On the morning of August 13, 2021, Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu hosted a briefing on the issue of traceability with COVID-19. Over 160 foreign envoys and representatives of international organizations attended the meeting online and offline. Xu Jianguo, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Editor-in-Chief of JOBB, and Professor Yuan Zhiming, Director of Wuhan National Biosafety Level 4 Lab of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, were invited to attend. Zhang Honggang, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Major Science and Technology Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, and Gu Jinhui, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Health Science, Technology and Education of the National Health Commission, also took part in the meeting.
The traceability of COVID-19 is a scientific issue: it can be properly addressed only through scientific research to identify the animal sources of the virus and the transmission routes to humans. Virus traceability is of great significance for effective disease prevention and control, preventing recurrence of similar outbreaks, and protecting human health.
Xu Jianguo, Academician of the China Academy of Engineering and Editor-in-Chief of JOBB, stated that from the perspective of biosafety, COVID-19 is not a deliberate or accidental disease: it is a natural infectious disease. He said that COVID-19 is not something that could have been man-made. Yuan Zhiming, Director of Wuhan National Biosafety Level 4 Lab and Co-Editor-in-Chief of JOBB, emphasized that before December 30, 2019, the Wuhan Institute of Virology had not been exposed to, preserved, or studied the COVID-19 virus, neither had it designed, manufactured, or leaked that virus. In addition, the staff and postgraduates of the Wuhan Institute of Virology have maintained zero COVID-19 infections.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.