Recently Yahoo News on-line reported the following:
Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned
politically poisonous (2/3)
Associated Press -DAKE KANG and MARIA CHENG
Updated Mon, April 22, 2024 at 6:09 a.m. PDT·14 min read
(continue)
Another early victim was Zhang Yongzhen, the first scientist
to publish a sequence of the virus. A day after he wrote a memo urging health
authorities to action, China’s top health official ordered Zhang’s lab closed.
“They used their official power against me and our colleagues,” Zhang wrote in an email provided to AP by Edward Holmes, an Australian virologist.
On Jan. 20, 2020, a WHO delegation arrived in Wuhan for a two-day mission. China did not approve a visit to the market, but they stopped by a China CDC lab to examine infection prevention and control procedures, according to an internal WHO travel report. WHO’s then-China representative, Dr. Gauden Galea, told colleagues in a private meeting that inquiries about COVID-19’s origins went unanswered.
By then, many Chinese were angry at their government. Among Chinese doctors and scientists, the sense grew that Beijing was hunting for someone to blame.
“There are a few cadres who have performed poorly,” Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in unusually harsh comments in February. “Some dare not take responsibility, wait timidly for orders from above, and don’t move without being pushed.”
Some people both inside and outside China speculated about a laboratory leak. Those suspicious included right-wing American politicians, but also researchers close to WHO.
The focus turned to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a high-level lab that experimented with some of the world’s most dangerous viruses.
In early February 2020, some of the West’s leading scientists, headed by Dr. Jeremy Farrar, then at Britain’s Wellcome Trust, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, then director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, banded together to assess the origins of the virus in calls, a Slack channel and emails.
They drafted a paper suggesting a natural evolution, but even among themselves, they could not agree on the likeliest scenario. Some were alarmed by features they thought might indicate tinkering.
“There have (been) suggestions that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab,” Holmes, the Australian virologist, who believed the virus originated in nature, wrote in a Feb. 7, 2020, email. “I do a lot of work in China, and I can (assure) you that a lot of people there believe they are being lied to.”
American scientists close to researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology warned counterparts there to prepare.
James LeDuc, head of a Texas lab, emailed his Wuhan colleague on Feb. 9, 2020, saying he’d already been approached by U.S. officials. “Clearly addressing this will be essential, with any kind of documentation you might have,” he wrote.
The Chinese government was conducting its own secret investigation into the Wuhan Institute. Gao, the then-head of the China CDC, and another Chinese health expert revealed its existence in interviews months and years later. Both said the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, which Holmes, the Australian virologist, also heard from another contact in China. But Gao said even he hadn't seen further details, and some experts suspect they may never be released.
WHO started negotiations with China for a further visit with the virus origins in mind, but it was China’s Foreign Ministry that decided the terms.
Scientists were sidelined and politicians took control. China refused a visa for Ben Embarek, then WHO’s top animal virus expert. The itinerary dropped nearly all items linked to an origins search, according to draft agendas for the trip obtained by the AP. And Gao, the then-head of the China CDC who is also a respected scientist tasked with investigating the origins, was left off the schedule.
Instead, Liang Wannian, a politician in the Communist Party hierarchy, took charge of the international delegation. Liang is an epidemiologist close to top Chinese officials and China's Foreign Ministry who is widely seen as pushing the party line, not science-backed policies, according to nine people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified to speak on a sensitive subject.
Liang ruled in favor of shutting the Wuhan market at the beginning of the outbreak, according to a Chinese media interview with a top China CDC official that was later deleted. Significantly, it was Liang who promoted an implausible theory that the virus came from contaminated frozen food imported into China. Liang did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Most of the WHO delegation was not allowed to go to Wuhan, which was under lockdown. The few who did learned little. They again had no access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the wildlife market and obtained only scant details about China CDC efforts to trace the coronavirus there.
On the train, Liang lobbied the visiting WHO scientists to praise China’s health response in their public report. Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saw it as the “best way to meet China’s need for a strong assessment of its response.”
The new section was so flattering that colleagues emailed Aylward to suggest he “dial it back a bit.”
“It is remarkable how much knowledge about a new virus has been gained in such a short time,” read the final report, which was reviewed by China’s top health official before it went to Tedros.
(to be continued)
Translation
（繼續）
另一位早期受害者是第一個公佈病毒序列的科學家 Zhang Yongzhen。 在他寫了一份備忘錄敦促衛生當局採取行動的第二天，中國最高衛生官員下令關閉 Zhang 的實驗室。
Zhang 在提供給美聯社看的一封給澳洲病毒學家
Edward Holmes的電子郵件中, 曾寫道: 「他們利用官方權力來對付我和我們的同事」。
2020年1月20日，世衛代表團抵達武漢開始為期兩天的訪問。 根據世衛組織內部行程報告，中國並未批准他們訪問該市場，但他們在中國疾病預防控制中心的一個實驗室停留，查看感染預防和控制的程序。 世衛組織時任中國代表 Gauden Galea 博士在一次非公開會議上告訴同事，有關 COVID-19 起源的詢問沒有得到答覆。
那時，許多中國人對他們的政府感到憤怒。 中國醫生和科學家越來越感覺到北京正在尋找某些人來指責。
中國領導人習近平在二月異常嚴厲的評論中說道: 「有少數幹部表現不佳」。 「有的不敢承擔責任，膽怯地等待上級的命令，不被推就不敢動」。
據中國疾病預防控制中心兩名前任和現任工作人員以及其他三名知情人士透露，政府對高級衛生官員展開了調查。 兩名知情人士稱，鼓勵衛生官員向共產黨紀檢機構舉報對疫情處理不當的同事。
中國國內外一些人懷疑實驗室發生洩漏。 持懷疑態度的人包括美國右翼政客，也包括與世衛組織關係密切的研究人員。
焦點轉向了武漢病毒研究所，這是一個對世界上一些最危險的病毒進行實驗的高級實驗室。
2020 年 2 月初，以時任英國 Jeremy Farrar 信託基金會的 Jeremy Farrar 博士和時任美國國立衛生研究院院長 Anthony Fauci 博士為首的一些西方頂尖科學家以電話、在Slack 的頻道和電子郵件聯合起來評估病毒的起源。
他們起草了一篇提出自然演化的一個理論，但即使在他們內部，他們也無法就最可能的情況達成一致。 有些人對一些跡象有可能顯示出有事情被改動感到震驚。
相信該病毒起源於自然界的澳洲病毒學家 Holmes 在 2020 年
2 月
7 日的一封電子郵件中寫道: 「有跡象表明該病毒是從武漢實驗室逃脫的」。 「我在中國做了很多工作，我可以向你保證，那裡有很多人相信他們被欺騙了」。
與武漢病毒研究所研究人員關係密切的美國科學家提醒那裡的同行做好準備。
德州一家實驗室負責人 James LeDuc 於 2020 年 2 月 9 日向他的武漢同事發送電子郵件，稱美國官員已經與他聯繫。 他寫道: 「要去明確地解決這個問題是至關重, 無論你有什麼類型的文檔在手上」。
中國政府正在對武漢研究所進行秘密調查。 時任中國疾病預防控制中心主任 Gao 先生和另一位中國衛生專家在數月和數年後的訪談中透露了調查的存在。 兩人都表示，調查沒有發現任何不當行為的證據，澳洲病毒學家 Holmes 也從中國的另一位聯絡人聽到了這一點。 但 Gao 說，即使他還沒有看到進一步細節，一些專家懷疑這些細節可能永遠不會被公佈。
考慮到病毒的起源，世衛組織開始與中國就進一步訪問進行談判，但最終決定條件的是中國外交部。
科學家被邊緣化，政客掌控了局面。 中國拒絕了當時世界衛生組織首席動物病毒專家 Ben Embarek 的簽證。 根據美聯社取得的行程草案，行程中幾乎刪除了所有與出發地搜尋相關的項目。 時任中國疾病預防控制中心主任 Gao 先生也是一位受人尊敬的科學家，負責調查病毒的起源，但他沒有被列入行程表。
相反，由共產黨架構中的政客 Liang Wannian 負責國際代表團。 據九位以話題敏感為由不願透露姓名的知情人士透露，Liang 是一位與中國高級官員和中國外交部關係密切的流行病學家，人們普遍認為他在推行黨的路線，而不是推行有科學支持的政策。
根據中國媒體對中國疾病預防控制中心一名高級官員的採訪報道，Liang 在疫情爆發之初就裁定支持關閉武漢市場，該採訪後來被刪除。 值得注意的是，Liang 提出了一個令人難以置信的理論，即該病毒來自進口到中國的受污染的冷凍食品。 Liang 沒有回覆透過電子郵件發送的置評請求。
世衛代表團的大部分成員均不被允許前往已處於封鎖狀態的武漢。 少數可以這樣做的人獲知到的東西很少。 他們再次無法進入武漢病毒研究所或野生動物市場，僅獲得了有關中國疾病預防控制中心在當地追蹤冠狀病毒的些少資訊。
在火車上，Liang 遊說來訪的世界衛生組織科學家在公開報告中讚揚中國的衛生應對措施。 世衛組織總幹事譚德塞的高級顧問 Dr. Bruce Aylward 認為，這是「最佳方式去滿足中國需要就其對應對方法得到有力的評估」。
報告新加部分非常阿諛奉承，以至於同事們給 Aylward 發電子郵件建議他「稍微調低一點」。
最終報告中寫道：「在如此短的時間內獲得了關於一種新病毒的如此多的知識，真是太了不起了」。該報告在交給譚德塞之前經過了中國最高衛生官員的審查。
（待續）
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