Commentary: Virus origin-tracing should be conducted in multiple countries

BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The COVID-19 source tracing should be conducted in multiple countries globally other than a single nation. The United States should be one of the priority countries in the next stage of investigations by scientists.

More and more reports have pointed to separate outbreaks in multiple places globally in the latter half of 2019.

Recent studies have shown that the United States and other countries showed signs of the virus and infections before the outbreak in China. At least five states in the United States alone had earlier COVID-19 infections before the first officially reported confirmed case in the United States.

The United States is the country that saw the most infections and deaths in the pandemic and whose fight against the outbreak has a flurry of unanswered questions. But the origin-tracing work in the United States was inadequate.

In June and July 2019, U.S. media started to report issues involving Fort Detrick. By the end of July, two retirement communities near the base witnessed outbreaks of pneumonia of unknown cause. In September, vaping-related lung illness cases doubled in Maryland where Fort Detrick is located.

Despite facing mounting doubts, the United States has continued to refuse to release critical information regarding the base's closure under the pretext of "national security."

Instead, the United States has tried to stigmatize China's concerted and effective anti-virus measures, despite the fact that China did its best to organize and coordinate with relevant parties to meet the needs of the World Health Organization (WHO) expert team who visited Wuhan in central China to carry out the virus-source tracing and relevant global research jointly with Chinese experts.

The expert group concluded that the so-called "lab leak" theory is "extremely unlikely" and recommended conducting further research around earlier cases globally.

The purpose of the United States is barefaced. It is to shirk responsibility for their spotted epidemic response and achieve the political purpose of discrediting and suppressing other countries. It is necessary to record this ugly page in the annals of humanity's fight against the pandemic.

The origin-tracing should not be manipulated by politics. It should not be used to blame any one country, let alone splitting the international community.

Other than being obsessed with finger-pointing and buck-passing, the U.S. side should open its door to investigations by international scientists to answer the many questions of the global community and contribute to origin-tracing of the COVID-19 virus.

Tracing the COVID-19 virus is a complex scientific matter that calls for a global collaboration of scientists with a global perspective. Politicizing the matter will impede this effort and kill more lives.

China would continue to support and participate in global origin-tracing cooperation in the spirit of openness, transparency, science and cooperation. Other countries, particularly the United States, need to follow suit.