By Lan Xinzhen
US intelligence agencies failed to reach a conclusion on the origin of the COVID-19 virus within 90 days as demanded by President Joe Biden, another solid piece of evidence that the U.S. is politicizing virus origin tracing in a game of deflection. Based on the report released on August 27 by the Office of the Director of U.S. National Intelligence through an inconclusive and unclassified summary, the U.S. intelligence community was fundamentally unable to come to a firm conclusion on where the virus came from. How can intelligence agencies fix a biological problem that to this day bewilders scientists? By allowing intelligence to interfere with virus origin investigations, the U.S. Government does not really intend to uncover the beginnings of the pandemic, but purely aims to discredit China.
The report, in typical U.S. manner, accuses China of obstructing international investigations and refusing to share information and blaming other countries.
Presuming that the virus came from China and then directing the intelligence community to search for evidence denotes a presumption of guilt, which is illegal in both China and the U.S. That the Biden administration tries to trace the virus origin via dishonest means is in itself a sin, trampling on the spirit of science and the rule of law. Also, it constitutes a blow to the U.S. Government’s international credibility and cachet.
By doing so, the U.S. is hindering the international community’s anti-virus cooperation as well as the exploration into public health security.
Vital openness: China was the first to report novel coronavirus cases to the World Health Organization (WHO), but this does not mean that the virus originated from China. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has operated in a transparent, open and cooperative manner by warning the rest of the world about the virus and offering crucial information on its genetic sequence. During the WHO mission’s two visits to China, China accommodated them with anything they required. The experts visited whatever places they wanted to, met all people they needed to see, and checked any data they had to look into. Their conclusion was that a COVID-19 virus lab leak was “extremely unlikely.” This conclusion obviously ran counter to American objectives, and thus they thrust aside science and invited in the intelligence to start scripting a new virus-tracing story.
More and more information indicates that before China first reported the coronavirus, several cases had already emerged in the U.S., Italy and Spain. More importantly, before cases emerged in China, the U.S. had already experienced a public health emergency in the form of an unidentified viral infection. The symptoms presented by patients infected with this unidentified virus were very similar to those of the novel coronavirus. Even so, the U.S. still refuses to be investigated. Its current behavior undoubtedly triggers wider international suspicions regarding the roots of COVID-19 and the U.S. has gone on to become the biggest stumbling block in origin-tracing research.
Questions to answer: Suppose the United States really is interested in finding out the source of the novel coronavirus, it needs to answer the following four questions—keeping an open outlook. The questions were put forward by Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to the U.S., but thus far have gone unanswered.
First, the U.S. Government should disclose and test case samples of respiratory diseases of unknown causes that began to emerge within its borders in July 2019.
The unknown respiratory disease breaking out in the states of Wisconsin and Maryland showcased various similarities with COVID-19 symptoms. The lung illness was initially believed to have links with vaping, but after the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, the condition suddenly disappeared and COVID-19 cases began to surge. Coincidence? Perhaps. Last year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention openly admitted that several patients who were believed to have died from influenza did test positive for the COVID-19 virus.
Second, the U.S. should call upon the WHO mission to examine the notorious Fort Detrick Biological Laboratory in Maryland as well as another 200 U.S. biological labs located outside the country.
–The Daily Mail-Beijing Review News Exchange Item
