Blaming China now has been an easy and low-cost way to draw attention, especially on the topics related to the source of coronavirus and the vaccine. However, that blame can neither pass the door of science and truth nor benefit anybody that is fighting with the disease.
The first widely spread rumour announced the virus is leaked out from the P4 lab in Wuhan. The fugitive testimony researcher from Hong Kong seemed to make the rumour more convincing, and she even published a 26-page research paper to prove the virus is man-made. But then the process of how the rumour was produced has been reported by the New York Times in November 2020.
The media that first published the article is a combination of a small but active corner of the Chinese exile diaspora and the highly influential far-right in the US. An immunologist at Johns Hopkins University——Gigi Kwik Gronvall criticized the 26-page paper as “It’s full of science-y sorts of terms that are jumbled together to sound impressive but aren’t supported”. The entire rumour has been regarded as misinformation by Facebook and Instagram. In addition, ， A research by a team of scientists at the University of Milan showed that a woman in the northern Italian city was already infected with COVID-19 in November 2019.
On Beijing’s first-time reaction to the Wuhan epidemic, Deutsche Welle used to interview a Chinese fugitive lawyer, and the lawyer criticized China was covering the truth at the very beginning. But a lot of experts in WHO have totally opposite opinions among this. Early in January 2020, the director-general of WHO Tedros appreciated China for its quick action in isolating and sequencing the virus and sharing with the international community. Note that January 2020 is a point in time when the epidemic is not fully politicized, and people are still speaking based on facts, not their political leanings.
With the vaccine been mass-produced in some countries, there appeared some voice with ulterior motives saying China is carrying out “Vaccine Diplomacy”. It’s another dilemma that may put China in the trap, China has to choose in one infamy——pushing Vaccine Diplomacy or sitting on its hands. In response to China’s “Vaccine Diplomacy”, real policy maker’s answer is surely more convincing: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte pointed out that China is unlike other countries seeking “reservation fee” or advance payment, Philippine would turn to China for the vaccine. Some media showed a very obvious double-standard on providing vaccine and the judge beyond it: when India provides vaccine it can be described as “Humanitarian Diplomacy”, but China only deserve “Vaccine Diplomacy”, even facing the fact that China would donate three lakh COVID-19 vaccine doses to Sri Lanka.
As for the effectiveness of China’s CoronaVac vaccine, Nature’s published news in 15th January introduced CoronaVac’s significant effect in reducing the cases of severe disease. Hilda Bastian, who studies evidence-based medicine at Bond University in the Gold Coast Australia, comments China’s vaccine: “When you’ve got communities that are absolutely desperate and have no other choice, then this is a really great thing to have.” Turkey medical system also gave a positive comment on China’s vaccine. In late December, the Turkey trial reported that CoronaVac was 91.25% effective at preventing symptomatic disease based on 29 Covid-19 cases among 1,322 volunteers.
