Raymond Zarurai
For over a year, the United States of America and China has been at each other’s throat for the genesis of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dating back from Donald Trump’s era spilling into the new Joe Biden’s, the cold war between the two countries has sparked a wide range of racism, better even investigative research to where the Covid-19 virus began.
The coronavirus was first reported from Wuhan in 2019. The US suggests that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It further blames China for failing to contain the spread of the pandemic, putting the world at risk and also failing to comply with investigations, covering up information.
China, on the other hand, is accusing the USA of using genuine scientific origins tracing inquiry into ideological welfare meant to label China as perpetrators and the USA as saviours. The Chinese government is fighting against the geographical labelling of the Covid-19 virus and is also calling for origins tracing at the US Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases.
Yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Fredrick Shava rapped the blame game and conspiracy theories over the origins of Covid-19, calling for international cooperation. He held a meeting with foreign diplomats where he briefed them on the progress that Zimbabwe is making on countering the pandemic.
“Fake news, pointing fingers and assigning blame can only derail progress in fighting the pandemic. Incomplete and unverified information only soils the image of those who are advancing solutions to stop the virus”, he said.
Dwelling further into the blame game, the minister said blame should not be given to China and those blaming China were only seeking to sidetrack the world from progressing against the virus.
“Blaming China is not the answer. China has been continuously blamed for the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic as many distractors have advanced the hypothesis of a laboratory leak as the origin of the current global health crisis,” Shava said.
“Zimbabwe wishes to add its voice and commend the efforts by China to address this pandemic. The efforts have been impressive. China has demonstrated its readiness and willingness to be actively collaborating to building such understanding and preparedness. Zimbabwe calls on all others to cast aside whatever theories they may have and for the sake of us all to allow the science to lead us forward”, the minister further stated said.
Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu recently released a statement trashing the report released by the US Intelligence community on Covid-19 origins.
“We have stressed on multiple occasions that origins tracing of COVID-19 is a complex issue of science. It should and can only be undertaken by scientists around the world through joint research. The US, however, disregards science and facts. It is instead obsessed with political manipulation and origins tracing by the intelligence community. Without providing any evidence, the US has cooked up one story after another to defame and accuse China. The aim is to use origins tracing to shift blame onto China and spread the political virus. The deployment of the intelligence community in origins tracing is in itself compelling evidence of the politicization of the issue. The US accuses China of not being transparent or cooperative on origins tracing. This is sheer nonsense,” the Vice-Minister said.
Zimbabwe has been enjoying Covid-19 pandemic relations with the Chinese government and having unfettered access to vaccines, Sinovac and Sinopharm since it bankrolled its vaccination drive earlier this year. To date, the Zimbabwean government has procured 11.8 million doses and 7.2 million syringes, the majority of the doses being Chinese manufactured.
