Apparently, the World Health Organization isn’t the only institution taking its marching orders from Beijing.
A report from the Wall Street Journal this week revealed the U.S. National Institutes of Health deleted data on early COVID-19 carriers last year at the request of Chinese researchers. Chinese scientists had submitted the gene sequences of early coronavirus cases from January and February 2020 to the NIH but then demanded that the agency wipe the sequences from the database just three months later.
According to the NIH, researchers have the right to “request withdrawal of data.” But there is little doubt that the NIH’s willingness to comply with this demand affected scientists’ ability to study and understand COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic. Virologist Jesse Bloom, who first discovered that the gene sequences were missing from the NIH database, said this early data could have helped researchers understand how the coronavirus spread among human beings. It could also have helped them determine how the virus originated, albeit marginally, he said in a recent paper that has not been peer-reviewed.
This report serves as further proof that Beijing withheld critical information from the rest of the world as the virus began to spread. And for some reason, the NIH let the Chinese government do it. Which raises the question: Is the scientific community actually capable of getting to the bottom of COVID-19, or is it content to just sit back and let China have its way?
The WHO has already proved itself incapable of holding China to account. Its initial report on the virus’ origins was just a reprint of Beijing’s talking points, and the organization’s officials recently balked at the idea that they should demand more access and transparency from the Chinese government.
“The WHO doesn’t have the power to compel anyone in this regard,” said Mike Ryan, director of the agency’s emergencies program.
The NIH isn’t much better. It approved grants that were used to fund the very research that might have produced COVID-19, employed dozens of scientists who were cashing checks from the Chinese government, and wiped important coronavirus data as soon as China asked. The agency has lost all credibility, and it’s time we get some answers.
