China’s Denial of Being the Birthplace of Covid-19
By: Niyati Jain
Tags: Cities, World, Health, Politics, Coronavirus

China’s Denial of Being the Birthplace of Covid-19

Having the world’s largest population, it stands at 72nd position in the list of countries worst hit by coronavirus.

Photo by Martin Sanchez on UnSplash

With the world advancing and accepting a 'new normal' brought by the coronavirus that will complete an exact one year of its discovery in December, China has given multiple theories for the same. The news has had repetitive articles about China blaming, first the European countries and presently, India and Bangladesh for the origin of the Covid 19 virus.

Also, it's not easy to digest that the country with the world's largest population and also the birthplace of the virus, has got relatively fewer cases as compared to the other countries with a population much smaller than the same. China falls at the 72nd position in the list of countries worst hit by the Coronavirus count. Let's have an insight into what actually has happened:

Has China hidden the actual numbers?

China’s coronavirus case count stops at around 87k and it’s interesting to know that it doesn’t even fall under the top fifty countries affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. The fact that it has the largest population in the world makes it even more difficult to believe that the numbers shown by China publicly are true.

Also, in a recent report published by the Times of India, it is evident that the initial figures displayed were less than halved the actual number of cases. WHO has made repetitive remarks and attempts to send a team to China, to detect the origin of the virus but hasn’t been able to yet complete its groundwork.

Photo by KOBU Agency on Unsplash

China’s blame game

Initially, China downplayed and did not necessarily deny the origin of the virus in the country, but ever since coronavirus started spreading to various countries, it has made repetitive attempts to transfer its blames. Around a week back, China says "India or Bangladesh could be the origin of the virus"

The reason that China states for the same is that as it was the first country to report the Covid 19 cases, it doesn't necessarily mean that the origin lies in China. However, China is known to have hidden information from WHO for a long time. The organization did not receive the news about the virus in December 2019 from China itself but first came to know about it from other sources. (Source)

Political Interactions

As the virus was successful in bringing life to a pause all over the world, political interactions were bound to appear. China has suffered a lot of criticism from different countries for its initial statements and misleading information. In the beginning, China's health experts continued to state that the risk of human to human transmission of the virus was low.

The USA has regularly blamed China for the outbreak with Mr. Trump announcing that it would go for a war with China. Also, he accused the WHO of being biased and withdrew the USA from the same. Australia has also tried to initiate an independent investigation in detecting the origin of coronavirus but China has refused any investigation if it's not guided under the WHO.

Investigations for the origin

WHO is trying it’s best to find the birthplace of the virus to prevent future outbreaks of the disease. China says it supports an independent inquiry as long as it’s done by WHO and is not done partially (source). As for now, reports say that the virus has come from animals.

A seafood market in Wuhan is known to be the place where the virus might have transferred from animals to humans.

Since then, the market has been sealed and no one has been allowed to go there. But, the 'zero case’, a word for the first-ever case ever reported of the coronavirus has not been yet found.

Rising beyond blames: The Covid 19 vaccine

Even though viewpoints and news are something that will always circulate, the question 'what next?' is the most important as of now. Since the time when the virus was discovered, scientists all over the world have given their best to make the most awaited Covid 19 vaccine. While a number of them have entered various stages of testing, where the vaccine is actually being tested for its effectiveness. The whole world waits for the same.

Even though life has begun to run again on new terms, humans have had an experience of what it’s like to be at one place for months through the lockdowns. Masks and sanitizers have come to represent what is called 'A new normal'. With the news of the possibility of the arrival of coronavirus vaccines soon, there has come, a new hope for a brighter tomorrow and getting back to what was 'normal'.