China says Australian Foreign Minister’s comments are ‘disrespectful’, defends Wuhan lab

Scott Morrison has backed Australia’s Foreign Minister in calling for transparency from China after the communist nation dismissed her comments, and defended a faulty Wuhan lab.

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Scott Morrison has backed Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne in calling for transparency during an international investigation into the outbreak of COVID-19.

The Prime Minister said in a press conference on Tuesday it was important the World Health Organisation and all parties involved would “act with great transparency” … “regardless of where a virus break out happened – in Australia, in China, parts of Africa or the Pacific or the Middle East”.

“Wherever it would happen to be, it’s important for public health globally that there is a transparency in the way you can get to this important information early,” Mr Morrison said.

“So it’s not pursued as an issue of criticism, it’s pursued as an issue of importance for public health.”

#LIVE: Update following today's National Cabinet meeting https://t.co/5rsemt51zh

— Scott Morrison (@ScottMorrisonMP) April 21, 2020

His comments come following China dismissing comments from Ms Payne concerning Beijing’s transparency with the COVID-19 outbreak.

Ms Payne called for an international investigation into China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday, saying the World Health Organisation should not conduct the probe.

Authorities in Wuhan initially tried to cover up the outbreak, punishing doctors who raised the alarm online in December.

There were also questions about China’s recording of COVID-19 infections as it repeatedly changed its counting criteria at the peak of the outbreak.

An independent review of #COVID19 will need countries to come to the table with a willingness to be transparent, says Foreign Minister @MarisePayne pic.twitter.com/FuFbs5g6iT

— DFAT🇦🇺 (@dfat) April 19, 2020

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Ms Payne’s accusations disrespected “the Chinese people’s tremendous efforts and sacrifices” in fighting the contagion.

“Any question about China’s transparency in the prevention and control of epidemic situation is not in line with facts,” he said.

Chinese scientists have rejected conspiracy theories pushed by some in the US government claiming the virus could have originated at a maximum-security virology lab in Wuhan.

However, US President Donald Trump has suggested China could have been “knowingly responsible” for spreading the infection and could face consequences as a result.

CHINESE REPORTER ACCUSES US FOR RELEASING CORONAVIRUS

A Chinese state media reporter has accused the US for having fabricated the deadly coronavirus, saying “its symptoms were like symptoms of other diseases so it was easy to hide the truth”.

Accompanied by sound affects and graphics of smoke, the Arabic-speaking reporter known as Ms V said the coronavirus could have escaped from a US lab or brought into China during the Military World Games in Wuhan in October 2019.

A screenshot of the Chinese media reporter.

“So it is clear the virus in China was transmitted form abroad,” she said in the video uploaded on March 14.

“By deciphering the viral genome in Iran and Italy we found that it is different from the nature of the virus that was discovered in China and this also indicates that its source is not from China.

The Chinese media reporter has accused the US of fabricating the spread of COVID-19.

“The outbreak may have occurred earlier than expected.

“In September 2019, some Japanese were infected with the New Coronavirus after returning from Hawaii though they had not visited China before.”

FOOTAGE REVEALS WUHAN LAB OPERATING

China has released new footage of scientists carrying out research in a Wuhan lab previously criticised for operating with broken equipment.

In the footage, researchers analyse testing samples while wearing two layers of protective suits and passing five airtight chambers before entering the core part of the £34 million laboratory.

A screenshot of the vision released by China.

The lab opened in 2018 and is believed to have three testing rooms, two animal storage rooms, one virus bank and one animal-dissection room.

The footage follows images published by state-owned China Daily in March of a lab worker at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which showed a broken seal on a freezer containing 1,500 strains of deadly viruses – including the one linked to COVID-19.

The broken seal on the freezer. Picture: Supplied

COVID-19 INFECTED DOCTORS’ SKIN DARKENS

Two Chinese doctors who were infected with COVID-19 earlier this year have seen their skin darken after being brought back from the brink of death.

Dr Yi Fan and Dr Hu Weifeng, both aged 42, contracted COVID-19 while treating patients at the Wuhan Central Hospital in January.

Chinese state media CCTV reported the men received treatment at Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital, which included the use of a heart-lung bypass machine and Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) – a piece of equipment which delivers oxygen into the blood.

A medic treating one of the men said he believed their skin had turned dark as a result of the medicine they were treated with upon their diagnosis.

Chinese doctors ill with Coronavirus surprised as they wake up to a dark skin after the viru... pic.twitter.com/7zOfSdPj9y

— Chioma (@cindyedozie) April 20, 2020

However, Huazhong University of Science’s infectious diseases expert Song Jianxin said it could have been the result of the men’s organs being damaged as well as iron – usually stored in the liver – flooding their blood vessels instead as the liver was not working properly.

The Sun reported research at the Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology warned in March “liver damage in patients with coronavirus infections might be directly caused by the viral infection of liver cells.”

“Approximately two-to-ten per cent of patients with COVID-19 present with diarrhoea, and [the virus] has been detected in stool and blood samples,” it said