Don’t Let the Political Virus Contaminate the Origin-Trancing of COVID-19
莫让政治病毒玷污新冠病毒溯源工作
18 August 2021
2021年8月18日
At present, the frequent mutation of the COVID-19 variants has caused a fluctuating global pandemic, the prevention and control situation is still very tough worldwide. While the world is tenaciously fighting against the disease, a few countries led by the United States do not focus on domestic epidemic prevention, but instead engage in political manipulation on the issue of the origin of COVID-19. It is gradually evolving into a political farce as the investigation tends to discarding and opposing the scientific approach. The origin-tracing of virus is a serious and complex scientific research. Its purpose is to prevent and better respond to similar public health crises that may arise in the future. It should be done without any politicization, stigma, and ideological interference. Here today, I would like to share a few points with you.
当前，新冠肺炎病毒频繁变异造成世界疫情起伏反复，全球防控形势依然十分严峻。就在全世界与毒魔顽强战斗的时候，以美国为首的少数国家不把精力放在国内防疫上，而是在病毒溯源问题上大搞政治操弄，导致溯源研究去科学化、反科学化的倾向不断上升，正在逐步演变成一出政治闹剧。病毒溯源是严肃复杂的科学问题，其目的是为了防范并更好应对今后可能出现的类似公共卫生危机，容不得任何政治化、污名化和意识形态化的干扰破坏。今天在这里，我想同大家分享几点看法。
It is necessary to adhere to a scientific attitude in tracing the source of the virus. The purpose of tracing is to find out the source of the virus and understand the mechanism of transmission. The Chinese government has always advocated in conducting the study of origins on the basis of facts and respect for science, and has twice invited experts from the World Health Organization to work in China. At the beginning of this year, international authoritative experts from 10 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Australia formed a joint expert group with China’s authoritative experts to conduct a 28-day joint research in China. During which they went to all the places they wanted to go, met all the people they wanted to see, and made the scientific conclusion that “the Wuhan laboratory leak is extremely unlikely”. They also put forward important suggestions such as “searching for possible early cases worldwide” and “studying the possibility of cold chain transmission of the virus”. The above-mentioned work process follows the standard procedures of the WHO, which is authoritative, professional and scientific-based. It is universally recognized and respected by the international community. It also lays a good foundation based on which subsequent global origin-tracing efforts should be carried out.
病毒溯源必须坚持科学态度。溯源的目的就是要弄清病毒来源、了解传播机理。中国政府始终主张在基于事实、尊重科学的基础上开展溯源研究，并已两次邀请世界卫生组织专家来华开展工作。今年初，来自美国、英国、日本、澳大利亚等10国的国际权威专家同中国权威专家组成联合专家组，在华开展了为期28天的联合研究，其间专家们在中国去了所有想去的地方，见到了所有希望见到的人，得出了“武汉实验室泄漏极不可能”的科学结论，提出“在全球范围内搜寻可能的早期病例”“研究冷链传播病毒的可能性”等重要建议。上述工作过程遵循世卫组织的标准程序，体现了科学性、专业性和权威性，得到国际社会普遍认可与尊重，也为推进下一阶段全球溯源工作打下良好基础。
The study of origins of virus must not be politicized. The US openly called COVID-19 the “Wuhan Virus” last year and withdrew from WHO. From the very beginning, the US has tried to politicize the pandemic and stigmatize the virus. It even turns a blind eye to the hard work of scientists by resorting to the intelligence community to conduct origin-tracing and hype up the so-called lab-leak theory with the presumption of guilt. Its motive is to attempt to evade the responsibility of its failure to fight against the virus to China with this, and achieve the political goal of discrediting and suppressing China’s development. Due to the strong political pressure imposed by the United States, the WHO Secretariat took the assumption that “China violated laboratory procedures and caused virus leakage” as the focus of the Phase II origin study, which was generally considered extremely unlikely by scientists. It has completely deviated from objective neutrality, discarded the scientific conclusions and professional recommendations of the joint research study between China and WHO. From which it can be clearly seen the traces of American “political manipulation”. China absolutely cannot accept this. Recently, more than 70 countries have supported the China-WHO origin-tracing joint study report and opposed the politicization of the issue by writing letters to the Director-General of WHO, issuing statements or notes.
病毒溯源必须避免政治化。从去年公然把新冠病毒称为“武汉病毒”，到悍然退出世卫组织，美国从一开始就试图把病毒污名化、疫情政治化，如今又无视科学家们的辛勤工作，荒唐地动用情报部门来搞溯源，大肆炒作有罪推定的所谓武汉“实验室泄漏论”，其目的就是企图借此把自身抗疫失败的责任转嫁到中国身上，抹黑攻击中国，牵制打压中国发展。在美国强大政治压力的裹挟下，世卫组织秘书处将“中国违反实验室规程造成病毒泄漏”这个被科学家们普遍认为极不可能的假设作为溯源研究第二阶段的重点，完全偏离客观中立立场，彻底抛弃了中国与世卫组织联合研究报告的科学结论和专业建议，从中可明显看出美国“政治操弄”的痕迹，中国对此断然不能接受。近期，70多个国家通过致函世卫组织总干事、发表声明或照会等方式，支持中国—世卫组织溯源联合研究报告，反对溯源问题政治化。
The origin-tracing of the virus must work on global cooperation. The investigation of the virus origin should be based on a global perspective, and it should be carried out by scientists in a larger area and scope, and many mysteries should be solved through equal exchanges and candid cooperation between countries. China is the first country to inform the world about the epidemic, but there is no scientific evidence that COVID-19 originated in China. In fact, judging from the overall situation of the pandemic, more and more research and clues point to the United States, especially the notorious US military biological experiment center in Fort Detrick. The National Institutes of Health in the United States analyzed the blood samples of 24,000 American citizens and found that the virus appeared in the U.S in December 2019. Fort Detrick laboratory was shut down after a “security incident” in July 2019. Then a large-scale outbreak of “white pneumonia” occurred in the nearby area. CT scan showed part of the patient’s lung was lumpy and fuzzy white, which was very similar to the symptoms of COVID-19. The laboratory of the University of North Carolina near Fort Detrick has long been conducted coronavirus related research. The SARS-type coronavirus was successfully synthesized as early as 2003. The laboratory has a close cooperation relationship with Fort Detrick in this regard, and has had multiple safety incidents every year since 2012. In October 2019, the United States sent more than 300 military athletes to Wuhan to participate in the World Military Games. Five of them had symptoms similar to COVID-19 and were hurriedly picked up by a special plane sent by the US military. A few days ago, 25 million people in China signed a petition requesting the international community to investigate the Fort Detrick Laboratory in the United States. In response to the concerns of the international community on these issues, the United States has always been silent and concealed. What truth are they covering up?
病毒溯源必须开展全球合作。病毒溯源应基于全球视野，由科学家在更大的区域和范围内展开，通过各国平等交流、坦诚合作来解开众多谜团。中国是第一个向世界通报疫情信息的国家，但没有任何科学证据表明新冠病毒源于中国。事实上，从新冠流行的总体情况看，越来越多的研究和线索指向美国，特别是臭名昭著的美国军方生物实验中心德特里克堡。美国国立卫生研究院通过对2.4万名美民众血液样本的分析发现，新冠病毒2019年12月就已在美出现；德特里克堡实验室于2019年7月发生“安全事故”而后关闭，随即附近地区大规模暴发“白肺病”，患者肺部CT部分区域呈现团状模糊的白色，与新冠肺炎症状极其相似；靠近德特里克堡的北卡罗莱纳大学实验室长期进行冠状病毒相关研究，早在2003年就成功合成出非典（SARS）类冠状病毒，并在此方面与德特里克堡有着密切合作关系，而该实验室自2012年以来每年都会发生多起安全事故；2019年10月，美国派出300多名军人赴武汉参加军运会，其中有5人出现类似新冠症状，被美军方派专机匆忙接走。日前，中国有2500万人联署签名，要求国际社会调查美国德特里克堡实验室。针对国际社会对这些问题的关切，美方始终三缄其口、遮遮掩掩，他们到底在掩盖什么真相？
The COVID-19 pandemic is the common enemy of mankind, but what is more terrifying than the novel coronavirus is the political virus that undermines the overall situation of the global fight against the pandemic. We should uphold the concept of science, openness and transparency, not sparing any chance to political virus, unite and cooperate to promote the early success of origin-tracing work.
新冠肺炎疫情是人类共同的敌人，但比新冠病毒更可怕的，是破坏全球抗疫大局的政治病毒。我们应秉持科学、开放、透明的理念，不给政治病毒任何可乘之机，团结合作推进溯源工作早日取得成功。