Politicization of science is not conducive to ending pandemic

If the World Health Organization was not conducting a research trip in China as part of global scientific cooperation on origin-tracing, the strong support and assistance offered the visiting WHO experts would no doubt have been highly praised. Yet because it is China, what has been heard instead is a steady stream of condemnation implying that China is obstructing their mission.

There has been criticism of the terms of the visit and of the WHO team's quarantining upon their arrival in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province, although this is a compulsory practice for all inbound visitors, even those holding negative nucleic acid test results, under China's strict prevention and control measures.

Even after Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead on COVID-19, said the team in Wuhan are having "very productive discussions with Chinese counterparts visiting different hospitals" around the city, and "they had a very good visit to" the market where the first cluster infection of the virus was reported, there have been voices claiming the WHO team's research is nothing but "propaganda".

And even before the WHO research in Wuhan is concluded, there are those who are categorically stating they "won't accept the report when it comes out". These conspiratorial voices claim that there is "other intelligence available that may show different findings".

There isn't. Which is why Michael Ryan, head of the WHO's emergencies program, hit out at them on Monday, calling for them to emerge from the shadows.

But they are unlikely to do so, since those spitefully wagging their tongues over the mission have nothing to produce, except speculation and prejudice. The evidence, contrary to their claims, shows that novel coronavirus infections appeared in multiple places in different countries earlier than the Wuhan cases that first brought the outbreak to light.

Although the world health body has stressed the trip is aimed at helping to prevent a similar pandemic in the future, these anti-China voices hope to mislead the world by distorting the nature of the WHO research so they can spread the animosity they feel toward China by implying that it should be held responsible for the pandemic.

With the global number of novel coronavirus cases encouragingly falling for three weeks in a row, showing the virus can be controlled even with new more transmissible variants in circulation, countries must not let their guard down by dismissing the scientific efforts to learn more about this common enemy.

Some countries have already paid a heavy price for their stubbornness in politicizing scientific work related to the pandemic prevention and control efforts. That error should not be repeated again by painting the efforts of the WHO team in the field in a biased light.