Massimo Introvigne
(ZENIT News – Bitter Winter / Rome, 09.12.2024).- On September 4, with the support of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), the World Health Organization (WHO) published a global framework to help Member States comprehensively investigate the origins of new and re-emerging pathogens.
During the press conference introducing the new document, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, stated that had the new protocol been in place when COVID-19 erupted, it might have helped understanding where it originated from. However, he also implied that the protocol can only work if Member States cooperates, and noted this was not and is not the case with China for COVID-19.
Tedros, an Ethiopian who was elected with the support of China and was accused of trying to protect Chinese interests during the pandemic, said: “We still don’t know how the COVID-19 pandemic began, and unfortunately, the work to understand its origins remains unfinished… As I have said many times, including to senior Chinese leaders, China’s cooperation is absolutely critical to that process. That includes information on the Huanan Seafood Market, the earliest known and suspected cases of COVID-19, and the work done at laboratories in Wuhan. Without this information, none of us are able to rule any hypothesis out. Until or unless China shares this data, the origins of COVID-19 will largely remain unknown.”
Let me make it clear: Tedros “did not” say that the hypothesis that the “work done at laboratories in Wuhan” was at the origins of COVID-19 is confirmed. He said that the hypothesis, like others, cannot be “ruled out.” The reason it cannot be ruled out is China’s lack of transparency and unwillingness to share crucial information.
It seems that these fellow travelers of Chinese propaganda that continue to proclaim that the Chinese laboratory hypothesis is a conspiracy theory that has been definitely “ruled out” do not have the support of the WHO. Curiously, these fellow travelers include critics of the “cults” connected with the notorious European anti-cult federation FECRIS. The reason they support Chinese propaganda on COVID is that FECRIS has worked together with China in fighting groups stigmatized as “cults.” After all, you try to protect your friends just as your friends may support you in several ways. Anti-cultists also use the argument that anybody regarding the laboratory origin thesis as a possibility (not a certainty) is dabbling in paranoid conspiracy theories to attack “Bitter Winter.” Now, Tedros’ public statement give them the lie and confirms that on this subject, like on many others, they may be occasionally funny but are not bright.
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