Scientists and U.S. activists speak out against the U.S. call for a lab leak investigation

Lee Siu Hin
8/18//2021

On July 15, 44 countries submitted a joint letter to the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in Geneva, Switzerland  supporting WHO origin-tracing of the COVID-19 should be based on science, not politics, concluded at the joint WHO-China report, when they visit China for the origin tracing on early this year.

Another four countries later sent their separate letters welcoming the China-WHO joint research report by the WHO. The report emphasized that origin-tracing of the virus is a scientific matter and opposing the politicization of origin-tracing of the virus (the report concluded that COVID-19 is highly unlikely coming from the lab, most likely coming from the nature). By end of July, 60 countries had submitted joint letters supporting WHO conclusion.

China welcomes the move, and believes that this scientific report should be the basis and guide for promoting global origin-tracing, which would require scientists to conduct research on a global scale that would not be politicized.

In addition, on July over 25 million Chinese Net citizens have signed the petition calling for science not politics should be guiding WHO investigate the origin of COVID, and call for WHO for investigate U.S. role, especially at the Fort Detrick, on the virus origin.

For the past several months more international scientists issued reports reject the 'lab-leak' theory, shrugging off the pressure of the right-wing Western media.

Despite some politically motivated Western media and politicians who continue to exert political pressure on scientists and distort the scientific community's views on COVID-19's origins, a growing number of scientists have stepped forward and rejected the US-led "lab-leak" theory. Some scientists believe objective and scientific voices will be heard more widely and thus may prompt more objective reporting on the origins of COVID-19 in Western media.

In the most recent development, on July 8th an international team of 21 highly respected biologists led by Professor Edward Holmes from the University of Sydney and Professor Andrew Rambaut from the University of Edinburgh wrote in a pre-print paper concluded that the most likely origin for COVID-19 is zoonotic, a transfer from an animal source to humans, and that there is zero evidence for a lab accident.

The review paper said that there is no evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology possessed or worked on a progenitor of SARS-CoV-2 prior to the pandemic, according to the University of Sydney.

David L. Robertson, a professor at MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research and one of the authors of the paper, told the Global Times recently that the topic of COVID-19 origins has become "so politicized," and "it is important to make sure the right investigations are prioritized. "There's been a lot of speculation in the (western) media about the origins of SARS-CoV-2 so we decided to clearly lay out the scientific evidence," Robertson said.

He said that hopefully, by laying out the evidence in a clear and rationale way, everyone can refocus on the science.  

In addition, on July 5th 24 international scientists published an open letter in The Lancet (the World most prestigious medical journal from U.K.) reiterating the natural origins hypothesis and giving their firm support to health professionals and scientists in China and the world – these are the same views they have been holding since they published their first joint letter in February 2020 in The Lancet, when the Trump administration attempted to smear, attack and stigmatize China on COVID-19.

The 24 scientists including Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO-led team studying the coronavirus' origins, said in the letter that besides reaffirming solidarity with those in China who confronted the outbreak, they wanted to express their view on the most likely scenario that the SARS-CoV-2 originated in nature, not in a laboratory.

Not surprisingly, these open letters from the scientists, 60 countries to the WHO statements, and the 25 million Chinese Net citizens petitions received very little publicity in the U.S. and other Western press, which have been pushing the bogus lab-leak theory.

Also, not surprisingly, Australian virologist Dr. Danielle Anderson, who’s the last—and only—foreign scientist in the Wuhan lab at the end of the 2019 (Where the first COVID-19 case was found in Wuhan, China), is also speaking out. She witnessed the entire situation and did not see any evidence of lab leaks. “If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick—and I wasn’t,” she said. “I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it.”

“If presented with evidence that such an accident spawned Covid-19”, Anderson argues “could foresee how things could maybe happen,” she said, according to the recent Bloomberg interview, yet her story was not widely reported in the western media.
Beside 25 million Chinese Netizens who signed the petition calling for a Fort Detrick probe, many U.S. and Chinese civic organizations and activists also drafted their own petitions.

Beijing NGO Network for International Exchanges, one of the leading Chinese NGO organizations, has circulated their petition, to “support medical experts and scientific researchers” not politics “in carrying out thorough origin-tracing in a professional spirit covering multiple countries and multiple locations, so as to provide necessary reference experience for the prevention of the next possible pandemic.”

China-US Solidarity Network, International Action Center and hundreds of other organizations across the world have signed the petition. The joint statement reads as follows:

“As COVID-19 continues to wreck havoc across the globe, the current situation is still grave. We, political parties and organisations from around the world bearing the heavy responsibility of improving the people’s well being, promoting national development and safeguarding world peace and stability, have noted with deep concern the recent noises to politicise virus origin-tracing in international anti-epidemic cooperation. With a view to further promoting international anti-epidemic cooperation, we hereby agree to issue a joint statement as follows:

I. We are of the view that COVID-19 has been the most widespread global pandemic inflicted upon humanity for the past century or so and entails a war that all mankind declares on the virus. We as humans live in a community in which we rise and fall together with a shared future. In the face of major crises, no single country can remain insulated and intact. Viruses know no borders or races. The only way to defeat them is for the international community to work together.

II. We are of the view that science is the force that can be relied upon to defeat viruses and wipe out diseases. As the coronavirus is a new virus still unknown to humanity and its origin-tracing a serious scientific issue that must be studied by scientists and medical experts around the world through cooperation before any scientific conclusion is drawn on the basis of facts and evidences.

III. We are of the view that origin-tracing is the shared obligation of all countries. The outline of the next step work plan proposed unilaterally by the WHO Secretariat has neither complied with what is stipulated in the relevant Resolution of the World Health Assembly, nor been consulted adequately with Member States, still less fully reflected the latest research achievements of the global origin-tracing. Hence it is not conducive to offering due guidance for future cooperation thereof. Many countries have expressed their concerns about this. We call on the Secretariat of the World Health Organisation to act on relevant resolutions adopted by the World Health Assembly to advance global origin-tracing study in cooperation with all Member States, while giving full consideration to the emerging new scientific evidences and faithfully following the recommendations of the Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease 2019. We support medical experts and scientific researchers in carrying out thorough origin-tracing in a professional spirit covering multiple countries and multiple locations, so as to provide necessary reference experience for the prevention of the next possible pandemic.

IV. We are of the view that in the face of the grave threat COVID-19 poses to life, safety and health of all mankind, what the international community needs the most is to defeat the virus with greater solidarity and cooperation. Allowing the politicisation of the tracing issue to run its own course will seriously poison the atmosphere for cooperation on global origin-tracing and undermine the achievements of the joint international fight against COVID-19, which does not serve the interest of any party. We resolutely oppose any attempt of politicisation, geographical labeling and stigmatisation as well the obstruction by any political factor and political manipulation to the research process and the international anti-epidemic cooperation.

V. We are of the view that while advancing origin-tracing study, we should continue to redouble our epidemic prevention and control efforts. We need to ensure the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries and see to it that vaccines become a global public good. We appreciate the fact that China and other countries have taken positive moves in providing vaccines to the rest of the world, in particular to developing countries, making important contribution to the global anti-epidemic cooperation. We call on vaccine-capable countries to refrain from imposing export restrictions or resorting to excessive hoarding and to resolutely oppose vaccine nationalism so that the global immunization gap can be narrowed, and a stronger international fence against the virus can take shape.

VI. We are of the view that political parties and organisations of all countries must shoulder their responsibility to enhance cooperation, work hard to facilitate global anti-pandemic cooperation, policy coordination and complementary actions, so as to inject inexhaustible driving force for the global fight against COVID-19 and the building of a global community of health for all.

VII. We believe that so long as members of the international community look out for each other in the most trying times, humanity will surely prevail over the pandemic, emerge stronger from this dark hour in history and embrace an even brighter future of human development.”

From the scientific community and community activists around the world, millions of people say: NO to the U.S. call for the bogus lab leak investigation! Focus on building international solidarity and cooperation to fight against the COVID!