If China has nothing to hide, why do Chinese scientists continue to refuse to share data that could shed light on the origin of the coronavirus?
Peter Ben Embarek and other members of the WHO team visit a local community inWuhan, Central China’s Hubei province on February 4, 2021
Recently, a group of independent investigators visited Wuhan, China on behalf of the World Health Organization (W.H.O.) in an effort to learn more about the early days of the outbreak in hopes of determining from the data the cause (or causes) of the virus. These 14 experts from various countries throughout the world were continually frustrated by the lack of response on the part of Chinese officials: “If you are data focused, and if you are a professional,” said Thea Kolsen Fischer, a Danish epidemiologist on the team, then obtaining data is “like for a clinical doctor looking at the patient and seeing them with your own eyes.”
It is known certainly that the virus is spread by person-to-person transmission (respiratory droplets), yet the Chinese continue to endorse the idea that the virus might come from frozen food products (including imported products) and on frozen food packaging. The W.H.O. team did ultimately agree to explore this in more detail but said “the focus for now would be on wildlife products sold in China – not imported food.” However, to please the Chinese they agreed “to include the frozen food theory among its hypotheses.”
Thankfully, AFFI stepped in once again and sent a letter supported and signed by a broad coalition of food manufacturers and industry leaders to FDA, HHS (who leads W.H.O. participation), USDA and USTR. As a result, the FDA and USDA issued a joint statement indicating “there is no credible evidence of food or food packaging associated with or as a likely source of viral transmission of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS – CoV-2), the virus causing COVID-19.” AFFI also communicated this information and shared its concerns with the members of the W.H.O. team who visited Wuhan.
This is a continuing effort on the part of China to divert attention from the real cause(s) of the virus and shift blame elsewhere. There is absolutely no scientific evidence that imported frozen food into China or frozen food packaging has played a part in spreading COVID-19. All that has resulted from this tactic is to cause people to fear the safety and reliability of frozen food products despite the fact that there are no known cases of foodborne COVID-19. The simple facts are that it is a respiratory, not a foodborne ailment – no matter what the Chinese would like people to think.
Here are the links shared by AFFI that substantiate this point:
“The overwhelming scientific consensus is that SARS-CoV-2, unlike norovirus and hepatitis A, is not transmitted by the consumption of potentially contaminated foods. The virus is unlikely to be in food, but even if it were, SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by respiratory, not gastrointestinal routes,” said Dr. Lee-Ann Jaykus, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in the Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition at NC State, and former NoroCORETM Scientific Director. “While we do freeze viruses to store them, there is no science that points to the link between surface contamination of food and the contraction of COVID-19.” More information is available here.
Frozen food companies in the U.S.A. and throughout the world continue to make food safety a top priority and have increased preventative measures with regard to sanitation and hygiene even beyond legal regulatory requirements to prevent the transmission of disease and foodborne illness. It is a shame that China has decided to cast dispersion on our industry in an effort to shift attention from themselves regarding the origin of COVID-19. The fact that they still refuse to provide the data requested by members of the W.H.O team substantiates this point.
