Health officials in China have criticized the World Health Organization and defended research on viruses

Chinese health officials defended their search for the source of the COVID-19 virus and on Saturday criticized the World Health Organization after its leader said Beijing should have shared genetic information earlier.

The director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shen Hongping, said the WHO’s comments were “offensive and disrespectful”. He accused the WHO of “trying to discredit China,” and said it should avoid helping others “politicize COVID-19.”

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on March 17 That newly disclosed genetic material collected in Wuhan, central China, where the first cases were detected in late 2019, “should have been shared three years ago”.

“As a responsible country and as scientists, we have always actively shared research results with scientists from all over the world,” Shen said at a press conference.

The origins of COVID-19 are still debated The epicenter of a bitter political dispute.

Many scientists believe it jumped from animals to humans at a market in Wuhan, but the city is also home to laboratories including China’s best virus-collection facility. So push the motions COVID-19 may have leaked from anyone.

The ruling Communist Party has tried to deflect criticism of its handling of the outbreak by spreading uncertainty about its origins.

Officials have repeated anti-American conspiracy theories that the virus was created by Washington and smuggled into China. The government also says the virus may have entered China via mail or food shipments, although scientists abroad see no evidence to support this.

Chinese officials withheld information about the Wuhan outbreak in 2019 and punished a doctor who warned others about the new disease. The ruling party reversed course in early 2020 and closed access to major cities and most international flights to contain the disease.

The genetic material cited by WHO’s Tedros was recently uploaded to a global database but collected in 2020 in a Wuhan market where wildlife was being sold.

Scientists say the samples show the DNA of raccoon dogs mixed with the virus. They say this adds evidence to the hypothesis that COVID-19 came from animals, rather than a laboratory, but it doesn’t solve the question of where it started. They say the virus may have also spread to raccoon dogs from humans.

The information was removed by Chinese officials from the database after foreign scientists asked the CDC about it, but it was copied by a French expert and shared with researchers outside China.

CDC researcher Zhou Lei, who worked in Wuhan, said Chinese scientists “share all the data we have” and “adhere to the principles of openness, objectivity and transparency.”

Chen said the scientists investigated the possibility of a laboratory leak and “fully shared our research and data without any concealment or discreetness.”

The source of COVID-19 has not yet been found, Shen said, but noted that it has taken years to identify the AIDS virus and its source remains unclear.

“Some forces and personalities who instigate and participate in the politicization of the traceability issue and attempt to discredit China should not assume that the world’s scientific community will be blinded by their clumsy manipulation,” Shen said.