Beijing insisted on Tuesday that it had shared information on Covid-19 “without hiding anything”, after the World Health Organization urged China to provide more data and access to understand the origins of the disease. COVID-19, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2020, has killed millions of people, ravaged economies and devastated health systems.
WHO published a statement on Monday saying it was a “moral and scientific imperative” for China to share more information.
In response, China defended its transparency, saying it had made “the largest contribution to global origin tracing research”.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning said, “Five years ago…China immediately shared epidemic information and viral gene sequences with WHO and the international community.”
“Without holding anything back, we shared our prevention, control and treatment experiences,” he told reporters at a regular press briefing.
But throughout the pandemic, WHO has repeatedly criticized Chinese officials for a lack of transparency and cooperation.
A team of experts led by WHO and with Chinese colleagues investigated the origins of the pandemic in early 2021.
In a joint report, they supported the hypothesis that the virus was transmitted from bats to humans by an intermediary animal, possibly in a market.
A team has not been able to return to China since then and WHO officials have repeatedly asked for additional data.
Mao said on Tuesday that “more and more clues” point to the “global scope of the origin of Covid-19”.
“China is willing to continue to work with various parties to promote global scientific origin tracing and make active efforts to prevent potential infectious diseases in the future,” he said.
pandemic preparedness
This month, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “If a new pandemic emerged today, the world would still face some of the same vulnerabilities and weaknesses that gave Covid-19 a foothold five years ago”.
“But the world has also learned many painful lessons taught by the pandemic, and has taken important steps to strengthen its defenses against future epidemics and pandemics,” he said.
In December 2021, countries, alarmed by the devastation caused by Covid, decided to start drafting an agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.
WHO’s 194 member states negotiating the treaty have agreed to most of what it covers, but are stuck on practicalities. A major fault line is between Western countries with major pharmaceutical industry sectors and poorer countries that are wary of being sidelined if the next pandemic hits.
While there are some outstanding issues, they include the core of the agreement: the obligation to quickly share emerging pathogens, and then the pandemic-fighting benefits derived from them, such as vaccines.
The deadline for negotiations is May 2025.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
