UK's former secretary calls China 'despicable' for covering-up COVID-19, questions WHO

Days after the World Health Organisation (WHO) team of international experts arrived in Wuhan to investigate the origins of COVID-19, former UK secretary State for Work and Pensions Ian Duncan Smith termed China ‘despicable’ for covering up vital information regarding the highly-infectious disease. In an opinion piece for The Sun published on January 17, the former British Secretary even questioned the credibility of the United Nations (UN) health agency “whose existing investigation team hasn't even asked to inspect the Wuhan laboratory”.

Smith even lambasted the WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus for congratulating the Chinese Communist Party for “their timely action and transparency” noting the Chinese President Xi Jinping’s government knew exactly how “destructive” the novel coronavirus was that originated from Wuhan and that it could be transmitted from human to human. According to Smith, it was a “critical discovery” and should have been “shouted from the rooftops” but China chose to “keep the world in the dark”.

Smith wrote, “Their record in holding China to account from the beginning of the coronavirus crisis has been terrible... The reality is that months earlier, the Chinese government already knew that the destructive virus sweeping Wuhan could be passed from human to human.”.

He added, "This critical discovery should have been shouted from the rooftops and the WHO should have demanded the truth. Instead, China was allowed not only to keep the rest of the world in the dark, it also cracked down viciously on people who knew there was a serious health crisis."

Read - Mike Pence Advises Biden Government To Stand Against Chinese Aggression And Trade Abuses

Read - 12 Workers Trapped Week Ago In China Mine Blast Are Alive

US blames China for ‘concealing and unleashing’ the virus

Meanwhile, the US Department of State on January 16 claimed that the researchers at a Wuhan lab got ill with COVID-19-like symptoms in autumn 2019 as they were experimenting with a virus genetically similar to SARS-CoV-2. In an official statement released by the US Dept. of State, the US intelligence stated that several researchers inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology, including the WIV’s staff and students were infected with SARS-CoV-2 like virus infection while they were studying RaTG13, a bat coronavirus identified by the Wuhan lab in January 2020, which is 96.2 per cent similar to coronavirus. 

Read - China Detects More Than 100 COVID-19 Cases Near Beijing, Authorities Warn People

Read - China's SinoVac Efficacy Remains Inconsistent, COVID-19 Cases Surge In The Country