COVID-19 virus origin should be addressed scientifically not politically

Friends of BRI Forum hosted a special webinar on "Collective Voices Against Politicization of Origin of COVID-19"  where speakers were in consensus that to fight the COVID-19 virus, we need to collectively fight the virus in our minds. Speakers were of the view that there is a strong need for a collective approach towards fighting this crisis instead of a blame game and that the global community should learn from the Chinese experience in the fight against the virus.

Webinar on "Collective Voices Against Politicization of Origin of COVID-19" [Photo provided to CEN]

While moderating the session, Farhat Asif, co-Founder of Friends of BRI Forum highlighted the primary aim of the initiative of Friends of BRI Forum. She shared that the forum has organized several conversations on the subject including business, media, academic institutions linkages amongst 138 countries, and international organizations.

Prof. Zhou Rong, Senior Researcher China Yunnan Provincial Social Academy, said that the virus is related to scientific research, the political association of it will only damage human life hence, he urged that global and scientific origin tracing should be conducted. Dr. Henry Chan, Cambodia Institute for Cooperation & Peace said that the virus has no passport, and it does not understand human language, so we need to only rely on science to understand the origin of the virus, otherwise this politicization will be a disaster for humanity.  

Dr. Ghulam Mujaddid, Assistant Professor at Department of Aerospace Sciences and Strategic Studies Air University, Pakistan said that instead of learning from the Chinese experience, the US and its allies increased the process of politicization at the peril of huge human losses in their own countries. He further said steps for mitigation of the conspiracies about the Covid-19 shall be implemented by tracing origin globally.

Indrananda Abeysekera, President, Association for Sri Lanka-China Social & Cultural Cooperation (ASLCSCC), Sri Lanka said that this politicization is against the peace of the world and our stand should not be against any country but against the politicization of the virus, and that China has set a great example for international cooperation.

Dr. Nadia Helmy, Associate Professor of Political Science at Beni Suef University, Egypt said that there are strategic and economic motivations behind the COVID-19 politicization. She also talked about China’s focus on proactive help to mitigate the pandemic throughout the world through global health cooperation and donation of vaccines. Marek Hrubec, Director and Senior Fellow of the Centre of Global Studies, Czech Republic said that there is a need for a collective approach towards virus politicization.  

A large number of media persons, journalists, students, and academicians from different parts of the world attended the webinar.