The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met on Thursday through video conference to discuss the Wuhan Coronavirus crisis but the meet ended without any concrete outcomes. At the UNSC meet, USA called for an analysis of the origins of Coronavirus, in an obvious dig at China, while the latter insisted that no country should be made a scapegoat and called for global solidarity in the wake of the pandemic. SG Anthony Gutierres’s call for a global ceasefire received no support and the only thing the UNSC agreed on was on press elements post the meet.
“The United States reiterates today the need for complete transparency and the timely sharing of public health data and information within the international community. The most effective way to contain this pandemic is through accurate, science-based data collection and analysis of the origins, characteristics, and spread of the virus,” Ambassador Kelly Craft said in her remarks on the disease. She said, “Beyond its impact on global health, COVID-19 is having a tremendous socioeconomic impact on the entire world. This means that addressing the challenge before us requires global action, international solidarity, and unity of purpose.”
Chinese envoy to UN Ambassador Zhang Jun said, “To overcome this global challenge, solidarity, cooperation, mutual support and assistance is what we need, while beggar-thy-neighbour or scapegoating will lead us nowhere. Any acts of stigmatization and politicization must be rejected.” Under pressure from the United States, China has regularly attempted to deny culpability for the pandemic. Ever since the pandemic broke out at Wuhan, the Communist government of China has attempted to silence whistle-blowers and did not take sufficient action to prevent the spread of the virus. The United States has regularly stated that the world could have avoided much devastation had the Chinese been honest about the seriousness of the threat from the very beginning.
China had blocked discussion on the pandemic by the UNSC throughout the month of March when it held the president’s post. However, the matter came up for discussion in April. US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, has hammered international institutions such as the WHO for being ‘China-centric‘ and offering bad advice in the wake of the crisis. Trump said that the WHO was majorly funded by the United States and yet sided itself with China over the pandemic. He withheld funds following his admonishment of the organization.
Regarding the origins of the virus, Chinese scientists had said in a research paper that the Wuhan Coronavirus ‘probably’ originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, suggesting that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab, whether intentionally or otherwise. A research paper from 2007 had also warned that the wet markets of China, where live animals are sold, are a ‘time bomb’ for the eruption of a pandemic and had pointed towards the dietary preferences of the Chinese population that involved eating exotic animals as a potential source of transmission of novel deadly viruses from animals to humans. Meanwhile, China claims that calling SARS-CoV-2 the ‘Wuhan Coronavirus’ or ‘Chinese virus’ is racist.