Recently, the issue of tracing the origin of the new coronavirus that has ravaged humans for three years has once again become the focus of outside discussions. Professor Tong Yigang, Dean of the School of Life Sciences, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, held a press conference on the research on the origin of the new crown at the State Council Information Office on April 8. In the study of the South China Seafood Market, the sequence of the virus was found to be almost 100% the sequence of the patient at that time. Similarly, this also suggests that the new coronavirus is likely to have originated from humans.
According to Tong Yigang, from January to March 2020, researchers from the China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted some new coronavirus detection and metagenomic sequencing on more than 1,300 environmental samples and frozen animal samples collected in the South China Seafood Market, including those in the market. More than 400 animal samples were collected. All tests on these animal samples were negative. Of more than 900 market environment samples, 73 were positive. In the process, the researchers also isolated three strains of the virus in environmental samples. After genome sequencing, it was found that the sequence of the virus was almost 100% identical to that of the patient at that time, which also suggested that the virus may have originated from humans.
Tong Yigang also said that during the analysis process, some host information carried in environmental samples showed that it was mainly human hosts, but also the genes of pigs, cattle, chickens, ducks, and some cold chain products, and even the animal genes of mice and cats. These all suggest that the new coronavirus is likely to be something contaminated by humans. These data also further confirmed the conclusions made by the joint team of China and WHO in the first phase.
At the same press conference, Zhou Lei of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said that the place where the new coronavirus was first discovered is not necessarily the source of the virus. She called for global scientific cooperation in tracing the origin of the new coronavirus.
CNN reported on Sunday that China had been severely criticized in the past for obstructing international traceability investigations of the new coronavirus. Recently, the World Health Organization stated that it still has not obtained key data from China in the early stages of the outbreak of the new coronavirus. The director of WHO’s emerging diseases program said that China’s lack of data disclosure is simply inexcusable. However, China has repeatedly insisted that it has been transparently cooperating with the World Health Organization.
On March 17 this year, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, who has always been weak against China, criticized that China’s recently disclosed genetic material collected in Wuhan “could and should have been shared three years ago.”
The genetic material Tedros referred to was collected in 2020 at a market selling wild animals in Wuhan, but China only recently uploaded it to a global database. And when foreign scientists asked the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention whether they could cooperate in research, China removed this information from the database. However, a French expert has copied the information and shared it with researchers outside China.
In addition, after the U.S. Department of Energy’s last assessment said that the origin of the novel coronavirus was most likely from a leak in the laboratory of the Wuhan P4 Virus Research Institute, the debate surrounding the origin of the virus has revived again, although the Department of Energy stated that it is confident in this conclusion. not tall.
In recent years, while the CCP authorities have confused the origin of the new crown virus, they have also let the mouthpiece party media and foreign propaganda go all out to “throw the blame” on the origin of the virus to the United States and other countries, and absolve the CCP from responsibility.
Many official media, including CCTV, Xinhua News Agency, and People’s Daily, published a series of articles several times in an attempt to “throw the blame” on the United States for the new crown epidemic, and used “separatist”, “attempting to kidnap the WHO”, and “projecting to the world” “Poison” and other words vilify the role of the United States in this epidemic.
Sohu, one of China’s four major portals, also set up a special web page “China opposes the politicization of the origin of the new crown virus”, and most of the articles point to the “blame dumping” in the United States.
Foreign media once quoted experts who analyzed that Beijing was under tremendous pressure on the issue of the origin of the new crown, and had to launch a major counterattack to confuse the public and brainwash domestic people.
The People’s Daily once published a long photo report titled “These 10 Questions the U.S. Must Answer,” sorting out ten doubts about the so-called role of the U.S. in the epidemic. However, the analysis found that most of these so-called doubts were insinuations, without any substantive evidence. For example, the article questioned why the United States had built more than 200 biological laboratories around the world, but did not mention that these laboratories have any connection with the new coronavirus.
The article also stated that in July 2019, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick was shut down urgently, and almost at the same time, a series of unexplained respiratory diseases appeared in its surrounding areas. However, according to a statement from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Detrick was asked to suspend the research project because the wastewater disinfection system in its highest biosafety level laboratory was not “perfect”, but it did not pose a threat to public health, nor did it pose a danger product leakage or personal injury.
In addition, the People’s Daily also mentioned that in October 2019, the United States sent hundreds of athletes to participate in the World Military Games held in Wuhan, during which many athletes fell ill. However, the U.S. Department of Defense has made it clear that there are no new crown cases related to the Games among active-duty U.S. military personnel.