The Chinese government has put in place regulations that forbid further scientific research to the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. The restrictions of further publication of research linking CoVid-19 to its origins were published on the official page of Fudan University, an elite educational institution in China. The government's new guidelines state that appear on Fudan's webpage state:
"Any paper that traces the origins of the virus should be strictly managed."
From now on, any paper examining the origins of the deadly virus has to go through additional government checks before being approved for publication.
This is hardly a surprise since it has been well established among scientists, that the origin of coronavirus lies in the cruel practices of the wild animal trade and specifically the market of Wuhan. Amidst the global outbreak, and given the scientific evidence available, China had to close down its wild-life markets. However, as those markets play a crucial role in the Chinese economy, they were reopened a few weeks later, regardless of the devastating impact the trade has worldwide. Now China is trying to censor any future research linking the virus to its wild-life trade practices, and academics seeking to study the coronavirus are furious.
In a CNN report, researchers say:
"I think it is a coordinated effort from (the) Chinese government to control (the) narrative, and paint it as if the outbreak did not originate in China," a researcher who had his work terminated states anonymously. "And I don't think they will really tolerate any objective study to investigate the origination of this disease."
The new restricting regulations on scientific research has left researchers confused.
Yanzhong Huang, a global health senior fellow at Washington's Council on Foreign Relations, explains,
"It is no surprise that the government seeks to control related scientific research so that the findings do not challenge its own narrative on the origin of the virus and the government response to the crisis."
"The danger is that when scientific research is subject to the needs of those in power," Huang added, "it further undermines the credibility of the government narrative, making accusations of underreporting and misinformation more convincing."
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