Despite a U.S. campaign to smear China on the origin of COVID-19, more scientists and scholars are speaking out against politicizing the issue.

In an article titled "A virus, theories of origin, and a place for science," Thomas Abraham, Adjunct Associate Professor at the Journalism and Media Studies Center of the University of Hong Kong, warned of the negative impact of politicizing the COVID-19 origin on scientific researches. 

"Polarization on political lines will only create more hurdles in finding clear answers to the source of SARS-CoV-2," the Indian expert wrote in the article published in The Hindu daily.

The hypothesis that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is "responsible for introducing the new coronavirus" is "greatly favored by those who believe China is responsible for the pandemic, but lacks evidence that would stand up to rigorous scientific scrutiny," he wrote.

Another hypothesis is that the virus emerged through a natural "spillover" event, where a bat coronavirus jumped species and infected humans either directly or through intermediary animals. A joint World Health Organization-China study released after a field trip to Wuhan concluded that this is the most likely scenario.

"To find scientific proof of either hypothesis is a task as challenging as an archaeologist painstakingly digging through hundreds of meters of tightly packed layers of mud and stone and debris in the hope of recovering tiny clues to the existence of an ancient civilization," he said.

Abraham pointed out that "the scientific unearthing and classification of viral samples in humans and animals to see where they lead is the only way ahead." However, "science is being elbowed aside by politics."

For those calling for another investigation of the Wuhan laboratory and its staff by international investigators with "a wide mandate to search the lab and question staff," the Indian expert wrote that "China will no more allow this than India would allow international investigators to march through the National Institute of Virology in Pune or any other national laboratory in search of evidence of supposed wrongdoing."

China's cooperation is crucial for the origin tracing work, he said. And for this to happen, "polarization on political lines needs to be put aside, and space needs to be created for science to do its work." 

(With input from Xinhua)