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Hey America! Now it is your turn

By Liu Ning, Xian Jiangnan, Wei Qingcheng, Ning Jing (People's Daily Online) 16:40, August 06, 2021

For some time, some people in the US have made coronavirus origin tracing a political issue, doing everything they can to cast unreasonable suspicions on China. But when it comes to how and when the novel coronavirus started spreading in their own country, they remain silent.

Now the big question still remains: Why did the U.S. close Fort Detrick?

Let's turn the clock back two years. In July 2019, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered Fort Detrick to halt all research. At almost the same time, unexplained pneumonia outbreaks appeared in two nursing homes near the research base. Two months later, in Maryland, where Fort Detrick is located, the number of patients with EVALI, e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury, had doubled. And several thousand cases of pneumonia with symptoms extremely similar to those of the COVID-19 pneumonia were reported in several U.S. states.

Oh, and one more thing: in a recent study of 250 chest CT scans from 142 EVALI patients, scientists found that 16 involved viral infections. This means they probably had COVID-19. All 16 cases were from the US.

So, what is the connection between Fort Detrick and this pneumonia of unknown cause? How many EVALI patients are actually COVID-19 patients? Why does the CDC still refuse to reveal the reason for why the base was closed? What's the hidden secret behind the whole affair?

COVID-19 source tracing should be conducted across multiple countries, not just a single nation. The U.S. should be one of the priority countries in the next stage of scientists' investigations.

All I'm saying is, America, it's time for you to open your door to investigations by international scientists. The global community has many questions that need answering. 

(Web editor: Xian Jiangnan, Liang Jun)

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