Politicizing origin tracing is dirty politics

The saddest and most disconcerting aspect of the political circus revolving around novel coronavirus origin tracing is that it has turned a blind eye to rising rates of infections and deaths around the world. The two main aspects of the politicization of the pandemic are its severity and the measures taken to contain it, and the demand for an "investigation" into the origin of the virus.

When those US politicians demanding such an investigation are asked what they have done to contain the pandemic and reduce the high death rate in the country, they often start citing conspiracy theories because they don't have an answer.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's estimates show that influenza has caused between 12,000 and 61,000 deaths a year since 2010. Which means the more than 631,000 lives that COVID-19 has claimed in less than one and a half years is 10 times higher than the annual flu deaths.

This is a real problem, a medical problem which has nothing to do with politics. But the US politicians refuse to realize that.

Before this year, I hadn't taken any flu shot. I recall a doctor explaining to me that the annual flu jab "will help". He said, "the annual flu shot doesn't guarantee you won't get the flu but if you catch a flu bug, it will help your system better fight the bug, you won't get seriously ill. So, we recommend it." Still, I chose not to take any flu shot.

However, it is different now. We are facing a virus that is far more deadly than any other flu virus. Which makes me responsible for my health and safety as well as those around me－my family and the community in which I live, and the people who work in the places I regularly or occasionally visit. So it is absolutely necessary that I practice pandemic-appropriate behavior－wear a face mask and maintain social distancing. I have already taken the COVID-19 vaccine. And if need be, I will get a booster shot in the future.

Yet there are people in some Western countries who seem to be delusional enamored as they are with Western-style "democracy". Some of them are so obsessed with "freedom" that they insist they could even die and drag others along with them in the name of "freedom".

Similarly, when it comes to virus origin tracing, we see a politically motivated group challenging an increasingly clear body of evidence that a SARS-CoV-2-like virus was detected in some countries months before it was identified in Wuhan.

In fact, there is evidence to suggest the virus was found in the US many months before it was detected in Wuhan. But since US politicians are hell-bent on blaming China for the pandemic, they will not allow any study, let alone an investigation, to be conducted anywhere in the country.

There were many reports by both medical professionals and patients of a particularly nasty early flu season in the US in September and early October 2019. A member of my own family in Arizona shared this fact with me, yet there was no attempt to identify the virus that was causing the severe cases.

Also, a National Institutes of Health study in June found evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infections in five states earlier than had been initially reported. The research confirmed that many people had antibodies, which was further proof－apart from a CDC study that suggested a SARS-CoV-2-like virus was detected in the US way back in December 2019-that the novel coronavirus spread in the US much before China.

Given that there are many other points of evidence to consider such as the "vaping" illness and nursing home outbreaks around the now closed Fort Detrick in Maryland, along with the identification of a SARS-CoV-2-like virus in other countries earlier, the next proper step would be to conduct a virus origin tracing investigation in the US as part of a thorough scientific study.

There is nothing political about such a study, because following the demonstrable, observable record of evidence to learn more about a virus, a bacterium or a disease is the best way to deal with any future pandemic. And such a study is the work of scientists, not intelligence agents and certainly not politicians.

The malign agenda to politicize COVID-19 by falsely accusing China of spreading the virus is just another US ploy to check China's peaceful rise and maintain Washington's global leadership.

The author is an American writer living in China and a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.