New WHO investigation: China could be blamed for spreading coronavirus

Irina Mishina

WHO experts announced the creation of a special group to study the nature of pathogens. In their opinion, this is necessary in order to timely assess the possibility of outbreaks of dangerous diseases. The group included 28 experts, including from Russia, Brazil, Germany, India, China, the USA and France. The experts have already held their first meeting.

Recall that in late October, US intelligence published a report on the origin of the coronavirus. It said that two versions are considered the main ones: natural transmission from an animal to a person, or a “laboratory-related incident”. At the same time, the authors noted that China "continues to obstruct the global investigation" by not supporting the exchange of information and "blaming other countries, including the United States". China called the conclusions of US intelligence about the origin of the coronavirus "unscientific and false".

However, there are facts that can serve as indirect evidence of the artificial origin of the Covid-19 virus. As the journalists found out, despite the temporary moratorium that the US government imposed on funding research to enhance the functions of pathogenic viruses, work in this area received special permission and continued. In addition, there is confirmation that the " synthetic construction of a chimeric mutant" - an artificially created coronavirus - has been approved by the US Dual Use Research Committee (Dual Use Research of Concern committee). And the laboratories of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, whose scientists took part in this study, were assigned the highest level of danger back in 2015.

“There could have been a leak from the lab. The location of the coronavirus outbreak is Wuhan, where the famous Chinese laboratory is located, perhaps not by chance. In general, there are more than 100 laboratories in China that deal with viruses. The laboratory in Wuhan deals with coronavirus infections. Such studies were going on, however, not only in China, there were a number of publications with the participation of American scientists. Anecdotal evidence points to the possibility of the virus leaking out of the lab. It is interesting to note that Wuhan is located north of the habitat of bats, which are considered carriers of the coronavirus. There is a possibility of a leak from the laboratory. There is no way to prove this yet”, - said Pavel Volchkov, head of the laboratory of genomic engineering at the Moscow Physics and Technology University, to NI.

Russian scientists, however, are alarmed by one fact. The SARS-Cov-2 virus is not a "close relative" of any known coronavirus. According to scientists, it cannot be ruled out that the Wuhan specialists had some unpublished, unpublished viruses and they were leaked from the laboratory. Bioinformatician Alexander Panchin noted: “Only the Covid-19 coronavirus has an interesting ability to evade the human immune system. And it's weird".

And yet, today there are no concrete facts that would confirm the laboratory origin of SARS Cov2. There is also no consensus in the scientific community on this issue.

“If we talk about viruses that were bred for military purposes, there is also much that does not converge. The “ideal” “combat” virus will destroy the maximum amount of manpower in a short time and soon after that will cease to be active, clearing the territory for occupation by troops. If my memory serves me, about 2 years ago, WHO already started an investigation into the nature of SARS Cov2, and the hypothesis of a laboratory origin was not confirmed. Then there were complaints that the Chinese were reluctant to share information. However, in countries where civil society is not strong enough, they generally like to hide information, but this often leads to problems, because the secret becomes interesting”, - says Stanislav Ostavnov, head. Laboratory for the analysis of indicators of public health and digitalization of public health at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology.

However, today even the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhan Ghebreyesus, does not rule out the version of the laboratory leak of SARS-CoV-2. According to him , there was not enough "transparency and cooperation" on the part of China at the initial stages of the investigation, and there were difficulties with the exchange of data.

“It cannot be ruled out that the WHO launched an investigation into the laboratory origin of SARS Cov2 for political purposes, in order to put pressure on China”, - said Stanislav Ostavnov, the head of Laboratory for the Analysis of Population Health Indicators and Digitalization of Population Health at MIPT.

But questions for the Chinese side still remain.

“It is not clear why, from the very beginning of the pandemic and at its height, the Chinese traveled freely around the world. It is important to understand the origins of the problem. And this is impossible without a political investigation. China may be in the chain of circumstances the prime suspect. This will put China at a disadvantage. The WHO may be interested in such an investigation, since China is not a friendly country for the West. The results of the investigation may vary. For example, preventive measures can be taken: restriction of movement, financial claims against this country, a requirement to compensate for losses, accusations of malicious intent”, - political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov believes.

“Let’s say, even if we manage to find out that this virus was of laboratory origin, what’s next? How will this affect the health of people around the world? Vaccines have already been invented, millions of people have either been ill or vaccinated, that is, they have acquired immunity. The dead cannot be returned. I don't see much point in such an investigation. Except from a political point of view. But the question arises: what to do next with the conclusions that the WHO commission will make? MIPT laboratory Stanislav Ostavnov.

Political scientist Ilya Grashchenkov disagrees with him: “Personally, I welcome such an investigation, because we need to understand whether the transportation of other strains will continue. It is important to prevent and stop this. And the covid story itself with lockdowns and millions of deaths was very painful. Yes, vaccines have been invented. But the vaccine race was highly questionable”.