China rejects WHO plans to revisit Covid-19 lab leak theory in new investigation
- ‘No way’ Beijing can accept origin tracing study proposal which includes possible breach of laboratory protocols
- National Health Commission deputy minister says clear conclusion from first study should not be repeatedly investigated
Zeng Yixin, deputy minister of the National Health Commission, said he was “very surprised” when he first read about the proposed study “because it places the hypothesis that ‘China’s breach of laboratory protocols caused the virus to leak’ as one of the research priorities”.
Zeng said none of the staff or postgraduates at the Wuhan Institute of Virology – at the centre of the lab leak claims – had been infected with the new coronavirus and the lab had not conducted any gain-of-function studies, referring to suggestions its research had made natural bat coronaviruses more infectious among humans.
“So where did the virus leak due to violation of laboratory protocols [theory] come from?” Zeng told a press conference. “This phase 2 study of origin tracing is both disrespectful to common sense and contrary to science in some aspects. There is no way that we accept such an origin tracing study proposal.”
“For this point, I could sense the disrespect for common sense and the arrogance towards science that the programme reveals.”
Zeng’s remarks come a week after the WHO member states received a circular detailing the agency’s proposed next steps to advance the second phase of its efforts to trace the origin of Sars-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes the Covid-19 pandemic.
Citing the conclusions of the WHO expert team released in late March, Zeng said Covid-19 was most likely to be a zoonotic disease which had spread from bats to humans, possibly through an intermediate host.