China’s state-run Global Times publication raised the possibility in a long-form “investigation” on Thursday that the Chinese coronavirus originated in Europe and arrived in Wuhan in October 2019, when the city hosted the World Military Games.
The Global Times admitted the conspiracy theory was “not solidly supported by hard evidence” and quoted a biology expert at Wuhan University, who stated that anonymous Wuhan residents blaming foreign countries for the Chinese coronavirus pandemic were perpetuating the conspiracy theory elsewhere in the same article had “no scientific evidence to prove the claims.”
Despite this, the state propaganda outlet cited a World Health Organization (W.H.O.) report published in March that mentioned the possibility of the World Military Games, or another mass event, introducing the novel coronavirus to the city of Wuhan.
That same report states, “no appreciable signals of clusters of fever or severe respiratory disease requiring hospitalization were identified during review” of any mass event held in Wuhan in late 2019, a quote omitted from the Global Times investigation.
The W.H.O. report, based on research conducted by both W.H.O. scientists and Chinese Communist Party operatives in Wuhan in January 2021, concluded that the likeliest scenario in which the Chinese coronavirus began infecting humans is through contact with an animal that had been infected by a third party, the original host of the virus, in China. The report dismissed other conspiracy theories posed by Communist Party officials – namely, that imported meat from abroad or a leak at a U.S. military laboratory triggered the pandemic – as unlikely. It also appeared to dismiss the possibility that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a laboratory known to have been studying coronaviruses prior to the first outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the city. The latter prompted a rare rebuke by W.H.O. Secretary-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who urged his agency to probe the matter further.
The Chinese coronavirus typically affects the respiratory system, triggering fever, difficulty breathing, and other symptoms similar to other known coronaviruses, like those responsible for Sudden Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The Global Times attempted to make the case that a gastroenteritis diagnosis at the World Military Games may have been an early Chinese coronavirus case. Gastroenteritis affects the digestive system and causes vomiting and diarrhea.
“According to the W.H.O. report, during the Military Games, four African participants were diagnosed and treated for malaria, and one American citizen presented with gastroenteritis,” the Global Times noted. Malaria is a parasitic disease that does sometimes present fever, chills, and “respiratory distress,” but is easily diagnosed by the presence of plasmodium parasites, according to the W.H.O.
“However, judging from the symptoms of the malaria and gastroenteritis the five foreign athletes were diagnosed with, both diseases share common symptoms with COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus],” the Global Times bizarrely concluded.
Despite the African and American origins of the individuals the Global Times noted fell ill during the games, it went on to identify France, Italy, or Germany as the potential origin countries of the Chinese coronavirus.
“Reports about French and German athletes developing coughs and fever after returning from the military games began to circulate in May 2020, although it’s not clear how they developed the symptoms and whether they got infected in Wuhan or in their own countries, there seemed to be no clear conclusion of these reports,” the propaganda outlet speculated. It did not cite any of those reports or any proof that those individuals were diagnosed with coronavirus infections or that they exist,
The report went on to contradict itself, stating, for example, that “from the scientific perspective there is no direct evidence at the moment to prove that the outbreak in Wuhan was caused by the military games.” Yang Zhanqiu, deputy director of the pathogen biology department at Wuhan University, also appears in the case stating, “there is no scientific evidence to prove” any link between the Military World Games and the pandemic.
Yang did offer some legitimacy to the “emotional remarks” that the Global Times quoted from seemingly random Wuhan residents blaming the United States or another foreign country for the disease.
The report cites “many Wuhan people who were blamed along with the city for being the culprit for the global pandemic vehemently,” who allegedly “expressed their abhorrence of the West’s slander and are clinging to the firm belief that Wuhan was a victim, and that the virus was brought in from foreign countries.”
One of those anonymous individuals claimed to be a merchant at the Huanan Seafood Market, which Chinese officials initially blamed the pandemic on before shifting to the baseless U.S. origin theory.
“I did see them, and I saw several batches of foreign military personnel visit our market more than once,” the alleged merchant said. The Global Times added a Chinese scientist told the newspaper no such claims were verified and, even if they were, “could not be served as evidence for the claim that foreign delegates of the military games brought the virus to the market.”
The World Military Games theory of the Chinese coronavirus’s origin has not yet been a frontrunner in the various theories the Chinese government has promoted that absolve it of any responsibility. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has instead focused on promoting the conspiracy theory that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Fort Detrick, Maryland, a U.S. Army facility, and has called for the W.H.O. to send an investigative team there. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying claimed, incorrectly, that Maryland had experienced an excessive number of cases of lung injuries tied to Chinese-made e-cigarettes, or vapes, that may have secretly been coronavirus infections. Hua has never explained how no health workers treating anyone with a lung injury have documented suffering from that lung injury later, given the highly contagious nature of the Chinese coronavirus.
A leaked Chinese government document identified the date of the first confirmed cases of Chinese coronavirus to be November 17, 2019, prior to any other known documented cases. A study released in March suggested the virus may have been circulating in Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, as early as October 2019.
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