(TibetanReview.net, Dec31’24) –The World Health Organization (WHO) has on Dec 30 invoked “moral and scientific imperative” to implore China to share data and access to help understand the origins of Covid-19, five years on from the start of the pandemic that upended the planet, only to be rebuffed by Beijing’s reiteration of its past stock response, claiming to extend a non-existent full co-operation.
“We continue to call on China to share data and access so we can understand the origins of Covid-19. This is a moral and scientific imperative,” the Geneva-based WHO has said in a statement.
“Without transparency, sharing, and cooperation among countries, the world cannot adequately prevent and prepare for future epidemics and pandemics,” the WHO has said.
Covid-19 pandemic killed more than seven million people, shredded economies and crippled health systems, noted the AFP Dec 31.
Beijing has reiterated its stance, issuing a stern response on Dec 31, claiming it had shared information on Covid “without holding anything back.”
The WHO has recounted how on Dec 31, 2019, its country office in China picked up a media statement from health authorities in Wuhan concerning cases of “viral pneumonia” in the city.
“In the weeks, months and years that unfolded after that, Covid-19 came to shape our lives and our world,” the UN health agency has said.
The Chinese response to the latest WHO plea for data and access from the source of the pandemic’s outbreak came from China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning who said, “Five years ago… China immediately shared epidemic information and viral gene sequence with the WHO and the international community. Without holding anything back, we shared our prevention, control and treatment experience, making a huge contribution to the international community’s pandemic-fighting work.”
But despite what China claims, reports on China’s response to the WHO pleas for data and access on successive occasions speak of lack of cooperation.
China has in the past strongly rejected the lab leak theory. In September, a team of scientists said it was “beyond reasonable doubt” that the Covid pandemic started with infected animals sold at a market, rather than a laboratory leak, noted the bbc.com Dec 31.
In 2021, a WHO-led team spent weeks in and around Wuhan – where the first cases were detected – and said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another animal but further research was needed.
China then said no more visits were necessary and that the search for early cases should be conducted in other countries, noted Reuters Dec 31.