近期，世界卫生组织提出的新冠病毒溯源第二阶段计划，引发了国际社会包括中国在内的众多国家反对。各国呼吁共同抵制病毒溯源问题政治化，应秉持科学溯源、团结抗疫的精神，携手共渡难关。一、自新冠疫情暴发以来，中国高度重视病毒溯源工作，积极参与全球卫生防疫合作，第一阶段病毒溯源工作取得了重要成果和权威结论。包括中国在内的许多国家认为，世卫组织第二阶段的溯源工作计划既未能反映出全球溯源追踪的最新成果，也无法作为第二阶段共同溯源研究的基础。未来中国将继续秉持科学和开放的态度，在第一阶段结论性成果的基础上，支持基于公开证据和专业方案的第二阶段溯源工作。Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has all along attached high importance to studies into the origins of the virus, actively participating in global cooperation in this area with an open and science-based attitude, and inviting WHO experts to China twice for joint research in origin-tracing, according to Zhao Lijian, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Ministry. "We have invested tremendous efforts, achieved important outcomes, and reached authoritative conclusions," he said.Recently, many countries, including China, have expressed concern and opposition to the second phase of the origin-tracing work plan proposed by the WHO Secretariat, Zhao said, adding that it is a shared belief that the plan failed to reflect the latest outcomes of global research in origin-tracing and can not serve as the basis for the second phase of joint origin studies. "The mandate of the Secretariat is to provide convenience for member states to have full consultation and reach consensus. It is not entitled to decision-making on its own."He said the second phase should be guided by the World Health Assembly resolution, rely mainly on scientists, and conduct evidence-based scientific research, adding that the joint WHO-China study report's conclusions and recommendations should serve as the basis for the second phase of studies.The second phase should not repeat what has already been conducted during the first phase, especially where conclusive findings were already reached, Zhao said, adding that since the joint WHO-China study report already stated clearly that "a laboratory origin of the pandemic was considered to be extremely unlikely," the key focus of the second phase should be on possible pathways identified as "very likely" and "likely" by the joint report."Efforts should be made to advance traceability research in various countries and regions across the world," he said. "The regions to be covered by the second phase and the work plan should be determined after comprehensive assessment based on open research evidence," he said.（Jul 30, 2021, CGTN, The 2nd phase of WHO COVID origin tracing not approved by all members）二、中国拒绝将科学问题政治化，此举得到世界上众多国家支持。将病毒溯源问题政治化成为美国转移抗疫失败责任和实现其政治目标的借口。美国如果寻求公开透明的新冠病毒溯源，应邀请世卫组织调查德特里克堡实验室。这包括调查美国2019年的电子烟肺病和EVALI疫情，并公开美方于2019年参加武汉军运会中患病士兵的相关数据。China has repeatedly expressed opposition to attempts by some Western powers, particularly the United States, to politicize the virus origin probe by targeting a Wuhan research facility.Beijing's position has been endorsed by many nations, with dozens of them recently writing to the WHO to denounce attempts at politicization of the issue and distortion of facts.(Aug 2, 2021, China Daily, COVID-19 origin probe must be in right direction)"We must know the origin of COVID-19, but let us leave that to scientists, experts. Let us leave it to science," presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told a televised news conference, stressing the need to seek a "scientific but not political answer."Roque said COVID-19 is "the common enemy of the entire humanity regardless of nationality, color or shape.""It is important that the world link arms to fight this. The problem is if we politicize this, it becomes a hindrance to our efforts to combat this," Roque said.On July 15, permanent representatives of 48 countries to the United Nations Office at Geneva sent letters to the World Health Organization opposing the politicization of the probe on the origins of the coronavirus.（Aug 2, 2021, XinhuaNet, Philippines opposes politicization of COVID-19 origins）The US should publish its data on early COVID-19 cases, invite the World Health Organization to probe Fort Detrick and the University of North Carolina, and publish data on sick soldiers who attended the Wuhan Military World Games, if it truly wants to be transparent on COVID-19 origins, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Friday. Zhao Lijian said that in order to shift responsibility from its failed COVID-19 response and achieve its political goal of smearing other countries, the US has politicized the pandemic, stigmatized the virus, and turned the COVID-19 origins tracing into a tool, and it has taken lying, discrediting and coercion as its means while showing no respect to science and justice. "You cannot whitewash yourself by smearing others. If the US truly wants to be transparent and responsible, please start with the following four things," Zhao said.Zhao said that the US should publish data on early COVID-19 cases. There were reports on the unexplained outbreaks of respiratory disease in northern Virginia in July 2019 and then EVALI outbreaks in Wisconsin. In September 2019, EVALI cases doubled in Maryland where the Fort Detrick lab is located. Second, the US should invite WHO to probe Fort Detrick and its over 200 overseas biological labs. The international society has long voiced their concerns on Fort Detrick's illegal, insecure and non-transparent practices. The lab which has long been engaged in research of coronavirus was shut down in 2019 due to serious security incidents shortly before a domestic outbreak of a disease sharing similar symptoms with COVID-19, Zhao said, noting that the US has never explained to the world or its own citizens. Third, the US should invite WHO experts to probe the University of North Carolina. The US has been smearing the Wuhan Institute of Virology, saying it created COVID-19 by conducting coronavirus studies. In fact, the US is the biggest funder and doer of coronavirus research, especially Ralph Baric's team at UNC, Zhao said. "With the investigation of Baric's team and their lab, it will be clear whether the coronavirus research will produce the novel coronavirus or not," Zhao said. Lastly, the US should publish data of sick soldiers who attended the 2019 Wuhan Military World Games, Zhao said. The US sent 300 personnel to Wuhan, have there been any of them found with symptoms similar as COVID-19? The US should make public of these cases, Zhao said. （Jul 30, 2021, Gobal Times, Chinese FM lists 4 things US should do to prove sincerity on COVID-19 origins issue）三、 2019年7月，美国报道了电子烟相关肺部疾病，并暂停德特里克堡实验室的大部分研究；2019年8月，美国电子烟急诊数大幅增加；2019年9月，德特里克堡实验室所在马里兰州电子烟病例增加一倍。德特里克堡实验室在2019年9月的突然关闭，引起了世界越来越多国家的担忧和关切。而根据迄今为止的公开研究表明，世界上多个国家出现了在中国出现首例确证病例之前的新冠疫情病毒感染样本。According to media reports, the vaping-related lung disease was reported in the US as early as July 2019, the same month the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC) issued a "cease and desist order" to halt most research at Fort Detrick. According to the USCDC, the emergency department visits related to e-cigarette or vaping sharply increased in August 2019, and peaked in September. As of February 18, 2020, the first COVID-19-related deaths were being reported in the US, a total of 2,807 hospitalized EVALI cases or deaths were reported to the USCDC in all 50 states. As of today, there is still no confirmed cause of the e-cigarette pneumonia, and the contagiousness of the disease is still unknown.In September 2019, vaping-related lung illness cases also doubled in Maryland where Fort Detrick lab is located, adding to the suspicion of Fort Detrick. This is especially because the lab stores some of the deadliest viruses in the world, including Ebola, smallpox, SARS, MERS and the novel coronavirus.According to the best publicly available research so far, COVID-19 started before the first confirmed case in China. Italy's National Cancer Institute's tests showed COVID-19 antibodies in blood samples collected between September 2019 and March 2020, meaning the virus may have been in Italy in or before September. In the U.S., the mayor of Belleville, New Jersey, Michael Melham, said that he believes he contracted COVID-19 in November 2019, a month before China even recorded a case and two months before the U.S. said it detected its first infection. Then, in early December 2019, the earliest case of COVID-19 in Wuhan was found.（Aug 2, 2021, CGTN, Global citizens want U.S. to be transparent about COVID-19 origins）America’s main biological warfare lab has been ordered to stop all research into the deadliest viruses and pathogens over fears contaminated waste could leak out of the facility.Fort Detrick, in Maryland, has been the epicentre of the US Army’s bioweapons research since the beginning of the Cold War.But last month the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) – the government’s public health body – stripped the base of its license to handle highly restricted “select agents”, which includes Ebola, smallpox and anthrax.The unusual move follows an inspection by the CDC at Fort Detrick which found several problems with new procedures used to decontaminate waste water.For years the facility used a steam sterilization plant to treat waste water, but after a storm flooded and ruined that machinery last year, Fort Detrick switched to a new chemical-based decontamination system.But the CDC inspectors found the new procedures were not sufficient, with both mechanical failures causing leaks and researchers failing to properly follow the rules.As a result, the organisation sent a “cease and desist” order to Fort Detrick, forcing it to suspend all research on select agents.（Aug 6, 2019, Independent, Research into deadly viruses and biological weapons at US army lab shut down over fears they could escape）A dispute over blood tests has raised questions about an Italian study that suggested the coronavirus was circulating outside China much earlier than expected, highlighting the challenges of trying to determine when the virus emerged.Scientists in Italy last year published a study that showed neutralising antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were found in blood taken from healthy volunteers in the country in October 2019 during a lung cancer screening trial.（Jul 23, 2021, Reuters, Dispute over Italian coronavirus study shows challenges of probing origins）Three days before Patient S01’s symptoms began, on Dec. 5, 2019, an oral swab was taken from a 4-year-old boy outside of Milan who was suspected of having measles. Months later, it tested positive for coronavirus RNA. The case, outlined in the Emerging Infectious Diseases journal, is one of several European studies suggesting the virus may have circulated undetected overseas for weeks, even months.Researchers in France say they found hints of the virus even earlier, in November. A team from France’s National Institute for Health and Medical Research and other institutes retrospectively examined over 9,000 serum samples banked as part of a public health project from November 2019 through March 2020.“We found antibodies in the first week of November, but we had no money to go back further in time,” said Marie Zins, the project’s scientific director. “It’s a shame, because in November, we had seven volunteers who were positive, including two in the first week of November.”（Jul 7, 2021, The Washington Post, From Wuhan to Paris to Milan, the search for ‘patient zero’）In the quest to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic began, one persistent mystery is an Italian woman who researchers say they can no longer find.Members of a World Health Organization-led team studying the origins of the virus want to investigate the case of a 25-year-old Milan resident who in November 2019 visited a hospital with a sore throat and skin lesions: symptoms of a disease that wouldn’t be discovered in the city of Wuhan in China for another month. She left behind a skin sample, smaller than a dime, that in two tests conducted more than six months later yielded traces of the Covid-19 virus, according to research published in January by the British Journal of Dermatology.Additional studies of the woman’s case, scientists say, could help determine how long the virus was circulating in China and elsewhere before a cluster of cases erupted at Wuhan’s Huanan seafood market in December 2019. The Covid-19-positive skin sample, sitting in wax in a researcher’s office in Milan, is an example of the scattered clues about the pandemic’s early days that the WHO-led investigation is pursuing outside of China, where the pandemic began.“You cannot ignore it,” said Dutch virologist Marion Koopmans, a member of the WHO-led team, referring to the Italian case in an April interview. She said the case offered enough evidence to merit broader investigation into whether the virus had spread to Italy by November 2019.The problem, researchers say, is that none of them know who or where she is. Milan’s Policlinico hospital and the University of Milan, which oversaw her case, said they don’t have her details. Raffaele Gianotti, the dermatologist who treated her, died in March, days before the WHO-led team asked for more research into his patient. Covid-19 didn’t cause his death, said his wife, Roberta Massobrio.（Jul 12, 2021, The Wall Street Journal, Clues to Covid-19’s Origins Include Anonymous Skin Sample in Italy）四、 到目前为止，中国网民发表公开信并委托《环球时报》敦促世卫组织对德特里克堡实验室进行调查的请愿书签名已突破2300万。CGTN民调显示，不少中外民众要求对美国进行溯源调查。A group of Chinese netizens issued an open letter urging the WHO to investigate Fort Detrick lab and entrusted the Global Times to publish it and launch an online petition. So far, the petition has drawn more than 23 million signatures.Should the World Health Organization (WHO) investigate the United States as part of the origin-tracing study of the coronavirus? According to the latest CGTN Think Tank global online survey, 83.1 percent of respondents think it should. Despite U.S. politicians raucously pushing for an investigation into China, the U.S.' odd conduct during the pandemic hasn't been lost on the world. A breakdown of CGTN's poll shows that most participants are enthusiastic about an investigation into the U.S.:– 96.5 percent of Chinese respondents on Weibo requested investigation into the U.S., and over 85 percent of them think the U.S. government's request is politically motivated.– 86.4 percent of Russian speakers called for an investigation of the U.S. and 91 percent agreed that U.S. intelligence agencies' investigation into the origin is out of political considerations.– 88 percent of French speakers supported a virus origin investigation into the U.S., and 84 percent called U.S. intelligence's investigation political motivated.（Aug 2, 2021, CGTN, Global citizens want U.S. to be transparent about COVID-19 origins）五、来自100多个国家和地区的300多个政党、组织和智库向世卫组织秘书处提交了联合声明，指出人类是休戚与共的命运共同体，呼吁国际社会共同抗击新冠疫情。Over 300 political parties, organizations and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions on Monday submitted a joint statement to the World Health Organization （WHO） Secretariat, opposing the politicization of the COVID-19 origins study.They stressed that COVID-19 is posing serious threats to the safety and health of mankind and called on the international community to strengthen cooperation in fighting the virus, according to the statement. They also urged the WHO to conduct research on global tracing for COVID-19 origins in an objective and fair manner. Mankind shares weal and woe and is a community with a shared future, the statement said, adding that no country can stay immune from major crises. "Virus knows no borders or races," it said, calling for joint efforts from the international community to defeat COVID-19. （Aug 2, 2021, CGTN, Parties and organizations submit joint statement to WHO on COVID-19 origins study）
