China and the United States need to overcome differences so science can prevail

Calls are rising among Western governments for an independent inquiry into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic. Coming amid pressure from the United States for Beijing to take responsibility for the outbreak and with conspiracy theories rife, Chinese officials have understandably rejected the idea, brushed aside accusations of a lack of transparency and hit back with claims of their own. US President Donald Trump’s administration is under fire domestically for allegedly mishandling his country’s response to the disease, so has ramped-up efforts to deflect attention. But politicising the crisis at a time when the world is struggling to contain the disease is further endangering lives and stymying efforts to develop a vaccine.

Australian politicians are in the vanguard of the push for an inquiry, but Beijing perceives the country’s ally, the US, as being behind the efforts. Whether this is the case or not misses the point, though; it is important that the world finds out where the coronavirus came from and what caused it so another such pandemic can be prevented. An investigation would also put paid to conspiracy theories, among them that the coronavirus was a Chinese bioweapon, that it was developed by the US military and that it accidentally escaped from laboratories in Wuhan that were studying animal infections.

A genuinely collaborative effort involving a broad cross section of the world’s scientific community would build cooperation and trust between China, the US and their allies at a time when relations are at all-time lows. Chinese and American scientists had been working together on coronavirus research for more than a decade before the Trump administration turned ties sour in 2018 with a trade and tech war that has halted communication. There could not have been a worse time for this to be taking place with Covid-19 causing such a grim death toll and creating so much economic distress. Scientists doing work on viruses are performing an essential job for humanity; no matter in which country they are working, their efforts should be viewed as above suspicion and beyond politics.

But an independent inquiry would not seem possible given the toxic relations between China and the US. There are also political considerations for governments; there has been so much suffering by populations that there is eagerness to cast blame and seek reparations. The US state of Missouri is doing just that in filing a lawsuit against Beijing for alleged mishandling of the outbreak.

But blaming China and seeking financial recourse is misguided and especially so given how some governments have mishandled their Covid-19 response. Mistrust is holding up the work of finding a cure and creating a vaccine. China and the US need to overcome their differences so that their scientists can again work together.