China accused of 'dragging out' Wuhan inquiry by Queensland Senator
Scientists investigating the origins of coronavirus in China needed to begin inquires as soon as the virus emerged if they wanted answers, Queensland Senator Matt Canavan said, accusing the superpower of "dragging out" the Wuhan investigation.
Results from the World Health Organisation's (WHO) report have failed to conclude where the virus came from, saying it didn't come from a lab or directly from a bat but may have jumped into humans from an intermediary species.
The politically sensitive investigation began in mid-January, after President Xi Jinping's government approved a team of scientists to enter the virus epicentre. The approval took months of diplomatic wrangling and prompted a public complaint by the head of WHO.
READ MORE: WHO 'disappointed' with China over coronavirus research block
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Security guards awaited the arrival of the WHO inspection team at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. AP
WHO experts visited the Wuhan seafood market on early February as part of an investigation into the origins of coronavirus. AP
Senator Canavan said he was not surprised by the findings.
"China's has acted like it had something to hide and it has frustrated the inquiry, dragged it out," he told Today.
"It's not really any surprise that, a year on, or over a year, it's become too hard to find the origin.
"We needed this inquiry to start pretty much straightaway if there was any hope of finding conclusions".
Senator Matt Canavan has accused China of "dragging out" the Wuhan inquiry. Today
Walter Smith, a respiratory therapist, gives oxygen to a COVID-19 patient at Uniontown Hospital in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Alexandra Wimley/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP
Senator Canavan said we may never know how coronavirus entered the human population.
"We'll probably never find out where this came from but we're a long way from getting away from it," he said.
"It would be a lot better for the world to know where these sort of things come from so we can prevent them again.
"But that's all spilt milk now. We're probably never going to find out."
COVID-19 has claimed 2.32 million lives globally and has infected more than 106.5 people, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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