Is politics undermining global efforts to fight COVID-19?

From the origins of the virus, and allegations over a “lab leak” in Wuhan, the United States continues to question China’s role and Beijing has pushed back hard on that. China says the novel coronavirus origin-tracking work should be treated as a scientific issue, not a political one.  

And, a leading global expert on viruses, Doctor William Haseltine, discusses the threat from the delta variant. 

To discuss:

• Deborah Seligsohn is an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University
• William Haseltine is the chair and president of Access Health International.

For More: 

#UPDATE The United States rejected an appeal from the UN health agency for a moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine booster shots, while China tightened overseas travel curbs after recording its highest number of infections in six months https://t.co/cGma5ty8VA

— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 4, 2021

All 12 million residents of China’s Wuhan will be tested for the coronavirus, city officials said, after confirming its first domestic cases of the highly transmissible Delta variant https://t.co/vDTcI1nvwv pic.twitter.com/5N9AnArma3

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 3, 2021

The world reached 200 million known coronavirus cases in half the time it took to reach 100 million cases. https://t.co/uwkKE1xEPX pic.twitter.com/yGEj3LQX0o

— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 4, 2021