A much-expected report on the global tracing of COVID-19 origins was released by the World Heath Organization on March 30. It is the outcome of joint scientific research conducted by international scientists and their Chinese counterparts. The report pointed out that introduction through a laboratory incident is "extremely unlikely." China has long been blamed for the origins of the novel coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak.

There is no doubt that it was the United States that began scapegoating China for the virus origins. When the COVID-19 epidemic broke out last year in China, some top U.S. officials repeatedly claimed that, "This is the Wuhan virus," ignoring the World Health Organization's (WHO) suggestion not stigmatizing the virus' origins.

Some even said that there was much evidence indicating that the virus had come from a lab in Wuhan.

One netizen said:

It's been nearly a year since the outbreak began but these U.S. voices of scapegoating China still don't have any evidence. The reality was a slap in the face.

One Twitter user added:

One Facebook user praised China for containing COVID-19 successfully:

Another condemned Mike Pompeo for undermining the U.S.-China friendship:

As the virus spread rapidly, rumors, conspiracies and fake news also circulated around the world. CGTN Cartoon designed a whack-a-mole style game to hit those annoying rumormongers.

Having failed at controlling the pandemic, the U.S. government went out of its way to blame and smear China to divert attention, regardless of advice from the World Health Organization and scientific community.

As the international virus tracing team accomplished their mission, the New York Times headlined: "On WHO trip, China refused to hand over important data" by misquoting and twisting one of the experts' remarks. But soon, the newspaper received a backlash from several experts, with Dr. Peter Daszak slamming "shame on you @nytimes!"

Certain Western countries and mainstream media, led by the U.S. government, repeatedly distorted the statements of WHO experts to smear China in the process of tracing the origin of the virus, and plunged the research work into a "political quagmire."

One netizen agreed with the virus-tracing team's aim to prevent future pandemics by tracing the origin of the current one.

Another realized the damage of politicizing scientific challenges:

The COVID-19 pandemic is far from ending and WHO's trip to Wuhan was just the first step in the global study of COVID-19 origins. It requires an enduring global effort by the scientific community. In the meantime, humanity will continue racing against the virus in a long term.

Credits: 

Editor: Yuan Xin

Senior producer: Wei Wei 

Managing director: Mei Yan 

(To submit cartoons and share story ideas or feedback on our cartoon page, please contact us at cartoon_opinions@cgtn.com)