Intelligence inquiry into COVID origin stands against science

By Zhou Fujing

Recently, representative Michael McCaul, Lead Republican of the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a report claiming that there is a preponderance of evidence that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) sometime before September 2019. It also alleged that the WIV, aided by US experts and Chinese and US government funds, were conducting gain-of-function research.  

China's Foreign Ministry responded: "The relevant report, totally based on the concocted lies and distorted facts without providing any evidence, is not credible or scientific."

Looking back, on May 26, AP News reported that the U.S. President Joe Biden ordered U.S. intelligence officials to redouble their efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory. Biden asked to report back within 90 days. As the deadline draws near, how is the investigation going? Have any new discoveries about the origins been made?

Medical workers are checking a patient's CT image at the Wuhan Livingroom makeshift hospital in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, February 23, 2020.

CNN reported the probe's latest progress on August 12. 

"Intelligence officials have drafted a classified report that is now in the preliminary review process, according to three sources familiar with the probe. The intelligence community is still divided over two theories -- one suggesting the virus originated from a lab in Wuhan, China, and the other suggesting it jumped naturally to humans from animals." 

No unanimous conclusion has been reached even among the U.S. intelligence officials, because it is not the correct way to do. Origin tracing is a scientific issue and should be explored by scientific means. COVID-19 pandemic is a global disaster which has impacted the most majority countries on Earth and has claimed more than 4.3 million lives worldwide, including 631,000 lives in the U.S., according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

China's stance on global origin tracing has been consistent and clear and it has participated and will continue to participate in science-based COVID-19 origin-tracing. 

In February, the WHO-China joint study report on the origins of COVID-19 was produced in full compliance with WHO procedures and with scientific methods. It has proven to be a valuable and authoritative report, which said that a Wuhan laboratory incident is "extremely unlikely" as the cause of COVID-19. The report should be the foundation and guidance for the second phase global origins tracing. Any attempt to overturn or distort the conclusions of the report is political manipulation and disrespect to science and scientists around the world. 

(The views don't necessarily represent those of the CCTV.com.)