The US National Intelligence Council released on August 27 the unclassified summary of the US intelligence agencies’ COVID-19 origin report (IC report). As widely expected, the report found nothing but a repetition of the scientists’ findings thus far: still two hypotheses — infected by animal and lab accident, with the former most likely.

This is only logical. The intelligence agencies are not virology professionals, knowing nothing about the COVID-19 origin, spread and differentiation. The White House order of 90 days COVID-19 origin sourcing was a laughing stock by itself and this report should be tossed away as irrelevant.

However, the report takes a pretext by ascribing its failure to the unavailability of information from China, which is again pure nonsense. What information has China failed to provide? The IC report does not even know.

World Health Organization (WHO) dispatched a joint team of COVID-19 origin sourcing, composed of 17 international experts from WHO, GOARN and QIE, with an observer from FAO, and another 17 experts from China at the beginning of 2021. The team stayed for 28 days in Wuhan from January 14 to February 10. All the international experts, including the American experts, said that they had accessed to all the information they needed. Before the WHO mission to China, China had kept informing WHO and the international community of all the information, a fact acknowledged by WHO as well.

Photo taken on May 20, 2021 shows the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. (Photo/Xinhua)

The WHO-China joint report gave four hypotheses with animal to animal to human infection most likely, animal to human more likely, food chain infection likely, and lab incident extremely unlikely. WHO endorsed and announced the report on March 30. Based on the initial findings, the report suggested four urgent follow-up moves to trace the virus origin. First, to search all relevant locations within and outside China for the first evidence through cases earlier than Wuhan. Second, a thorough investigation of antiviral antibody within and outside China. Thirdly, supply chain tracing on all the sources. And fourth, investigation on possible animals within and outside China.

Had WHO and the international community taken these suggestions and started quickly further sourcing in various parts of the world, the world will have been much closer to know the virus origin and thus in a better position to fight COVID-19 before its resurgence again as what we see today.

However, these efforts were called to a stop by the Biden Administration, which immediately expressed strong discontent to the report and insisted the target of “Wuhan lab leak,” so as to make China accountable politically, only for the sake of the Washington politicians.

As a result, WHO stopped follow-up efforts. Then on May 26, President Joe Biden put WHO aside and ordered the US intelligence agencies to do the job of virus origin tracing.

On July 16, under the pressure of the US, WHO secretariat announced the phase II sourcing plan, targeting again at Wuhan, leaving aside all the other crucial tracing targets, especially those in the United States. Director-General of WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus even repeated the US absurd accusations on China, opposite to what he had said three months before. The plan was naturally rejected by China.

A man receives a COVID-19 test at a mobile testing site in Times Square, New York, the United States, July 20, 2021. (Photo/Xinhua)

The WHO phase II origin sourcing plan met with strong opposition and discontent from the world, with over 70 countries demanding de-link from politics, and over 300 organizations in 100 and plus countries issuing a joint statement opposing politicalizing the origin tracing.

Under those strong pressures, WHO secretariat ensured on July 29 de-link with politics. However, China simply did not believe it. A few days later, Anthony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, met with Dr. Tedros, WHO Director General, and both issued a joint communique on the COVID-19 origin tracing, repeating the US position. It was a move in brutal violation of the UN Charter which stipulates strictly that UN staff shall not take directives from any governments.

Hence, WHO wanted a way out and announced on August 12 a plan of an independent advisory group for origin tracing, named SAGO (Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens), claiming to keep politics away.

Then came the US IC report of virus sourcing on August 27, a total futile result. Still, the US insisted on sourcing Wuhan and paid a deaf ear to the mounting evidence of possible lab leak from North Carolina University and Fort Detrick, U.S., and the strong appeal with 25 million Chinese signatures for a probe.

A medical worker disinfects a colleague at a COVID-19 nucleic acid testing site in Guangling District of Yangzhou, east China’s Jiangsu Province, Aug. 9, 2021. (PhotoXinhua)

So far, almost 5 months have been wasted and the window period for worldwide virus tracing is fast closing. On August 25, 11 world-leading scientists, led by Dr. Marion Koopmans of Netherlands, Professor Peter Daszak of the US, and Professor Vladimir Dedkov of Russia published an article on Nature magazine, warning that “Origins of SARS-COV window is closing for key scientific studies.” The reason is simple, the longer the time lag, the more attenuation the initial samples.

However, it seems that the White House has no interest in finding the true origins of the COVID-19, nor the lives of the world people, as shown in its negligence on the mounting cases and deaths in its own country. Its only interest is to keep targeting China, making China the final scapegoat for their own failure as long as the domestic politics needs, namely, for the Democrats prevailing over GOPs and keeping their majority in the House in the mid-term election in 2022.

At this critical point, all countries of the world should get united, getting rid of the US political games, pushing energetically for fighting the pandemic and tracing its origins. WHO should also serve the people of the world, instead of a few in Washington. The window period is fast closing, we have no time to waste.