COVID-19 blame game escalates: China points finger at US

China has reignited controversy over the origin of COVID-19, releasing a white paper that claims the virus may have started in the US rather than in Wuhan. 

The document, published by the State Council Information Office, appears to counter renewed assertions by President Donald Trump and US intelligence agencies that the pandemic began with a lab leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Caliber.Az reports, citing foreign media. 

The Trump campaign has called that theory the only plausible explanation for the outbreak.

In the report, Chinese officials wrote: “The US government, instead of facing squarely its failure in response to Covid-19 and reflecting on its shortcomings, has tried to shift the blame and divert people's attention by shamelessly politicizing SARS-CoV-2 origins tracing.”

Beijing further argues that “substantial evidence suggested the COVID-19 might have emerged in the US earlier than its officially-claimed timeline.” It cites US CDC data showing antibodies in blood samples from late 2019 — though scientists caution those results are inconclusive and may reflect exposure to other coronaviruses. 

The paper criticises the US pandemic response, alleging officials “downplay[ed] the severity of the epidemic,” and that “the US has made China the primary scapegoat for its own mismanaged Covid-19 response.” It also refers to 1,500 US lab incidents involving dangerous pathogens, but omits that most were minor. While US agencies such as the CIA and FBI now consider the Wuhan lab leak theory credible, many scientists still believe natural spillover from animals remains the most likely origin. The report concludes: “The US cannot continue to turn a deaf ear to the numerous questions over its conduct.”

By Naila Huseynova