Politics Will Keep Us Further from the Truth About Covid-19
政治溯源只会让我们离真相更远
Chinese Embassy Spokesperson’s Letter to Nassau Guardian on Origins Tracing of COVID-19
驻巴哈马使馆投书巴主流媒体反对溯源政治化
1 September 2021
2021年9月1日
In recent days, the office of the Director of National Intelligence of the United States released a summary on the intelligence community assessment on COVID-19 origins after a 90-day inquiry. It seems that a few things were not quite right here.
近日，美国国家情报总监办公室在经过90天的“调查”后出炉了一份所谓“新冠病毒溯源调查报告”要点。这里似乎有些事情不太对劲。
First, the tracing of the origins of COVID-19 should have been done by the intelligence community. We all know, the tracing is a complex scientific endeavor which should and can only be undertaken by scientists on the basis of global collaboration.
首先，美方竟然把新冠病毒溯源工作交给情报界承担。众所周知，溯源是一个复杂的科学问题，应该也只能由全球科学家合作开展研究。
Secondly, there should have been a 90-day limit on the investigation. Even the best scientists in the world cannot guarantee success on detecting the origins of the virus in 900 days, not to say 90 days.
其次，美方竟然为调查设置了90天的时限。即使世界上最优秀的科学家也无法保证在900天内突破溯源难题，更不用说90天。这违背了起码的科学常识。
Thirdly, and this one is not surprising, the report produced no scientific conclusions on the origins of the COVID-19. And it failed to identify any new evidence to link the virus to a bio-lab in Wuhan, a city in China which first reported cluster cases.
第三，该报告既没有对新冠病毒起源做出任何科学结论，也未能找到任何新证据表明该病毒与武汉的一个生物实验室有关。这倒是一点儿也不奇怪。
Regrettably however, the report blamed China for their inability to draw any credible conclusions citing the so-called lack of access to data sets. This is a thinly veiled excuse, which nonetheless helped them to square the circle.
令人遗憾的是，该报告把无法得出任何可信结论的借口甩锅到中国身上，反而指责中国未提供相关数据。这不过是让美方自以为自圆其说的赤裸裸借口。
China shared information about the virus in an open and transparent way from the very beginning. We notified the World Health Organization of the relevant cases on December 31st, 2019, and started to regularly brief the WHO and countries such as the United States on the evolving epidemic from January 3rd, 2020. Chinese scientists shared the genome sequencing of the virus on January 12th, making it possible for pharmaceutical companies in different countries to research and develop vaccines.
中国始终本着公开、透明、负责任的方式第一时间对外介绍和分享信息。我们于2019年12月31日向世界卫生组织通报了有关情况，并从2020年1月3日起定期向世卫组织和美国等国主动通报疫情信息。1月12日，中国科学家发布病毒基因序列，大大便利了各国制药公司疫苗研发工作。
China has actively supported and participated in global scientific collaboration on origins tracing. China twice invited WHO experts to the country and provided full access to the WHO-led international expert group who worked for nearly a month in China back in January and February this year. Detailed information concerning more than 174 early cases in Wuhan were shared with the expert group. And visits were arranged to the Wuhan Virology Institute that’s at the center of the lab leak theory. It’s only that the medical records of the early cases could not be video-taped or photocopied for privacy concerns, which is in line with international practice. The international expert group expressed full understanding and satisfaction with the access they have gained during their visit.
中国积极支持和参与全球溯源科学合作，两次邀请世卫组织专家访华。今年初，中方邀请世卫组织国际专家组访问近一个月，与专家组分享了174例早期病例的详细信息，并安排其参观了武汉病毒研究所。只是出于保护患者个人隐私的考虑，在未经患者本人同意的情况下，专家组未拍摄或拷贝原始数据，这符合国际惯例。国际专家组对访问开放度表示充分理解和满意。
After examining all the evidence, the expert group concluded that the lab leak theory is “extremely unlikely”. Obviously, this conclusion was not good enough for those who have preconceptions about lab leak and are eager to find the smoking gun in order to deflect attention from their record of fighting the virus.
在检查了所有证据后，专家组得出了实验室泄露“极不可能”的结论。这是科学、权威的结论。显然，对于急于佐证实验室泄露的阴谋论者来说，这个结论还不够好，不足以转移人们对其搞砸抗疫的不满。
China was the first to report Covid cases, but this doesn’t mean that China is the origins. Early cases happened not just in China, but also in Western countries including the United States itself. According to media reports, the timing of earliest cases in the United States has been moved up to January 2020.
中国是第一个报告新冠肺炎病例的国家，但这并不意味着中国就是病毒源头。早期病例不仅发生在中国，也发生在包括美国在内的西方国家。据媒体报道，美国最早病例的时间已提前至2020年1月。
People who live in glass houses do not throw stones. China is not the only country who has bio-labs. If lab leak is valid at all, then this hypothesis has to be tested on other labs since the Chinese lab has been cleared by the international expert group.
中国并不是唯一拥有生物实验室的国家。如果实验室泄露论有根据，那么这个假设必须在其他国家的生物实验室进行验证，因为中国实验室已经被国际专家组证明清白了。
In fact, more than 25 million Chinese internet-users co-signed an open letter calling on the WHO to investigate suspicious leaks at Fort Detrick in Maryland. The Wuhan Virology Institute doesn’t even do gain of function research which is seen as the source of the lab leak. Yet there are labs in the US that are engaged in the synthesis and modification of corona viruses, such as the one in the university of North Carolina. Why not equally investigate these?
超过2500万中国互联网用户签署了一封公开信，呼吁世卫组织调查美国马里兰州德特里克堡的可疑泄露事件。武汉病毒所没有进行被视为实验室泄露源头的功能增益研究，而美国北卡罗来纳大学实验室多年来从事冠状病毒的合成和改造。为什么不去调查这些机构？
A true, global scientific study would involve going to different epicenters of the pandemic and examining all early cases to study the sources of the virus and its channels of transmission.
开展真正的全球科学溯源研究，必须要前往世界各地检查所有早期病例，以研究病毒来源及传播渠道。科学溯源不应有任何盲区。
If we call a spade a spade, it was understood from the very beginning that the intelligence community study is never going to go far. Yet, by launching the study, they would be able to maintain pressure and pin the blame on China, and substantiate the presumption of guilt in the eyes of the world.
必须指出，人们从一开始就明白情报界的研究永远不会走得太远。美方开展这项研究，不过是妄图对中国保持压力、甩锅推责，并为其有罪推定拼凑“证据”。
China will continue to firmly oppose politicized origins tracing. This just position has received support from more than 80 countries around the world, who have written to the WHO or brought statements and notes to oppose politicization of origins tracing.
中方将继续坚决反对政治化溯源。这一公正立场得到了国际社会普遍支持。80多个国家以致函世卫组织总干事或发表声明或照会的方式，反对溯源问题政治化。
Unlike previous public health emergencies, the global response to COVID-19 has been marred by division, selfishness and mud-slinging. This has undermined global cooperation in fighting the virus. At the end of the day, it is the people in the street that suffer the consequences. They don’t deserve this.
与以往的突发公共卫生事件不同，全球对新冠肺炎疫情的应对饱受不团结、自私自利和栽赃抹黑行为的困扰。这破坏了抗击病毒的国际合作。最终承受后果的还是无辜的普通民众，他们本不应遭受损害。