China and Russia have jointly called for the US to abide by a United Nations convention on biological weapons, as the powers continue to accuse each other of ramping up their military strength and threatening global safety.
The focus on biological weapons has intensified as Beijing and Washington have traded claims that the coronavirus’ origin could be linked to each other’s research in that field – accusations that have been largely rejected by scientists and denied by both governments.
The call was made on Thursday at an arms control committee discussion of the UN’s Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production and Stockpiling of Bacteriological (Biological) and Toxin Weapons and on their Destruction (BWC).
South China Morning Post
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Scientists in Italy have identified a sample of the novel coronavirus collected from a young boy late last year that they say is genetically identical to the earliest strain isolated in the Chinese city of Wuhan almost a year ago.
The sample was collected on December 5, 2019 in Milan from a boy who was first thought to have contracted measles, according to the researchers from the University of Milan.
It was a “100 per cent match” of a genome segment of the first Sars-CoV-2 viral strain collected from a seafood market worker in Wuhan on December 26, they said.
“These findings, in agreement with other evidence of early Covid-19 spread in Europe, advance the beginning of the outbreak to late autumn 2019,” said the team led by Professor Elisabetta Tanzi.