This photograph taken on March 5, 2021 shows the flag of the World Health Organization (WHO) at their headquarters in Geneva amid the COVID-19 outbreak. (FABRICE COFFRINI / AFP)

The world needs a “de-politicized environment” for the study of the COVID-19 virus’ origins, as the whole process of the study is being “poisoned by politics”, according to the World Health Organization and scientists.

Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program, called on “everyone out there to separate, if they can, the politics of this issue from the science”.

“If you expect scientists to do their work, if you expect scientists to collaborate and actually get the answers that you want, actually seek in a non-blaming environment to find the origin of the virus so we may all learn how to prevent this happening in the future, we would ask that this be done in a de-politicized environment where science and health is the objective of this and not blame on politics,” Ryan said at a WHO press briefing on May 28.

He said it is “quite disturbing” to see in recent days “more and more and more discourse in the media with terribly little actual news or evidence or new material” concerning the possible origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the culprit behind the current COVID-19 pandemic.

After US media hyped up a lab-leak conspiracy, US President Joe Biden said in a statement in late May that he has called for a United States-based probe into the origin of COVID-19, and given intelligence agencies 90 days to report on whether the virus originated from an animal source or from a laboratory accident. 

While calling on governments to work together and create the space for the study on the virus’ origin to be done successfully, Ryan said the current politicization of this issue has put the WHO in a “very unfair” position to “deliver the answers that the world wants”.

Maria Van Kerkhove, COVID-19 technical lead for the WHO, suggested that everyone read in detail the virus’ origin study report publicized by the WHO team of international experts in March, which covers a wealth of knowledge and clearly outlines the technical approach concerning further study on the virus’ origin.

According to the report, COVID-19 introduction through an intermediate host is “likely to very likely”, with introduction through cold/food chain products “possible,” and introduction through a laboratory incident “extremely unlikely”. 

Finding the virus’ origins requires many studies and multiple missions, in which collaboration, openness and time are needed, she noted. 

Other experts have pointed out that it is neither professional nor scientific for the US to bring in intelligence agencies on the matter pertaining to the origin-tracing of COVID-19.

In London, Jeremy Farrar, director of charitable foundation Wellcome Trust, and a renowned medical researcher, has said that there is no place for “unsubstantiated rumor, or conspiracy theories often fueled for political purposes” when it comes to the origin tracing of COVID-19.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak, some US politicians have ganged up with media outlets to construct narratives by cutting out facts and fabricating lies. A report published on Feb 12 by The New York Times deliberately distorted and garbled the remarks by members of a WHO expert team sent to China on a COVID-19 origin-tracing mission.

In response, British zoologist Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team who was misquoted by the US media, said in a tweet: “As lead of animal/environment working group I found trust & openness with my China counterparts. We DID get access to critical new data throughout. We DID increase our understanding of likely spillover pathways.”

A so-called timeline by The Washington Post published on May 25, which tried to fan the lab-leak conspiracy theory, was also strongly refuted by experts.

Kari Debbink, assistant professor at the department of natural sciences of Bowie State University in the US, tweeted that the timeline is “trash”. “This piece presents facts from a highly biased perspective meant to mislead people into thinking a lab leak is extremely likely,” she wrote.

Citing some scientists, an article published recently in British scientific journal Nature said “the rhetoric around an alleged lab leak has grown so toxic that it’s fueling online bullying of scientists and anti-Asian harassment in the United States, as well as offending researchers and authorities in China whose cooperation is needed.”

Hume Field, a science and policy advisor on China and Southeast Asia at EcoHealth Alliance in New York, said, “I concur with the many scientists who say that politicizing the science does not help genuine efforts to identify the origins of SARS-CoV-2, or ongoing collaboration between Chinese and Western scientists.” 

In Beijing, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian at a press briefing on May 27 urged the US to immediately work with the WHO on COVID-19 origin tracing in a science-based way like China did.

The fact that some people in the US have repeatedly called for a reinvestigation of China while ignoring WHO experts’ findings shows that “they want to use the epidemic to stigmatize and engage in political manipulation, and to shift the blame,” he said.

Analysts noted that US intelligence has a notorious track record, as the world has known for long. Its masterpieces included the so-called evidences from intelligence sources on Iraq’s purported weapons of mass destruction, and the staged “White Helmets” video in Syria attacking Syrian government forces. 

“How can anyone trust the findings from an ‘investigation’ conducted by such an intelligence organ with no credibility to speak of?” Zhao added.