Hunt for 'red' coronavirus malicious: China Daily editorial

The hunt for the origins of the novel coronavirus could be long and tortuous, and that makes any progress made during the process exciting.

The latest news comes from the United States, where scientists, in a study published on Monday, said that people in the country may have first been infected in December 2019, a month earlier than previously thought. The researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reached the conclusion after they tested archived samples from more than 7,000 blood donations collected from Dec 13 last year through Jan 17, and found 1.4 percent of them infected, which suggests the novel coronavirus may have occurred in the US prior to the currently known onset date of Jan 19.

The findings provide more evidence that the virus may have begun spreading across the globe earlier than first believed. A study published last month by scientists at the National Cancer Institute in Milan suggests the novel coronavirus may have been circulating in Italy since September 2019. The World Health Organization has said the virus and the respiratory disease it causes were unknown before the outbreak was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December.

All this brings scientists a step closer to unraveling the mysteries of the virus and offers them some clues on how to tame the pandemic and put measures in place to protect people from the onslaught of similar health threats in the future.

It should also help put an end to the blame-China game played by some Western politicians. Ever since the start of the pandemic, some in the US including its incumbent leader have gone out of their way to try to call it the "Chinese virus" on the grounds the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, despite a WHO report saying that "where an epidemic is first detected does not necessarily reflect where it started".

Some have even touted the conspiracy theory that the virus could have leaked from a nearby lab even though scientists have said repeatedly that there is no indication it is man-made.

The attempts by the US administration to scapegoat others for its own incompetence in handling the pandemic have stymied efforts to form a global alliance in the fight against the virus, which is a common enemy.

This prompted WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Monday to again urge countries not to politicize the hunt for the origins of the virus as it would create barriers to learning the truth.

And it is not easy to learn the truth. More than 17 years after severe acute respiratory syndrome disease was detected in China, its exact origin remains unknown.

Countries should work to facilitate the truth-finding process, not disrupt it with divisive rhetoric and actions.