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The spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian has said the US is attempting to politicize COVID-19 origin tracing and has challenged Washington to prove its “transparent and responsible” attitude in four areas.
The Spokesperson said this adding that some U.S. politicians were blaming the China of the virus coming there while they were turning blind eyes on the spread of the virus in their backyard, and growing suspicious about its biological labs.
He asked the U.S that if it’s a country of truth, responsible and transparent, they should take the following actions to prove its innocence.
Mr. Zhao said, first they (U.S) should release COVID-19 related data of cases found at the early stage of the spread, referring to outbreak reports of respiratory disease in the Northern part of Virginia. And also on the subsequent E-Vaping-related lung illness (EVALI) outbreaks in Wisconsin in July 2019.
First, Zhao said, the U.S. should release data related to COVID-19 cases found at the early stage of the spread, referring to reports about outbreaks of respiratory disease in northern Virginia and on the subsequent E-Vaping-related lung illness (EVALI) outbreaks in Wisconsin in July 2019.
Mr. Zhoa also hinted that the EVALI cases also doubled in Maryland, where Fort Detrick is located, in September 2019.
Mr. Zhao also quoted the former director of U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who last year admitted publicly that many Americans earlier thought to have died from flu tested positive for COVID-19 in their serum samples.
According to Mr. Zhao, a research carried out last year December by the U.S CDC also suggested that SARS-CoV-2 (the strain that causes COVID-19) infections may have been in the U.S in the mid-December, 2019. This he said was weeks before Wuhan reported its first case and about a month earlier than the reported first case in the U.S.
“The U.S. should undertake nucleic acid testing and antibody detection to determine whether these people had COVID-19”, the spokesperson said.
Secondly, Mr. Zhao is challenging the U.S. to invite experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) to investigate Fort Detrick lab, centre of American military research related to biology in particular, as well as its over 200 labs across the globe.
He stated that in 2019, the centre partially closed down after severe safety incidents, and had been conducting relevant long-term research on coronavirus. But a disease with symptoms same as the COVID-19 broke out and spread across the United States.
Adding that “the transparency and legitimacy of the lab’s activities drawn serious concerns not only from the citizens of the United States of America, but also from internationally known societies and that the U.S owes an explanation to the citizens and the world at large.”
Thirdly, Zhao called on the U.S. as a matter of urgency to invite WHO experts to investigate University of North Carolina, on the basis that the U.S. has always being denigrating research by the Wuhan Institute of Virology on the coronavirus, when it’s on record that the U.S. is the biggest sponsor and implementer of such research worldwide.
The spokesperson pin-pointed the University of Carolina as the pioneer in that regards. Ralph Baric, he said is also a known figure in building a new coronavirus from the existing one, and the only thing the U.S can do to clarify things easily and exonerate itself is by allowing an investigation of Baric and his team.
Lastly Mr Zhao is asking the U.S. to immediately release the report or information about its military members who took part in the 2019 Military World Games which was held in Wuhan?
“Among the over 300 participants who visited Wuhan in October 2019, did anyone show symptoms consistent with COVID-19? Several were reportedly sick during the period, what diseases did they get exactly?” Zhao asked.
