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It was revealed this week that Chinese media outlets made up a fake Swiss scientist to obfuscate the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, with the Swiss embassy recently emerging to deny the person’s existence.
Over the last month, numerous Chinese state-run media outlets cited Swiss biologist “Wilson Edwards” to suggest that probes into the origins of the recent COVID-19 outbreak had been political.
According to China Daily, the scientist suggested he said: “As a biologist, I've witnessed in consternation over the past months how the origin-tracing of COVID-19 was politicised.”
Meanwhile, Shanghai Daily wrote, "A European biologist has come to the fore with a startling claim that a World Health Organization (WHO) advisory group on tracing the origins of pathogens including the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, would become a 'political tool'."
Except, Wilson Edwards doesn’t exist.
In a twist, the embassy of Switzerland in Beijing released a statement via Twitter noting that there was no Swiss citizen of that name, nor could they find any articles in that area of research filed by a Wilson Edwards.
To make matters worse, the Facebook account where Edwards was attacking the politicisation of the pandemic was only opened in July.
Looking for Wilson Edwards, alleged [Swiss] biologist, cited in press and social media in China over the last several days. If you exist, we would like to meet you! But it is more likely that this is a fake news, and we call on the Chinese press and netizens to take down the posts. pic.twitter.com/U6ku5EGibm
— Embassy of Switzerland in Beijing (@SwissEmbChina) 10 August 2021
Following the release of the Tweet, the newspapers removed references to the biologist.
The controversy comes following recent furore around probes into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, the World Health Organisation put forward additional inquiries into the origins of the pandemic, which sparked widespread condemnation from China.
"We will not accept such an origins-tracing plan as it, in some aspects, disregards common sense and defies science," Zeng Yixin, vice minister of the National Health Commission, rebutted.
Meanwhile, Chinese conspiracy theorists blame the US for the recent outbreak of the Delta strain.
[Related: Managing China’s missile threat]
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