Chinese policymakers have come up with an unlikely theory: the new coronavirus does not originate from China, but was imported from Europe. A former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said this at an academic conference last fall. One theory is that the virus entered Wuhan on frozen food packaging.
This month, the World Health Organization visited China to investigate the origin of the virus. A member of the WHO delegation said it “is possible that a frozen carcass may have been shipped to China” and introduced the virus, somewhat confirming the idea of food packaging. Reporting has suggested that China required WHO to agree to investigate the food hypothesis as a condition of entering Wuhan. By giving credence to this unlikely theory, the WHO is shattering confidence in the important project to find out where the virus comes from.
The most common culprit cited by Chinese officials is frozen salmon, although officials have also suggested the virus may have hitched a lift on frozen cod, pig’s heads or other produce. In response, Beijing suspended imports of certain food products and introduced inspections and tests of frozen foods, often delaying imports from the US and Europe.
The US Food and Drug Administration weighed in with a strong statement last week. “There is no credible evidence that food or food packaging is associated with or as a likely source of viral transmission,” Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcocks said in a Covid update on Thursday.
Other scientific bodies have come to similar conclusions. The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications for Foods has stated: “Despite the billions of meals and food packages processed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is no evidence to date that food, food packaging or food processing is a source. or major transmission route. “More than 100 million cases of Covid have been diagnosed worldwide and no case outside of China can be traced back to food or food packaging.