Blame game on origins-tracing compromise COVID-19 fight: Zimbabwean media

HARARE - The US "lab leak" theory on COVID-19 origins is detrimental to world progress and leads nowhere in the fight against the disease, according to an opinion article published by Zimbabwe's The Sunday Mail newspaper.

Working together on getting vaccines across the world and giving the World Health Organization (WHO) support to lead efforts in fighting the pandemic should be the priority of the international community, not conspiracies about virus origins, said the article.

"Individualism, hubris and focus on conspiracy theories such as the 'lab leak' claim only retard the fight against the pandemic, at a huge cost to humanity," read the article.

"It is sad that the world is being led down the garden path by the United States of America as the country continues to play cheap politics over what it has termed 'origins tracing' meant to apportion the blame on China for spawning the deadly virus, allegedly in an accidental 'lab leak'," the article said.

"The US should have been using its resources and emotions for good. Currently, it is China that is doing the most for the world in combating the disease through the distribution of vaccines and the deployment of science to stop the disease," it said.

In Africa, less than 5 percent of the population has been vaccinated against the coronavirus and all indications are that it will take two or more years to get the people vaccinated.

The highly transmissible Delta variant has shown that the pandemic affects rich and poor countries alike, and progress can be made if rich countries desist from vaccine nationalization, the article said, adding that China has made concerted efforts to ensure the accessibility and equity of vaccines to developing countries, particularly in Africa.

In Zimbabwe, China is one of the few countries that have been at the forefront of helping the country fight the pandemic by providing a steady supply of vaccines.