There is “every signal” that the Chinese government is not willingly cooperating as questions over the origins of COVID-19 remain, according to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s Michael Shoebridge.
The WHO has declared it is “extremely unlikely” the virus which causes COVID-19 escaped from a Chinese laboratory following an independent investigation into the origins of the pandemic.
The scientists delivered their report after an international team joined Chinese scientists to study the coronavirus in Wuhan where cases were first identified.
Mr Shoebridge told Sky News host Chris Kenny that a “forensic, scientific data assessment has to happen”.
“The kind of data they’re handing over about the lab, about the virus, about their own actions, it’s all stage-managed and very carefully crafted to support their story”.
“That’s not what this kind of forensic assessment should be about”.