Australian expert claims coronavirus likely started in China following WHO investigation

A probe into the origins of COVID-19 that raised doubts about the pandemic starting in China has been refuted by an Aussie scientist who was there.

An Australian virus expert who recently travelled to China to investigate the coronavirus pandemic is convinced it originated there.

NSW Health infectious diseases expert Professor Dominic Dwyer was part of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) 14-strong virus investigation team which visited Wuhan for two weeks to study the outbreak’s source.

While the investigation did not definitively declare China as the source, Prof Dwyer, who is now in quarantine following his return to Australia, told Nine he believed COVID-19 “started in China”.

“I think the evidence for it starting elsewhere in the world is actually very limited. There is some evidence but it’s not really very good,” he said.

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A waitress is pictured wearing a face mask while serving guests in Wuhan, more than a year after coronavirus emerged. Picture: Getty Images

The WHO team visited a number of placed linked to the initial outbreak, including the Huanan Seafood Market, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the Hubei Province Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Hubei Provincial Hospital.

Prof Dwyer also added bats were the “most likely” source of the virus but that it had been active in the community for “weeks’ before the outbreak connected to the wet market in late 2019.

It comes as NSW Health researchers uncovered a virus breakthrough which will help authorities across the globe contain coronavirus outbreaks faster, after experts from NSW Health Pathology successfully grew the live virus from NSW patients.

“Early and accurate diagnosis of infectious and deadly viruses is critical because undiagnosed patients can unknowingly transmit it to others,” Health Minister Brad Hazzard said following the announcement.

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Dominic Dwyer (right) and other members of the World Health Organisation team pictured in Wuhan. Picture: Hector Retamal/AFP

“But unless clinicians understand the epidemiology of the disease – how it behaves and replicates – they can’t develop reliable diagnostic testing to identify and contain it.

“A team of elite NSW researchers have achieved this by undertaking genome sequencing of the virus and growing the live virus from real patients as opposed to using synthetic materials.”

Prof Dwyer, who is NSW Health Pathology’s director of Public Health Pathology, said the discovery would save lives.

“This cutting-edge work will expand access to faster, reliable diagnostic testing for infected patients, not just here in NSW but around the world,” Prof Dwyer said.

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The pandemic has claimed over 900 lives in Australia so far – and over 2.35 million globally. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

“Being able to cultivate the novel coronavirus with samples from NSW patients as opposed to trying to mimic it from synthetic specimens is a terrific breakthrough.

“Synthetic virus tools don’t offer the same high degree of diagnostic accuracy needed to help us develop effective antiviral drugs that can be used to treat infected patients,” he said.

“We’re proud to be able to share our discovery with the World Health Organisation, and international researchers and clinicians, so together we ultimately help save lives.”

It is almost a year since WHO officially declared coronavirus a pandemic. It has so far infected 107 million people around the world and killed 2.35 million.