Pressure on China to deliver the facts on COVID-19 origins

Australia has joined the US and Britain in demanding China give ‘full access’ to information about the origins of COVID-19.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne. Picture: Gary Ramage

Australia has joined the US and Britain in demanding China provide the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 investigation team with “full access” to all the information it needs to establish pandemic’s origin.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne told the Senate that Australia would continue to advocate for a “thorough and credible” report, after Chinese authorities refused to provide WHO investigators with all the data they requested during their visit to Wuhan last week.

“Australia joins our key partners, including UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, in reiterating the need for full access to all information relevant to determining how this pandemic emerged,” she said.

Senator Payne first called for an independent review into the origins of the coronavirus in April last year, infuriating Beijing. Australia continued to lobby for the review in the face of growing Chinese anger, backing a European motion at the World Health Assembly that was carried unanimously.

Senator Payne said on Monday that the May WHA resolution “delivered a very clear mandate — to identify the source of the COVID-19 virus and how it was transmitted to humans”.

“While there was a lengthy press conference at the conclusion of the mission last week, we are yet to see a formal report with findings, analysis and recommendations for future work,” she said. “Following the WHO ­investigation team’s media conference last week, Australia will continue to advocate for a review and a report that is both thorough and credible.”

Australian infectious diseases expert Dominic Dwyer, who travelled to China as part of the WHO team, said on Saturday that Beijing had refused access to all requested data. He said that gaining access to the raw data was crucial since only half of 174 early cases had exposure to Wuhan’s Huanan wet market.

“That’s why we’ve persisted to ask for that,” Professor Dwyer told Reuters on Saturday. “Why that doesn’t happen, I couldn’t comment.”

In a statement on Saturday, Mr Sullivan said Washington had “deep concerns” about the way in which Chinese authorities dealt with the investigators.

“It is imperative that this ­report be independent, with ­expert findings free from intervention or alteration by the Chinese government,” he said.

“To better understand this pandemic and prepare for the next one, China must make available its data from the earliest days of the outbreak.”

Mr Raab said he shared the concerns of the US about the level of access given to the WHO’s fact-finding mission.

The WHO investigators ­arrived in China in January to examine the origins of the COVID-19 outbreak, but were limited to visits organised by their Chinese hosts and barred from talking with community members. The WHO said a summary of the team’s findings could be released as early as next week.