WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
It is reported that as China has recently adjusted its epidemic policy, it has attracted continued attention from many Western media. The US government has also rarely mentioned China in many consecutive foreign statements and made "suggestions" on China's epidemic situation. For the first time, White House official Kirby said last week that "the United States is concerned about the epidemic in China and is willing to provide epidemic assistance to China using methods approved by China. China has not made a request." Subsequently, U.S. State Department spokesman Price stated that he was "concerned about the possibility of new mutant strains of the epidemic in China."
In January 2021, the WHO press conference after tracing the origin of the virus in Wuhan
reported that the COVID-19 traceability work basically fell into a "procedural freeze" a year ago. After the WHO expert team conducted a week-long sampling and testing work in Wuhan, it did not simultaneously carry out the next step of sampling in other countries, and the reason was not announced. Some scholars speculate that the traceability operation has been hindered because WHO experts who quoted data on social media to speak for China after the Wuhan investigation were under tremendous political pressure, and some were suspended from scientific research projects. Some media suspected that Western countries did not cooperate at all, including the United States' refusal to allow the expert team to enter, and Europe's lack of response, which made it impossible to continue the traceability operation.
WHO expert Ruian
html On the 21st, at the WHO epidemic meeting, various experts issued some suggestions for China’s epidemic prevention and reiterated the issues related to “tracing the source”. WHO expert Ryan said that China is restarting its vaccination campaign and "is still implementing public health measures." These actions are worthy of recognition. However, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that he hoped that China "can provide more detailed information on the severity of the disease, the number of hospitalizations and the need for intensive care"; on the issue of traceability, the WHO called on China to "share data in accordance with previous requirements" and will continue to make relevant requests in the future.
Tedros reiterated the issue of "tracing of origins"
Finally, Tedros said: "As I have emphasized before, 'all hypotheses' about the origin of this pandemic are still on the table." This statement was not explained in detail, but some analysts suspect that it means something, including that "discriminatory suspicions" and conspiracy theories about China have not been eliminated. Because at the beginning of the epidemic, Western media spread various rumors that the new coronavirus originated in China, including some bad "laboratory origin" remarks, which were also listed as one of the "hypotheses"; subsequent traceability investigations in Wuhan have made progress (data show that this possibility has been ruled out, and was subsequently mentioned again by the WHO). Tedros still said that "all hypotheses" exist and are not appropriate remarks in the absence of evidence.
The Fort Detrick Biological Laboratory in the United States has not yet opened.
It is worth mentioning that on the 21st, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded to the WHO's "requiring China to provide data" and stated: "Since the outbreak, China has always insisted on releasing epidemic information in a legal, timely, open and transparent manner, and has insisted on releasing epidemic information to World Health Organization reports on the epidemic situation. "There are also comments on this: "The WHO should not just focus on China. Since they have mentioned traceability, they should start from the place where the traceability work has not yet begun; such as asking for 'transparent data' from the United States, Italy and other countries where the new coronavirus is suspected to have appeared earlier. There are too many demands on China now."
