A staff member disinfects a workshop in Jinjiang City of southeast China's Fujian Province, February 20, 2020. /Xinhua
Editor's note: Keith Lamb is a University of Oxford graduate with an MSc degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies. His primary research interests are international relations of China and China's "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics." The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.
China and the World Health Organization (WHO) are in discussions over a trip for experts to come to China to investigate the origins of COVID-19.
On November 23, the WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said that they had received reassurances from Beijing that international experts would soon be able to travel to China to help probe the animal origins of COVID-19.
Did the disease arise out of China? The truth is no one knows for certain. There are in fact studies that suggest COVID-19 was circulating outside of China months before its detection in Wuhan. For example, in Europe, the first case of the virus was discovered in February in Lombardy, Italy. Consequently, it was likely to have been circulating in Italy before this.
A recent scientific report published in November in SAGE journals documented the drawing of blood samples from 959 asymptomatic individuals who had enrolled in a prospective lung cancer screening trial between September 2019 and March 2020. In 111 (11.6 percent) of the 959 individuals the antibodies for COVID-19 were detected. 14 percent of the samples with antibodies were from September 2019.
What can be made of this evidence? The Western right-wing media believes this means that COVID-19 spread from China to Europe earlier than previously thought, and as such raises questions as to whether Beijing was covering up COVID-19 for many months before January.
However, this conclusion is based on the rigid belief that the infection couldn't have come from anywhere else but China.
If the virus was in Europe as early as September 2019 as suggested by recent scientific evidence, then there are, in fact, two further puzzling questions that provide fodder for those who like to engage in conspiracy theories.
The first is we are told that COVID-19 is extremely lethal and spreads fast. However, one must ask how serious it is if it can go undetected in Europe for months when people are moving freely.
The second question is, not denying the severity of COVID-19, why is it that the infection was not picked up by the excellent health system in Italy earlier. One could make the same conspiratorial assumption as the mainstream Western right-wing press and ask if COVID-19 was being purposely covered up by European governments.
People wear masks as they walk in Milan, Italy, February 24, 2020. /Xinhua
What COVID-19 has clearly demonstrated is that science is "malleable." I'm not claiming the scientific method in itself is false, but there are undoubtedly institutional forces, funding bias, and political interests that can distort scientific results. Furthermore, what seems correct procedure may change due to new information arising from good science, which can in turn be twisted for various agendas.
Consequently, I believe those in the West who distrust the science around COVID-19 are reacting not to an illogical disbelief in science but a logical distrust in their institutions, politicians, and media gatekeepers. Underlying the skepticism that exists within the Western mind, that feeds into the battle for scientific truth, is the chasm between ideology and reality.
For example, liberal democracies, which are supposed to act on their citizens' behalf, are instead engaged in the destruction of faraway countries, all for a good cause so Westerners are told by their "free press." Then, in the U.S., despite its wealth and a large expensive military, adequate social health care is severely lacking.
As such, Trump's politicizing of COVID-19 as the "Chinese virus," no doubt urged on by his anti-China guru Peter Navarro who has long been writing about China's medical threat to the world, is also a symptom of this broken Western system, where truth is distorted and where even conspiracy theories, too often, turn out to be conspiracy facts.
In fact, when it comes to COVID-19, China was the first to identify the infection. China's early detection, reporting and swift actions, in relation to Western states, defies all attempts to politicize China's role in the COVID-19 crisis as being irresponsible or lacking.
However, even China's rapid response has led to rumors that the country somehow knew what to do and so was hiding knowledge from the world. Actually, China's efficiency and effectiveness lie in its experience with SARS which challenged its medical and governing systems.
China's experience with SARS was a wake-up call to the Chinese leadership. The government began health reforms bringing healthcare into the countryside and implementing measures for tackling medical emergencies which we have seen in action with COVID-19.
No matter whether COVID-19 started in China or elsewhere, this fact shouldn't be politicized to split the unity of the global citizenry. Of course, if mistakes have been made, then these need to be examined to prevent future catastrophe. People around the world need to be mindful that infectious diseases, just like global warming, war, terrorism, and poverty, are transnational issues that must be tackled holistically, and without prejudice, by all of humanity.
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