US and Australia ready to investigate China for origins of Covid-19

Sydney/Geneva — Australia sought support for an international probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic in calls with US President Donald Trump and major powers, but France and Britain said now was the time to fightCovid-19 and not apportion blame.

Australia’s push for an independent review of the origins and spread of the pandemic, including the response of the World Health Organisation (WHO), has drawn sharp criticism from China, which has accused Australian lawmakers of taking instructions from the US.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Twitter he had “a very constructive discussion” with Trump on the two nations’ responses to Covid-19 and the need to get economies up and running.

“We also talked about the WHO & working together to improve the transparency & effectiveness of the international responses to pandemics,” he tweeted.

The White House has been fiercely critical of China and the WHO, and has withdrawn US funding from the UN agency.

Morrison also spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron by phone about the role of the WHO, his office said.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly said that the UN agency will evaluate its handling of the pandemic after it ends and draw the appropriate lessons, as it does after all emergencies.

Macron told Morrison now is not the time for an investigation, a French official said. “He says he agrees that there have been some issues at the start, but that the urgency is for cohesion, that it is no time to talk about this, while reaffirming the need for transparency for all players, not only the WHO,” an Élysée official told Reuters.

A spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said there will be a time when Britain will have to look at the lessons to be learnt from the crisis, but for now ministers are focused on fighting the pandemic.

Britain has been criticised by the opposition Labour Party for its slow response and its failure to provide enough tests and protective gear for front liners.

In Berlin, the government confirmed that Merkel had spoken with Morrison on Tuesday. Last Friday, her spokesperson said: “The coronavirus appeared first in China. China has suffered a lot from the virus and did a lot to fight against spreading.”

The coronavirus, believed to have emerged in a market in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, was first reported by China to the WHO on December 31. The WHO informed member states of the outbreak on January 5 and warned publicly a week later that there was “limited” human-to-human transmission.

WHO officials arrived in Wuhan on January 20, after the virus had spread to three other countries. It went on to declare a global emergency on January 30.

The virus has since infected more than 2.6-million people globally and killed more than 186,000, as of Thursday evening.

Australia is examining whether the WHO should be given powers, similar to international weapons inspectors, to enter a country to investigate an outbreak without having to wait for consent, a government source said.

Senior Australian lawmakers have also questioned Beijing’s transparency over the pandemic. China’s embassy in Canberra said in a statement late on Tuesday that Australian lawmakers are acting as a mouthpiece for Trump and “certain Australian politicians are keen to parrot what those Americans have asserted and simply follow them in staging political attacks on China”.

Australia has recorded just more than 6,600 cases of the virus nationally. Infection rates have slowed from 25% in mid-March to less than 1% a day.Lawmakers plan to ease some curbs, with Australia’s iconic Bondi Beach to partially open next week.

Reuters