China is once again blocking the WHO investigation to try to determine the origin of Covid-19.
The World Health Organization recently urged all countries to "publish all data on the virus" they have.
A call that was also addressed to China, where the leak of the coronavirus from a laboratory in Wuhan, remains one of the “probable” hypotheses.
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A team of international experts, sent by the WHO, had visited Wuhan in January 2021. Their report, written in collaboration with Chinese specialists, had not made it possible to establish a definitive conclusion on the origin of the virus.
China considers initial WHO investigations sufficient
This Friday, Beijing decided to stick to its positions defended for several months.
Indeed, China believes that the initial investigations carried out by the WHO are sufficient and that the organization does not need to carry out further research.
It even considers that these requests for additional data constitute a “political” approach.
"We are opposed to the politicization of the search for origins (...) and to the abandonment of the joint China-WHO report," said Ma Zhaoxu, deputy foreign minister before adding that future research "cannot be prosecuted only on the basis of this report.
It's not about starting all over again ”.
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The initial investigation considered in particular that the passage of the coronavirus from the bat to the man via an intermediate animal is the most probable scenario and considered "extremely probable" that the virus comes from a laboratory based in Wuhan.
However, it was impossible for the WHO to establish a definitive conclusion, hence the request for additional investigations.