China Has Demanded That The United States Present Evidence Of The COVID-19 Vaccine
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Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hoa Xuan Doanh. |
US Senator Rick Scott
accused China of sabotaging or slowing down the development of the COVID-19
vaccine in Western countries.
China challenges US Senator
Rick Scott to present evidence concerning the allegations that Beijing has
hindered the development of the COVID-19 vaccine in Western countries, Reuters news agency reported.
Speaking at a press
conference on June 8, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said
that if Mr. Scott's allegations were truly grounded, Mr. Scott "did not
need to hesitate" and should show the proof.
"Because this legislator (Mr. Scott - PV) says he has evidence that shows that China is trying to prevent Western countries from developing vaccines, then let him show evidence."
Ms. Hoa said
Ms. Hoa also affirmed that
developing a vaccine against COVID-19 is not a competition between the two
sides of China and the US and hoped that Washington would report honestly about
Beijing's vaccine development.
On June 7, in a TV
interview, Scott said that:
"China does not want us (i.e. the Western countries) to obtain the vaccine against COVID-19 first."
The US senator also claimed
there were "evidence that Beijing is trying to stop or slow us
down". Scott declined to clarify the allegations but said he had
information from US intelligence.
Earlier, US President
Donald Trump and many senior officials in Washington repeatedly criticized the
way China handled the COVID-19 pandemic.
U.S. allegations related to
the origin of COVID-19, Beijing manipulating the World Health Organization
(WHO), the lack of transparency in disease data or the impediment of Taiwan's
territory from participating in the global health fight.
China denied all of these
allegations and affirmed that it was publicly and transparently reporting
disease information.
COVID-19 broke out in Wuhan
City, Hubei Province (China) and has spread to more than 210 countries and
territories worldwide, causing disease in more than 7,114,800 people and causing
406,564 deaths, according to the Worldometer statistics site.
The world is still racing
against time to develop a vaccine against COVID-19. Since mid-May, WHO has
listed eight vaccine candidates being tested in humans, including four
potential vaccines in China, two in the US, one in the UK and one in Germany.
In addition, the director
of the Russian Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Research announced that
he could make a vaccine for COVID-19 in August.
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