China's government has resisted international attention on China as possible origin of Covid-19, insisting instead that the drug has multiple origins and was created in many places.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (head of the WHO) presented a plan for a second investigation in China into the origins SARS-COV-2. The proposed probe was a follow-up on a January 2021 WHO investigation that was initially blocked by Chinese authorities. It included a proposal to audit relevant laboratories and research institutes operating in the region of the initial human cases in December 2019. This was a subtle reference to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is the Director General of World Health Organization. He speaks to Wang Yi, the Chinese Foreign Minister, during a meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Beijing on July 17, 2018. | Mark Schiefelbein-Pool/Getty ImagesZeng Yixin (China's vice minister for the National Health Commission) rejected the plan. He said it ignores common sense, and defies science.China's response was not justified, stated Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota, and a member of President Joe Bidens advisory coronavirus advisory panel.Osterholm said that he believed the [WHO] question was reasonable. He argued that China's refusal to investigate the matter will fuel conspiracy speculation about how the virus got into China. This makes it appear that this is a man-made virus with an intentional release.Chris Beyrer, Desmond M. Tutu professor of human rights and public health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health called China's rejection of the probe extremely problematic.Beyrer said that China's actions were due to the Chinese Communist Party's determination to suppress any negative revelations regarding the origins and use of Covid-19.Beyrer stated that the Chinese have now established a pandemic narrative. They are pushing for it hard, and there is no chance they will change their narrative.Covid-19 has had an enormous impact on the lives and livelihoods of people all over the globe. This virus has affected 193 million people worldwide and killed over 4 million. In the same time period, more than 610,000 deaths from COVID-19 have been recorded in the United States. Global economic damage has been done by the pandemic. It has had a dramatic impact on global gross domestic product, and severely curtailed global trade in 2020.The economic and human consequences of the pandemic have been devastating. According to a U.S. Congressional Research Service report, 95 million people could have fallen into extreme poverty by 2020. 80 million of them are more hungry than pre-pandemic levels.Capitol Hill has criticized China's refusal to investigate the origin of the virus. Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA), who is the chair of the Subcommittee on Asia Pacific, Central Asia, and Nonproliferation, stated in a statement to POLITICO that China's rejection of the probe into the virus origins has drawn criticism from Capitol Hill.Rep. Ami Bera (D.Calif.), speaks at a joint hearing before the House Judiciary Committee Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee and House Foreign Affairs Committee Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Alex Wong/Getty ImagesHowever, China's derailment of the WHO follow-up investigation is not universally resentful. Hotez lays the blame for the WHO's rejection of its investigation into the Wuhan laboratory in the emergence and spread of the virus.Hotez stated that we are asking for things the Chinese government won't agree to. Hotez suggested that they bang on the Wuhan Institute of Virology's door to demand the notebooks. They will not agree to this. The WHO has a misinterpretation that you will find the truth by speaking to Wuhan Institute of Virology scientists, and poring through notebooks. Is it possible to search 15,000 pages of Wuhan Institute of Virology notebooks in order to find omissions?U.N. officials also criticize the tone of WHO's communication to China regarding the follow-up investigation. Achim Steiner (administrator of the United Nations Development Programme) and chair of United Nations Sustainable Development Group acknowledged that Tedros must tread carefully when engaging with China in a volatile period in its relations to major powers such as the United States.He said that China's interpretation of the probe was a foreign diktat, but it didn't help. Steiner explained to POLITICO that as a U.N. head, I never talk to China by telling the other capitals what to do.Geneva-based diplomat, who regularly participates in WHO weekly updates with member countries, offered a more charitable assessment of Tedros' tough talk on China. Perhaps Tedros is just realizing that China won't be able block his reelection. The diplomat requested anonymity so he could speak freely.Beyrer believes that despite the difficulties presented by the impasse between China and WHO, the long-term danger of emerging deadly coronaviruses is worth the effort to end the standoff. He said that we are currently in a battle where the virus is winning. We want to prevent future pandemics, but we also need to understand how the virus evolved and was able to spread from one person to another.Osterholm stated that the potential role of the Biden administration in brokering a solution to the impasse was limited. He called for the U.S. to focus its support for the WHO to avoid future pandemics. He said that while the administration has reviewed all information available [about SARS COV-2 origins], it doesn't mean that they have the right information to understand what the Chinese need.Hotez criticized Biden's role in increasing hostility towards China. He called for a follow up investigation using administration measures, such as the May 26 order to intelligence agencies that they redouble their analysis on the origins and produce a report within 90 days. Hotez called this request absurd.He said that we have already given all our intelligence to this problem and have not gotten to the bottom of it.
