China accuses WHO of defaming it over COVID-19 data demands

China's top public health official has reportedly accused the World Health Organization (WHO) of defamation after its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Beijing should have shared genetic information about COVID-19 much earlier. Shen Hongbing, the director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), termed the WHO chief's comments "offensive and disrespectful," accusing him of "attempting to smear China," Associated Press reported.

• On March 17, Ghebreyesus stated China should have shared the newly-released COVID-19 genetic material acquired in Wuhan "three years ago."
• Notably, the COVID-19-causing virus was first discovered in Wuhan in 2019 and soon led to a global pandemic.
• Many theories regarding its origins have since surfaced. Some accused China of creating the virus in a lab and leaking it to disrupt the world economy.

While terming the WHO chief's comments as "offensive and disrespectful," Shen said the world health body was "attempting to smear China" and asserted that it should avoid helping others "politicize COVID-19". "As a responsible country and as scientists, we have always actively shared research results with scientists from around the world," he said at a press conference.

Over the alleged missing COVID-19 genetic evidence from Wuhan last month, WHO Director-General Ghebreyesus rebuked China for allegedly hiding scientific research that might reveal the origin of the virus. He said there was an immediate need to share it with the international community. "These data could have—and should have—been shared three years ago," he added.

An international team of virus experts reportedly downloaded the aforementioned material—which first appeared online in January and disappeared later—and began examining it before it went missing online, reported The New York Times. The experts alleged the data backed the belief that the COVID-19 pandemic might have started from the illegally traded raccoon dogs, which infected humans at Wuhan Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in China.

The debate over the COVID-19 origins sparked a political uproar after several world scientists stated the virus originated from Wuhan and that China mismanaged it, resulting in the global pandemic. The Communist Party of China also allegedly attempted to deflect criticism by raising doubts about its origins. There were also anti-United States conspiracy beliefs that it was manufactured and transported into China by Washington.