Chinese Embassy: 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚 𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗: 𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐈

Recently, certain foreign politicians, along with some irresponsible media outlets, have been fabricating preposterous allegations and lies, to shift the blame to China for their own inadequate response to COVID-19, causing much confusion to the general public and damaging China’s image.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”. To let facts speak for themselves, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently responded to the said allegations with reality check, and is prepared to continue to reveal the truth to the world whenever new lies appear.

In the following few days, we will publish the reality check to those allegations and attach sources of information, to have lies evaporate in the light of truth.

Today comes part I: naming and origin of the virus.

𝟏. 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐢𝐬 “𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬” 𝐨𝐫 “𝐖𝐮𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬”.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤: 𝐖𝐇𝐎 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐢𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞.

◆ Drawing on the lessons about naming infectious diseases in the past, especially the huge negative impacts caused by the naming of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) in 2012, WHO, in collaboration with the World Organization for Animal Health and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, identified the Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases on 8 May 2015. According to these guidelines, the naming of a disease should avoid geographic locations, people’s names, class of animal or food, cultural, population, industry or occupational references (for example legionnaires) and terms that incite undue fear.

https://www.who.int/…/infectious_di…/naming-new-diseases/en/

◆ On 11 February 2020, WHO, on the basis of the 2015 Best Practices for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases as well as international public health practices, officially named the pneumonia caused by novel coronavirus the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

https://www.who.int/…/situatio…/20200211-sitrep-22-ncov.pdf…

◆ Last April, the British science journal Nature, published three editorials, apologizing for connecting COVID-19 with Wuhan and China. It called for an immediate stop to coronavirus stigma and the irresponsible act of associating a virus with a specific place.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01009-0

◆ The New York Times, the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and other mainstream media in the West all reported that the wrongful connection of Asian communities with COVID-19 stoked serious xenophobia, and frequent occurrences of racist discrimination and harassment against these communities.

𝟐.𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐖𝐮𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬.

𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐜𝐤: 𝐁𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐯𝐢𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐖𝐮𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧. 𝐈𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐞𝐝. 𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫, 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐢𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐬.

◆ Historically, the place that first reported a virus were often not its origin. For example, HIV infection was first reported by the US, yet it might also be possible that the virus did not originally come from the US. And more and more evidence proves that the Spanish Flu did not originate from Spain.

◆ Source tracing is a scientific matter. Its main purpose is to prevent similar epidemics from happening again and causing damage to the human society. At the moment, scientists around the world are searching for the source of the virus, and have presented many academic views on it. Chinese scientists are also earnestly conducting studies in order to provide the scientific basis for identifying the origin at an early date and dealing with the virus with targeted measures.

◆ On 24 January, The Lancet, an authoritative British medical journal, published an article co-authored by Cao Bin, Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Department of the China-Japan Friendship Hospital, Huang Chaolin, Vice President and Chief Physician of Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital, Professor Li Xingwang, an expert with the Clinical and Research Center of Infectious Diseases of Beijing Ditan Hospital, Professor Ren Lili, an expert at the Institute of Pathogen Biology of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Zhao Jianping, Director of Department of Respiratory Medicine of Wuhan Tongji Hospital, etc.

The article reviews and analyzes the first 41 confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to hospital in Wuhan between 16 December 2019 and 2 January 2020. It has found that 27 of the 41 patients had been exposed to Huanan seafood market, while the rest 14 had not. The symptom onset date of the first patient identified was 1 December 2019. None of his family members developed fever or any respiratory symptoms. This patient had no exposure to Huanan seafood market. No epidemiological link was found between him and later cases.

◆ Viruses are the common enemy of mankind, which may appear at any time and in any place. Epidemics are natural in origin, not man-made. The origin of a virus or epidemic is a victim, not a culprit. It is unfair and unacceptable to blame it or hold it accountable.

◆On 1 May, Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Programme, said that science needs to be at the center of the exploration of the source of the virus, and they would like to see scientists at the center. He also stated that the WHO had not received any data or specific evidence from the US Government relating to the purported origin of the virus.

https://www.who.int/…/who-audio-emergencies-coronavirus-pre…

◆Michael Melham, Mayor of Belleville of New Jersey, said that he has tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, and thinks he may have been sick with the virus back in November 2019. That is over two months before the first reported case in the US on 20 January 2020.

https://news.cgtn.com/…/3149444e79514464776c6d63…/index.html

◆On 6 May, USA Today reported that 171 people in Florida showed symptoms of COVID-19 as early as in January 2020, and none reported traveling to China. That was several months before officials announced it had come to Florida.

https://www.usatoday.com/…/patients-florida-had…/3083949001/

◆On 3 May, International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents published an article entitled “SARS-COV-2 was already spreading in France in late December 2019”. According to the article, researchers reviewed the medical record of 14 selected ICU patients admitted for influenza-like illness between December 2, 2019 and January 16, 2020, and retrospectively performed COVID-19 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on them between April 6 and 9, 2020. It was found that one sample was positive taken from a 42-year-old man. The absence of a link with China and the lack of recent travel abroad suggest that the disease was already spreading among the French population at the end of December 2019.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/…/artic…/pii/S0924857920301643

(to be continued)

Source: Chinese Embassy in The Gambia