The U.S. has done the worst job in the global coronavirus pandemic fight and World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has suffered the “greatest pressure” as a result, China-run Global Times said Wednesday in an editorial after Tedros pushed for a more thorough investigation into the origins of the coronavirus.
The WHO on Tuesday released a 124-page report into theories on how the virus first spread to humans, though Tedros said he hoped future studies would include “more timely and comprehensive data sharing.”
“I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough,” he said on Tuesday at a briefing for member states on the report. “Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions.”
The report, conducted by a WHO team of international experts in Wuhan, China, between Jan. 14 and Feb. 10, did not contain any startling new revelations. A definitive conclusion about the virus’ origins might take years.
"You're trying to reconstruct events from a year and a half ago with incomplete sampling and data," Dr. W. Ian Lipkin, director of Columbia University’s Center for Infection and Immunity, told ABC News. "We may never know exactly what happened."
The U.S. and 13 other countries released a statement saying the WHO report was delayed and lacked access to complete data.
"It is equally essential that we voice our shared concerns that the international expert study on the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data and samples," the joint statement said.
"It is critical for independent experts to have full access to all pertinent human, animal, and environmental data, research, and personnel involved in the early stages of the outbreak relevant to determining how this pandemic emerged," the statement said.
The statement was signed by the governments of Australia, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Global Times blamed the U.S. for putting pressure on the other countries to sign the statement, which would “add heavier geopolitical burdens to scientific research in the future.”
Additionally, the Times said, Tedros “has suffered the greatest pressure. … The U.S. has forced the leader of this international organization to be politically sensitive and to walk a tightrope between science and politics.”
The news outlet went on to claim, “the U.S. has been doing the worst job in the global pandemic fight” and has “long concluded that the coronavirus was leaked from a virus laboratory in Wuhan,” and so dismissed the WHO’s conclusions on the matter.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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