China rubbishes US report on COVID lab-leak theory: 'Pandemic shouldn't be politicised'
2 min read . Updated: 27 Feb 2023, 09:35 PM IST
PremiumOrigins-tracing of Covid is about science and should not be politicised. China has always supported and participated in global science-based origins-tracing, Chinese official said
China has rubbished the claims by a US report that has cited that coronavirus may have originated from a lab in Wuhan. It reiterated that pandemic "is about science and should not be politicised."
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning noted that the theory has been previously considered by international experts and came to a conclusion that it is "extremely unlikely" the virus has been leaked from a Chinese laboratory. She said it is a science-based, authoritative conclusion reached by the experts of the WHO-China joint mission after field trips to the lab in Wuhan and in-depth communication with researchers.
“It was accurately recorded in the mission’s report and has received extensive recognition from the international community," she said.
"The origins-tracing of SARS-CoV-2 is about science and should not be politicised. China has always supported and participated in global science-based origins-tracing," Mao said.
Mao's response is against the US Department of Energy's (USDE) latest assessment that the coronavirus mostly likely leaked from a bio laboratory in Wuhan. The USDE has assessed in the intelligence report that it had “low confidence" that the Covid-19 virus accidentally escaped from a lab in Wuhan, CNN reported on Sunday.
A low confidence assessment generally means that the information obtained is not reliable enough or is too fragmented to make a more definitive analytic judgment or that there is not enough information available to draw a more robust conclusion, it said.
The controversial lab-leak theory first emerged early on in the pandemic and was promoted by then-US President Donald Trump.
China has rejected the claim that the virus may have escaped from a laboratory, calling it a smear, and has suggested the coronavirus may have entered the country in food shipments from another country.
Given the massive human toll of the pandemic, most scientists think understanding how and where the virus originated is crucial to prevent it from happening again.
(With inputs from agencies)