Is the tide turning against China, finally? Are questions being asked about the origins of Covid-19 and is pressure mounting on the US government in particular about holding China accountable for the spread of the virus that has crippled the world? Equally importantly, will pressure now mount on China to disclose everything about the virus so that a treatment can be found, or the best way to contain it? After over a year’s silence on the Chinese communist regime’s direct involvement in the spread of the virus worldwide, legacy media in the United States seems to have started asking the right questions: where, when and how did the virus emerge? In this context, it does not come as a surprise that the US may have known all along that Covid-19 may not be a natural virus. A Wall Street Journal report on Sunday disclosed a US intelligence report that says that way back in November 2019, much before China admitted the existence of the virus, three researchers working in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), fell ill with a mysterious illness and had to seek hospital care, thus suggesting that the virus may have escaped from the laboratory, even if not deliberately leaked. Interestingly, the face of America’s fightback against Covid-19, Dr Anthony Fauci too has suddenly made an about-turn about the origin of the virus. A year ago, in May 2020, Dr Fauci was clear that the virus was natural and did not result from a laboratory leak. In an interview to the National Geographic, he had said that “If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats…[it] could not have been artificially or deliberately manipulated.” The very same Dr Fauci said in early May 2021 that “I am not convinced about that (if the virus originated naturally), I think we should continue to investigate what went on in China until we continue to find out to the best of our ability what happened… So, you know, that’s the reason why I said I’m perfectly in favor of any investigation that looks into the origin of the virus.” Dr Fauci’s change of heart could have had to do with the fact that he is countering serious allegations that the National Institutes of Health under him funded a “gain of function” research on bat coronaviruses at the WIV. Even though he denies he did it, only an independent investigation into the origin of the virus will exonerate him of all the charges hurled at him. So it’s hoped that the formidable Dr Fauci will use his influence with the Joe Biden administration to push for an independent probe into the origin of the virus.
In fact, it was the World Health Organization that should have helmed the probe—a proper probe and not the Chinese-dictated one that the earlier one was, led by 17 Chinese scientists and 17 international scientist whose names were vetted by Beijing. But then the last one year has dealt a body-blow to WHO’s credibility for the way it did Beijing’s bidding in trying to deflect attention from China’s role in the spread of the pandemic. Even now, when WHO expands its list of anti-Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use, it approves China’s Sinopharm, about whose efficacy serious questions exist, but not India’s Covaxin, one of the most potent vaccines in the market. Apprehensions are that by the time Covaxin gets its approval, China’s vaccine would have flooded the poorer countries in spite of its dubious quality, but not provide them with adequate protection against the virus, thus endangering the health of large swathes of people. Can a world body behaving like China’s handmaid ever be trusted to conduct an independent probe? India had an opportunity to push for such a probe when it was elected chairman of WHO’s executive board exactly a year ago on 22 May 2020, and it would have had the support of the developing world in this, but it wasted it. Even as India gave up the chair on Monday, it will continue to be a member of the executive board until 2023. Will it be too much to expect India to take the lead against China in the next two years? Also, at a time when External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is visiting the US, it is hoped that he will impress upon Secretary of State Antony Blinken that action against China should go beyond lip service.
The fundamental premise of any probe against China will have to take into account Beijing’s propensity to deny everything it is accused of. The suspicion that the Communist regime is not averse to using a pathogen as a political and economic tool also needs to be addressed, if the world wants to secure its own future. Else, who knows what will come from China next? Without a fair and independent probe, China will get away with genocide. For once nations will have to raise themselves above Beijing’s influential reach within their governments, and ignore the lure of cheap supply chains while putting pressure on China to open up for a probe.