US had COVID sequence in 2019, raising questions about who knew what when
USA TodayJAN 2024
Report: Beijing Lab Mapped COVID Weeks Before Global Outbreak
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The Spin
Anti-China narrative
The two-week delay between Lili Ren's submission of a paper with a near-complete genetic sequence of COVID and China's official revelations about the disease may have proven costly to the world. This new information puts the spotlight on PRC opacity, even in matters of such crucial importance to the world such as an early pandemic warning. All this needs a comprehensive probe that can be placed before the world to determine what went wrong.
Pro-China narrative
The report of a Chinese researcher's apparent submission of COVID's near-complete genetic sequence is another example of the West looking to put China in a spot over the pandemic. While tracing the origins of the disease is a global need, politicizing it all hinders the process, dividing the world and undermining vital healthcare. Distortions and innuendos are not the scientific way to investigate the origin of an unprecedented global crisis. Washington's partisan animosity should not translate to scapegoating Beijing.