation, but the lack of political cooperation, or the fear of politicising may jeopardise us recovering from the Covid-19 crisis,” said Kullane.
The WHO’s latest plan follows months of lobbying by some Western countries, which include the US. Nonetheless, China has always been open and welcomed investigations into its territory.
Christening the virus, “Wuhan virus” or “Chinese virus” from the word go, the US insists that China earmarked “enormous resources to deceit and disinformation.”
Vowing that it would continue to “demand transparency”, the US’ fixation with China is as boggling as it is provocative. It is a kind of obsession akin to hegemonic and supremacism, with the US’ ideology being emitted as the alter ego onto the global arena of democracy.
It is a Hegelian ploy aimed at dividing the world in either or binaries.
Seeking to ideologically align with allies and remap a political agenda in which the American dream is enforced on the world, the US hides behind origin-tracing, and hyping the “lab leak theory.”
Experts across the world are in agreement that the US’ preoccupation with China atones for its policy blunders and questionable appeal to the domestic electorate. It is only a political gimmick, for one wonders who, in all fairness, between China and the US should be accused of “deceit and disinformation” warranting a “demand” for “transparency”?
Transparently playing its part responsibly, when first cases of Covid-19 were reported in Wuhan in December 2019, China immediately informed the WHO and shared vital genomic sequence information.
With nothing to hide, since 2020, the Asian economic giant has invited the WHO experts twice for origin-tracing. Also, the March 30, 2021 China-WHO report revealed that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.”
While the US insists that there should be a second investigation in China, the latter expresses concern in the way the Fort Detrick lab issue is handled. There have been problems emanating from the disposal of toxic materials, which prompted the US government to halt infectious disease research at the Fort Detrick Army Base in August 2019.
Notwithstanding the many calls to have Fort Detrick and its over 200 labs overseas investigated, the US has not been forthcoming. Citing security reasons, Washington remains adamant that such an eventuality is out of range. Countries who are crying themselves hoarse about the “lab leak theory”, linking the coronavirus to Wuhan, should push for the investigation of labs in other countries, the WHO-China joint experts’ team’s Chinese leader Liang Wannian, pointed out.
Historically, Fort Detrick is on record for storing numerous deadly viruses, such as Ebola and anthrax, which prompted the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention to write a letter in July 2019, asking the lab to terminate most of its operations due to security fears.
According to media reports, in the same month, respiratory diseases of mysterious origin began to appear in northern Virginia. There was also a large-scale outbreak of EVALI (e-cigarette associated lung injuries) in Wisconsin which spread to several US states.
EVALI has symptoms similar to those of Covid-19, and with the number of patients infected by the illness doubling in Maryland, which is home to Fort Detrick, in September 2019, it is only reasonable that investigations are carried out at the lab.
Deputy Director of the Department of American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies Su Xiaohui recently told the China Daily that there was a common bipartisan choice in the US to scapegoat Beijing over the origin-tracing issue.
Admonishing both China and the US to find each other for the common good of humanity, the scholar said: “China and the US, both major countries, should weather the storm and stay in the same boat together against the pandemic. But Washington has chosen an approach that better aligns with America’s interests rather than those of the international community.”
Guilty conscience or no guilty conscience disavowing, the US should come out of its shell and extend a brotherly hand to China, for the political virus is more contagious than the new coronavirus, or any other virus known to mankind.
Playing the propagandist blame game, particularly at superpower level, does not only make efforts to contain Covid-19 become mirages, but also divide international communities, and push them further into the abyss, instead of fruitfully bringing them together for the common good of all global citizens.
Online Reporter