A vaccine scientist is demanding an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 after a team of researchers found the coronavirus "uniquely adapted to infect humans".
Professor Nikolai Petrovsky, a researcher who headed the Australian team, said the virus was "not typical of a normal zoonotic [animal to human] infection" since it appeared with the "exceptional" ability to enter human bodies from day one.
He added the virus could have been transmitted by an animal in "a freak event of nature," but the theory that it had originated in a laboratory could not be ruled out.
Mr Petrovsky, a professor of medicine at Flinders University in Adelaide, heads a biotech research unit that will begin human trials for a coronavirus vaccine next month.