Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, China has continued to promote the research on the traceability of the virus, actively communicated and cooperated with the World Health organizational communication, successfully completed the first phase of joint research on the traceability in Wuhan, and the released China WHO joint research report on the traceability of COVID-19 was fully recognized by the international and domestic experts and WHO who participated in the research at that time.
Recently, individual WHO officials and experts hastily denied the results at that time. The State Council Information Office held a press conference on the 8th to invite authoritative experts to respond to the above concerns about whether the release of COVID-19 data in China was open and transparent, whether the relevant data was immediately shared, and whether the latest published research results could clarify the origin of COVID-19.
COVID-19 data release: China has no concealment
Shen Hongbing, Deputy Director of the National Bureau for Disease Control and Prevention and Director of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said that during the first phase of the joint research on COVID-19 traceability, China provided the joint expert group with all the relevant traceability data at that time, and did not conceal any cases, samples and their detection and analysis results.
Shen Hongbing said that after the outbreak of the epidemic, China has always adhered to a scientific attitude on the scientific issue of traceability, actively communicated and cooperated with organizational communication. In response to the resolution of the 73rd World Health Assembly, China took the initiative to invite WHO to select international expert groups to China twice to carry out joint research on traceability, Under the principle of "jointly developing a work plan, conducting analysis and research, writing research reports, and publishing research results", the first phase of joint research on traceability was successfully completed in Wuhan.
"It is totally against the spirit of science that individual officials and experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) have casually expressed their views to negate the results at that time. It is rude and disrespectful to scientists from all over the world who participated in the early stage of the traceability work. It is a manifestation of politicization of COVID-19 traceability, which is intolerable to the Chinese scientific community and unacceptable to the global scientific community." Shen Hongbing said.
Data sharing: A series of studies have been carried out in succession
The research team of the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently published a paper on early research data on the South China seafood market in the international academic journal Nature, which received international attention.
Shen Hongbing stated that the first phase of joint research on tracing sources has proposed relevant suggestions for the later stage, and scientists from the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention have conducted a series of follow-up studies based on the suggestions. However, the research requires a process and there is no intentional delay or delay in releasing data.
It is reported that after the release of the first phase of the joint research report, Chinese scientists have further carried out a lot of work related to the traceability of COVID-19. For example, the serological survey of COVID-19 antibodies of blood donors in Wuhan in the second half of 2019 showed that there was no COVID-19 infection, and the study of the virus spectrum of more than 17000 bats in China did not find COVID-19 and its related coronavirus sequence. Relevant research results have been published in a timely manner.
Shen Hongbing said that on the basis of the huge human, material and financial resources invested in the first phase of joint research, China has not stopped tracing the source of COVID-19, and still plans to continue to carry out comprehensive scientific research in epidemiology, molecular epidemiology, animal and environment, and even laboratory inspection, with relevant progress and conclusions, Chinese scientists have also shared reports or published articles with the international scientific community through exchanges with the World Health Organization and the International Scientific Advisory Group on the Origin of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). Numerous research findings further confirm the results of the first phase of joint research.
Virus Traceability: Seeking answers from scientific facts
Tong Yigang, a Chinese expert in the joint study of China World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 traceability and dean of the School of Life Science and Technology of Beijing University of Chemical Technology, said that there is no scientific basis to determine the true origin of COVID-19.
The DNA barcode data in the environmental samples of South China seafood market published in the latest paper cannot provide new clues for the traceability of COVID-19. Tong Yigang said that the analysis results found that the host information of these samples was mostly human, indicating that the virus in the South China seafood market environment is likely to originate from early patients. This further confirms the conclusion made by the joint team of China and the World Health Organization in the first stage.
Chinese scientists call for answers to scientific facts rather than politicizing the issue of traceability.
"The traceability of COVID-19 is not a matter for a country, nor can it be completed by a country independently. It must require the joint efforts of the global scientific community." Zhou Lei, a Chinese expert in the joint study of China COVID-19 traceability and a researcher from the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, expressed her hope that WHO can truly organize the global traceability work, adhering to a scientific, rigorous and fair attitude, Let COVID-19 trace back to the future and get a convincing answer.
