The row debate between the USA and China over the origin of the Covid-19 virus that shook the world is turning into a worldwide diplomatic war. China has launched a campaign through its diplomatic missions against US-origin accusations that the virus may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan. This was launched in Turkey, too. At a press conference held on September 2, the Chinese Embassy in Ankara requested the US administration who accuses Beijing of not being transparent enough, to open the Army Futures Command in Fort Detrick, which is also considered the country’s biological military research center, to the control of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Political Councilor Xinyi Qieng, who is also the press spokesperson of the embassy, said that they opened the Wuhan Virology Laboratory, which was subject to the claims by the US sources, to WHO inspections, and that the USA should show the same transparency by opening Fort Detrick to WHO.
US President Joe Biden’s request for new research, after the American intelligence efforts, which had previously begun in the Donald Trump era, failed short to show that China was responsible for the origin of the virus, caused a strong reaction from the Xi Jinping administration in China. Thereupon, China origin virtual propaganda campaigns were launched, and it was claimed that the virus may have been produced in Fort Detrick and was leaked in China.
Wuhan and Fort Detrick
The Chinese administration, on the other hand, does not directly blame the USA for the origin of the virus but says that the USA should open Fort Detrick as they opened Wuhan. Qieng, the spokeswoman of the Chinese Embassy in Ankara, emphasized that they are constantly investigating the origin of the virus that causes deaths worldwide, but they want these researches to be done on a scientific basis, not on a political basis. Qieng said that they are also in cooperation with the Turkish authorities on this issue and they are pleased to see that Turkey does not want these researches to be politicized, too.
Fort Detrick is a highly classified military facility in the state of Maryland with the most advanced virology laboratories in the United States. It is known that researches on SARS, ebola, anthrax, and chickenpox viruses were carried out in the facility, which hosted the “Biological Weapons Program” from its establishment in 1943 until 1969, and then the “Biological Defense Program”. The MK-Ultra program for “mind control”, which was run by the CIA for nearly 20 years from the 1950s on and was shut down after causing numerous deaths and mental illnesses, was also run at Fort Detrick.
The virus continues to spread
The place where the covid-19 virus was first seen and spread to the world is the city of Wuhan in China; possibly from the wild animals open market of the city. For this reason, China has long been at the center of claims that the origin of the virus may have arisen in an artificial environment, not natural. However, research by WHO also shows that this is a possibility but a weak possibility, but it has not been proven yet.
According to WHO figures, more than 218 million people have contracted the coronavirus disease since the virus was identified in January 2020, and more than 4.5 million have died. In Turkey, according to the data of the Ministry of Health, more than 6 million 400 thousand cases have been detected so far, more than 57 thousand citizens have died.
