BEIJING (AP) — Chinese health authorities on Saturday defended their research into the origin of the COVID-19 virus and criticized the World Health Organization after its leader said Beijing should have shared the genetic information sooner.
The WHO director-general’s remarks were “offensive and disrespectful,” said the director of China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shen Hongbing. In addition, he accused the United Nations health agency of “trying to smear China” and noted that he should avoid helping others “politicize COVID-19.”
On March 17, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that newly revealed genetic material collected in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the first cases were detected in late 2019, “should have been shared three years ago.”
“As a responsible country and as scientists, we have always actively shared research results with scientists around the world,” Shen said at a press conference.
The origin of COVID-19 continues to be the subject of debate and bitter political disputes.
Many scientists believe it passed from animals to humans at a market in Wuhan, but the city also has laboratories, including the country’s main virus collection center. This led to the suggestion that COVID-19 may have leaked from one of them.
The ruling Communist Party has tried to deflect criticism of its handling of the outbreak by casting doubt on its origins.
Chinese officials have repeated anti-American conspiracy theories that the virus was created by Washington and smuggled into China. The government also maintains that it may have arrived in the country in postal or food shipments, although foreign scientists see no evidence to confirm this hypothesis.
Chinese authorities withheld information about the 2019 Wuhan outbreak and sanctioned a doctor who tipped off the new disease. The party changed strategy in early 2020 and locked down major cities and suspended most international travel to contain the spread.
