Chinese policymakers put forward an unlikely theory: the new coronavirus did not originate in China, but was imported from Europe. This is what a former chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at an academic conference last autumn. One theory is that the virus in Wuhan ran on packaged food packaging.
This month, the World Health Organization visited China to investigate the origin of the virus. A member of the WTO delegation said it was possible that a frozen carcass could have been sent to China and introduced the virus, confirming the idea of food packaging. According to reports, China has suggested that the WHO should agree to examine the food hypothesis as a condition of entering Wuhan. By giving credibility to this unlikely theory, WHO builds confidence in the important project of finding out where the virus originated.
The most common culprit cited by Chinese officials is frozen salmon, although officials have also suggested that the virus may have run on frozen cod, pork heads or other products. In response, Beijing suspended imports of some food products and imposed inspections and tests on frozen foods, which regularly halted imports from the US and Europe.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighed in last week with a powerful statement. “There is no credible evidence of food or food packaging related to or as a likely source of viral transmission,” Acting Commissioner Janet Woodcocksaid said in an update to Covid on Thursday.
Other scientific bodies have reached similar conclusions. The International Commission on Microbiological Specifications of Food stated: “Despite the billions of meals and food parcels handled since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, to date there has been no evidence that food, food packaging or food handling is a source not or important transmission route. Worldwide, more than 100 million cases of Covid have been diagnosed and outside of China, not a single case has been returned to food or food packaging.