The search for the source of the COVID-19 virus has been met with political resistance in China. Despite initial statements supporting open scientific inquiry, the Chinese government has hindered meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak.
Labs have been closed, collaborations have been shattered, foreign scientists have been forced out, and Chinese researchers have been barred from leaving the country.
This obstruction has made it difficult to determine whether the virus jumped from an animal or came from a laboratory accident. The debate has further strained relations between the US and China, and there is virtually no public discussion about the virus’s origins within China.
Initially, Wuhan officials attempted to avoid blame by misleading the central government, who then muzzled Chinese scientists and subjected visiting WHO officials to stage-managed tours. The WHO itself may have compromised early opportunities to gather critical information in hopes of appeasing China.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry has defended its handling of research into the origins, claiming openness, transparency, and significant contributions to global efforts. However, experts warn that the willful blindness over the virus’s origins leaves the world vulnerable to another outbreak.
Unlike the SARS outbreak nearly 20 years ago, when China initially hid infections but later reformed, different leaders of both China and WHO, China’s quest for control of its researchers, and global tensions have led to silence when it comes to searching for COVID-19’s origins.
Secrecy clouds the beginning of the outbreak, with the date of the first official search for the virus unclear. An inspection of the Wuhan market on December 25, 2019, was mentioned by WHO officials but has never been publicly acknowledged by Chinese authorities or WHO.
When China CDC researchers arrived on January 1, 2020, to collect samples at the market, it had been ordered shut and was already being disinfected, destroying critical information.
Another early victim was Zhang Yongzhen, the first scientist to publish a sequence of the virus. His lab was closed after he urged health authorities to take action.
A WHO delegation that arrived in Wuhan on January 20, 2020, was denied a visit to the market and had limited inquiries about the virus’s origins answered.
The focus turned to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where some of the world’s most dangerous viruses were being studied. Some scientists raised concerns about the possibility of a lab leak, leading to secret investigations by the Chinese government that found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Negotiations for a further WHO visit were controlled by China’s Foreign Ministry, with scientists sidelined and politicians taking control. The itinerary excluded items linked to an origins search, and Gao Fu, the then-head of the China CDC, was left off the schedule.
The international delegation was led by Liang Wannian, a politician seen as pushing the party line rather than science-backed policies. He ruled in favor of shutting the Wuhan market and promoted an implausible theory that the virus came from contaminated frozen food imported into China.
Most of the WHO delegation was not allowed to enter Wuhan due to the lockdown. The few who did obtained limited details about China CDC’s efforts to trace the coronavirus there.
On the train, Liang lobbied the visiting WHO scientists to praise China’s health response in their public report. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saw it as the “best way to meet China’s need for a strong assessment of its response.”
As criticism of China grew, the government deflected blame instead of firing health officials. They declared their virus response a success and closed investigations with few job losses.
In late February 2020, Dr. Zhong Nanshan stated that “the epidemic first appeared in China, but it did not necessarily originate in China.” Days later, Chinese leader Xi ordered new controls on virus research and media censorship.
Chinese officials told WHO that blood tests on lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were negative, but balked at an independent audit and demanded WHO investigate the US and other countries as well.
By blaming the US, Beijing diverted attention from its own shortcomings. This strategy was effective in China but fueled speculation of a lab leak coverup outside the country.
A second WHO visit to Wuhan in January 2021 was met with a toxic atmosphere. Liang continued to promote the theory of the virus being shipped into China on frozen food and suppressed information suggesting it could have come from animals at the Wuhan market.
Despite a lack of direct access, the WHO team concluded that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely.” However, WHO chief Tedros stated that it was “premature” to rule out the lab leak theory, as such accidents were “common.” China refused further missions and told WHO to look elsewhere, leading to a halt in global cooperation.
Chinese scientists remain under heavy pressure, with researchers facing trouble for publishing papers on the coronavirus, being barred from international travel, and having their findings treated with suspicion. New evidence showing a link between raccoon dog DNA and COVID-19 in early 2020 was published and then removed by Chinese researchers without explanation.
Experts note that the trail to find the source of the virus has gone cold, highlighting the consequences of China’s political infighting and obstruction of scientific inquiry.
