A quick glance over the current global COVID scenario will suggest that although the vaccine has finally arrived in many countries uplifting the sagging spirit greatly, the fear continues to remain as cases are on the rise in the UK, USA and in many parts of Europe. At this juncture when there is no real breathing space, China has again attracted world attention and invariably due to a wrong reason. At the very last moment on Tuesday, it blocked the entry of an international team of scientists from entering the country who were actually on their way to investigate the origin of coronavirus which allegedly started in Wuhan in 2019 end. This hasn’t gone down well with the WHO as well as the medical and virology sciences fraternity of the world and their angst and frustration are starkly visible. But this is China and even when the idea of continued global coordination has been vociferously mooted as the only route to get out from the crisis, there has been no change in its behaviour.

It needs mentioning that for the past few months, WHO has been trying to send a team of health experts from across the world to China and if the detailed chronology is gone through, talks with the Chinese government actually commenced as early as July 2020. Right from the initial days of the outbreak, scientists have been repeatedly advocating that it’s very essential to find out how the virus invaded humans, purportedly from animals. There were also claims that coronavirus originated from a Chinese lab (a strong implication that it’s man-made) and as there were hardly any scope for international inspections due to repeated Chinese denials for entry, the issue saw no breakthrough till date. And it’s quite easy to decipher why for a further time the blocking was engineered- the team had in its agenda the attempt to investigate the lab-made-angle. A perception that China is concealing facts (read origin story of the virus) has remained from the early days of the pandemic and have only grown stronger with its vehement opposition to allow international scrutiny. The whole world has come to the conclusion that it was only due to inept and secretive handling by the Chinese authorities that caused the lethal virus to spread beyond Wuhan wiping out more than 1.8 million people worldwide. The naked authoritarianism displayed by China is evident from the facts that all conscientious whistleblowers there who tried to disseminate ‘facts’ have been silenced and citizen journalists put behind bars.

China has proved itself a rogue nation routinely in the past. At least for the sake of medical science WHO expected an attitudinal change. But it should have remembered that it’s China. 

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
Phone: 0360-2212313

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