"Politicizing COVID-19 origin tracing will cost more lives" - China

KATHMANDU, Nepal

The move to politicize COVID-19 origin tracing will achieve nothing but jeopardize anti-pandemic cooperation and cost more lives in the face of resurgent and frequent mutations of the virus, cautioned Chinese ambassador to Nepal.

Nurse Han Miaomiao takes a swab sample from a resident for COVID-19 nucleic acid testing in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, Aug. 4, 2021.

"The irresponsible and unscientific act of politicizing this issue is the most dangerous political virus, which will only severely hinder global cooperation in the study of origins, jeopardize anti-pandemic cooperation, and cost more lives," Hou Yanqi said in a signed article published Monday on the English edition of Onlinekhabar.com, a news portal in Nepal.

"We believe that only if all the parties of the international community unite and cooperate in the spirit of science to find the true origin of the virus which endangers human life, we can effectively deal with and defeat this virus and create enabling conditions for protecting the common safety and health of humankind and promoting economic recovery," Hou said.

China has taken the lead in cooperating with the World Health Organization (WHO) in an "open, transparent and responsible" manner, invited twice the WHO expert group to China for origin study, released the joint WHO-China study report in March and made "important contributions" to international cooperation on origin-tracing, she said.

"This effort should be continued in unity with other actors as it is the only way to defeat the virus," she wrote.

The attempt by some countries and individuals "to scapegoat China in order to shift responsibility for its poor COVID-19 response and achieve the political motive of smearing and suppressing China" has met opposition from people of vision, nearly 70 countries as well as over 300 political parties, organizations and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions, Hou wrote.

"It must be pointed out that the virus origin-tracing is a complex scientific issue and should be studied by scientists in the spirit of science," she said.

"All the countries in the world should also actively participate in global cooperation on origin-tracing with an open-minded attitude and jointly study the source of the coronavirus in order to provide support to the global fight against the pandemic," she wrote.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. It was first isolated from three people with pneumonia connected to the cluster of acute respiratory illness cases in Wuhan, China.