双语：21.8.16新冠病毒溯源不应成为政治工具

丛培武发表署名文章《新冠病毒溯源不应成为政治工具》

2021年8月16日，驻加拿大大使丛培武在加拿大主流媒体《国会山时报》发表题为《新冠病毒溯源不应成为政治工具》的署名文章。全文如下：

On August 16, 2021, Ambassador Cong Peiwu published a signed article titled “Virus Origin-tracing Should Not Be Turned into a Tool for Political Manipulation” on The Hill Times. Here is the full text:

新冠病毒溯源不应成为政治工具

Virus Origin-tracing Should Not Be Turned into a Tool for Political Manipulation

当前，全球新冠肺炎疫情形势依然严峻，病毒变异、疫苗接种成为人们关注的焦点。同时，病毒溯源也值得我们重视。溯源的目的是把病毒的源头搞清楚，能够有效地采取措施，防止类似疫情再次发生。所以病毒溯源是严肃的科学问题，不应被政治操弄，应当以科学家为主体，以证据为基础开展。

At present, the COVID-19 is still ravaging the world. Virus variation and vaccination have become the main issues of concern. Meanwhile, the origin tracing of COVID-19 also deserves our attention. A better understanding of the source of the virus will allow us to make proactive efforts to prevent similar pandemics from happening again. So origin tracing is a serious scientific matter, and should not be manipulated by politics. It should rely mainly on scientists, and conduct evidence-based scientific research.

根据以往病毒溯源研究，仅从病毒传播“暴发点”溯源是片面的。例如，艾滋病20世纪80年代暴发于美国，而后来许多科学家认为艾滋病病毒可能于20世纪早期从非洲开始，从动物跨越到人类。目前，国际社会已有越来越多2019年下半年全球多点多地出现新冠病例的报道。例如，据报道，美国国立卫生研究院研究发现，美国5个州的新冠病毒感染证据在2019年12月就已出现。意大利研究人员去年11月的一篇论文指出，对相关采集样本的检测结果表明，被采集者很可能在2019年9月已经感染新冠病毒。这些都证明全球开展多点、多方位、立体溯源有充分的必要。

Origin-tracing studies in the past indicate that research only on the region where cases were first reported is not enough. For instance, the first AIDS/HIV cases were observed in the US in the 1980s. But later many scientists found that it was very likely that HIV crossed from animals to humans in the early 20th century in Africa. Now more and more reports have pointed to separate COVID-19 outbreaks in multiple places in the world in the latter half of 2019. According to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) website, a research has shown that evidence of infection in five US states appeared back in December 2019. In a November 2020 paper, Italian researchers noted that samples that tested positive for the coronavirus antibodies suggest that it is likely that infection could well happen in September 2019. All these prove that it is fully necessary to make systemic studies of origin tracing in multiple regions and multiple orientations around the globe.

中国一直以开放的态度参与国际溯源合作。疫情发生后，中国率先同世卫组织开展病毒溯源研究合作，已两次邀请世卫组织专家来华开展溯源联合研究。今年初，由世卫组织独立挑选、来自美国、英国、日本、澳大利亚等10国的17名国际专家来华，同中方专家组成联合专家组，在武汉开展为期28天的实地研究。专家们去了所有想去的地方，见到了所有希望见到的人，在中国—世卫组织新冠病毒溯源联合研究报告中明确得出“实验室泄露极不可能”的科学结论，并提出在全球范围内继续寻找可能的早期病例等重要建议。

China has always participated in international origin-tracing cooperation with an open attitude. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, China has taken the lead in cooperating with the WHO on origin-tracing, and has twice invited WHO experts to China for joint research on origin-tracing. Early this year, 17 international experts from ten countries including the US, UK, Japan and Australia came to China. All selected by the WHO independently, they worked together with their Chinese colleagues and conducted joint research for 28 days in Wuhan. The experts went to all the places they wanted to go, met all the people they wanted to meet, reached a scientific conclusion in the joint WHO-China study report that a laboratory leak is extremely unlikely, and recommended conducting further research around earlier cases globally.

一段时间以来，美国一些政客不断加大对病毒溯源的政治操弄，从去年公然把病毒称为“武汉病毒”到鼓吹“情报溯源”，一直试图把疫情政治化、病毒污名化、溯源工具化。参与联署《科学》杂志公开信要求调查“实验室泄漏论”的美国加州理工学院生物学教授比约克曼表示，她参与联署的本意是募集更多资金在动物宿主中寻找病毒，但联署信却被用来推广实验室起源假说。她表示自己“天真了”。

For some time, certain US politicians have been gearing up political manipulation with regard to origin-tracing. From openly calling the virus “Wuhan virus” last year to peddling intelligence-led origin-tracing, these politicians have been trying to politicize the pandemic, stigmatize the virus, and use origin-tracing as a tool. Pamela Bjorkman, a professor of biology at California Institute of Technology, explained why she co-signed an open letter to Science calling for investigation into the lab leak theory. She thought “the letter would have the effect of promoting more funding for searching for natural viruses in animal reservoirs” and “did not anticipate that the letter would be used to promote the lab origin hypothesis”. Looking back, she felt she had acted “perhaps naively”.

不久前，世卫组织秘书处单方面提出世卫第二阶段溯源计划，将“中国违反实验室规程造成病毒泄漏”这一假设作为研究重点之一。这不仅偏离了第73届世卫大会决议的要求，更无视第一阶段联合研究报告得出的结论和建议。中国—世卫组织溯源联合研究报告得出了国际社会和科学界公认的结论和建议，必须得到包括世卫组织在内的各方尊重和实施。今后全球溯源工作应该也只能在此基础上开展，而不是另起炉灶。70多个国家纷纷通过致函世卫组织总干事、发表声明、照会等方式反对溯源问题政治化，支持中国—世卫组织溯源联合研究报告。

Last month, the WHO Secretariat unilaterally proposed a plan for the second phase of study into the origins of COVID-19. This plan lists the hypothesis that China’s breach of laboratory protocols caused the virus to leak as one of the research priorities. It is not only inconsistent with the requirements of the 73rd World Health Assembly resolution, but also ignores the conclusions and recommendations of the first-stage joint research report. The findings and recommendations of the WHO-China joint study report are widely recognized by the international community and scientists, and must be respected and implemented by all parties, including WHO. The future work of global origin-tracing should and must proceed from that basis, instead of reinventing the wheel. More than 70 countries have expressed opposition to politicization of origin-tracing and support of the joint WHO-China study report by writing letters to the WHO Director-General, issuing statements and sending notes.

中国愿秉持开放、透明、科学、合作的精神，继续支持和参与全球溯源合作，包括积极落实中国—世卫组织溯源联合研究报告的相关工作建议，推动开展报告中涉及中国的后续补充性研究。同时，希望世卫组织秉持科学、专业、客观精神，同国际社会一道，共同抵制将溯源问题政治化的逆流，积极稳妥推动在全球多国多地范围内持续开展溯源，共同维护全球抗疫合作良好氛围。

China is willing to uphold an open, transparent, scientific and cooperative spirit to support and participate in global origin-tracing cooperation, including actively implementing the relevant work recommendations in the joint WHO-China study report and conducting further follow-up research concerning China recommended in the report. Meanwhile, we hope that the WHO can adhere to the spirit of science, professionalism and objectivity, work with the international community to jointly resist the retrogressive trend of politicizing the issue of origin-tracing, proactively and properly conduct sustained investigations into the origin of the virus in multiple countries and regions around the globe and safeguard a sound atmosphere for global anti-epidemic cooperation.