China refuses to “politicize” investigation on origin of COVID-19 after creation of new committee in WHO

China affirmed that it opposes “any kind of political manipulation” on the origin of the coronavirus pandemic after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday the composition of a new committee to continue investigating how COVID emerged. 19.

This new committee, called the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origin of New Pathogens (SAGO) and made up of 26 experts, will also investigate the causes of future dangerous pathogens.

“China He has always maintained that he will support and participate in the investigations. But we are opposed to any kind of political manipulation on this matter, “said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian today at a press conference.

The spokesman added that the WHO must “hang on” to the report that the organization published in March after visiting the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first cases of COVID-19 in 2019.

In that report, the researchers left open four hypotheses about the origin of the pandemic, but stated that many more studies were needed to reach a definitive conclusion.

Relations between the Asian country and the agency seemed to deteriorate last summer after the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, asked China for “transparency” and “raw data on the first days of the pandemic”.

However, Beijing has limited itself to ensuring that it did not hide data or hinder the work of the scientists who traveled to Wuhan, and insists that everything that should be analyzed in its territory has already been done, with which the investigations should pass to other countries, in particular to USA.

Beijing repeatedly attacked Washington following a report by the US intelligence services that, despite not reaching a consensus on the origin of the virus, did not rule out that it was the product of an accident in a laboratory.