Senator Marshall: China Led WHO COVID-19 Report Based On Propaganda, Not Science

(Washington, D.C., March 30, 2021) – The World Health Organization (WHO) and China released a joint report on the origin of COVID-19, claiming transmission from bats to other animals and humans as the most plausible way the COVID-19 pandemic began. The report dismisses deeply concerning claims by the Trump and Biden Administrations that “several researchers inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illnesses.” It also fails to mention that the WIV was conducting risky research on bat coronaviruses and how they infect humans. This report is another example of China waging information warfare against democratic countries on the origins of the coronavirus, as it conveniently discredits the theory of a laboratory accident in Wuhan as the source of the pandemic. Following the release of the report, U.S. Senator Roger Marshall, M.D. issued this statement: 

“This China-led report is just one more dangerous example of the WHO’s willingness to let politics govern over their core responsibility as a global public health watchdog,” said Senator Marshall. “As a physician, I know this is not how science works, and in fact, the WHO’s negligent role in this flawed investigation has made them complicit in China’s cover up. America must hold the WHO accountable, demand the independent verification of the communist party’s claims, and ensure public information on COVID-19 is based on science, not propaganda.”

Earlier this month, Senators Marshall and John Barrasso, M.D.; and Representatives Andy Harris, M.D.; John Joyce, M.D.; and Brad Wenstrup, D.P.M. penned an op-ed for the Washington Times titled, WHO must actually demonstrate independence from China. You may click HERE or scroll below for the full text of Senator Marshall’s op-ed:

WHO must actually demonstrate independence from China

Washington Times
Senators Marshall and Barrasso, and Representatives Harris, Joyce and Wenstrup
March 2, 2021

With the stroke of a pen, President Joe Biden readmitted the United States, as a paying member, to the World Health Organization (WHO). President Biden’s own National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan stated, “Re-engaging with the WHO also means holding it to the highest standards… We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated.” 

Before putting U.S. taxpayers on the hook for the WHO’s budget, we should have laid out the standards that must be followed and demanded that reforms be made before agreeing to rejoin the WHO. After all, it’s been over a year, and we still have more questions than answers about the WHO’s transparency, independence, and ability to address global pandemics.

In the early days of 2020, when the COVID-19 outbreak was primarily contained within China, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took multiple deceitful actions to hide the morbidity and the rate of transmission of the virus. Instead of sounding the alarm, the CCP silenced journalists and doctors, destroyed early samples of the novel coronavirus, blocked foreign investigations – including by U.S. health officials, and launched a sophisticated misinformation campaign to deflect responsibility as the virus spread across the globe.  

Sadly, the WHO amplified these messages and partnered with the CCP to cover up the origins of the virus. On January 14, 2020 after failing to independently verify China’s reporting, the official WHO Twitter account repeated China’s false talking points stating that “preliminary investigations conducted by the CCP authorities have found no clear evidence of human-to-human transition.” The very next day, America’s first documented coronavirus patient was identified in Washington, a man who recently traveled to the Wuhan region. Two weeks later, the Director-General of the WHO, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – a candidate supported by China to run the WHO – traveled to China to meet with President Xi and lavished the Communist leader with praise for his transparency and handling of the outbreak.

After returning from Beijing, Director Tedros even said that China was “setting a new standard for outbreak response” and while feigning ignorance to China’s own intra-country travel ban, lambasted countries issuing travel bans stating they could “have the effect of increasing fear and stigma, with little public health benefit.” 

As we’ve begun to pass the one-year anniversary for many of the first milestones of the COVID-19 outbreak, the CCP continues their smoke and mirrors, and the WHO continues to throw their hands up in the air. In addition to perpetuating false claims about the virus’ origin, CCP authorities also refused information requests from WHO investigators who had recently completed a mission to China between January and February of this year.

The WHO investigators were seeking raw data surrounding nearly 200 COVID-19 cases believed to have existed during the earliest phases of the Wuhan outbreak. Conclusions extolled by China, without the WHO seeing the raw – and hopefully real data – are untrustworthy at best. An investigation based off limited and tampered information is not a real investigation.

This is not how science should be shared. It hinders the development of multivalent vaccines and further prolongs the scourge of this plague.

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