Australia demands independent probe into global COVID-19 response
19 April, 2020
Australia on Sunday (Apr 19) called for an independent investigation in to the global response to the coronavirus pandemic, like the World Health Organization's handling of the crisis.
Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the united states would "insist" on an assessment that would probe, partly, China's early response to the outbreak in Wuhan, the location where COVID-19 emerged late last year.
"We must know the types of details an independent review would identify for all of us about the genesis of the virus, about the approaches to working with it (and) addressing the openness with which information was shared," she told public broadcaster ABC.
Payne said Australia shared similar concerns to america, whose President Donald Trump has accused the WHO of "mismanaging" the crisis and covering up the seriousness of China's outbreak before it spread.
Trump in addition has announced that Washington will halt payments to the UN body that amounted to US$400 million this past year.
"I'm not sure you can have medical organisation which has been responsible for disseminating a lot of the international communications material, and doing a lot of the first engagement and investigative work, also as the review mechanism," Payne said.
"That strikes me as a bit poacher-and-gamekeeper."
Payne added she believed the fallout from the pandemic was set to improve the partnership between Australia and China "in a few ways", with her concern around Beijing's transparency now "at an extremely high point".
Health Minister Greg Hunt backed the call for an independent review, saying Australia had achieved success in limiting the spread of the virus in part by going against WHO advice.
Australia - which has recorded 6,600 coronavirus cases and 70 deaths associated with COVID-19 - was among the first countries to impose a ban on travel from China.
"Australia has been able to have, by global standards, only a profoundly important and successful human outcome, but we have done that by following a course our medical experts within Australia lay out," Hunt said.
"We do know there was very considerable criticism when we imposed on the 1 February the China ban from some of the officials and the WHO in Geneva."
Hunt said although the WHO had "done well" in fighting diseases like polio, measles and malaria, its coronavirus response "didn't help the world".
"We have done well because we made our own decisions as a country," he added.
In recent weeks, Australia has seen the rate of new cases slow dramatically, leading health authorities to declare the united states has "flattened the curve".
Tough restrictions on movement and gatherings are set to stay set up for at least another month as officials try to keep carefully the virus spread in order.
Source: www.channelnewsasia.com