Beijing & COVID-19: Something Fishy

With the mayor of Beijing declaring what equates to martial law in his city to combat the recent COVID-19 outbreak, there are still some Chinese governmental claims regarding the origin of this new coronavirus outbreak that are hazy at best.

The Chinese medical authorities claim that this new coronavirus outbreak originated from the Xinfadi Market (the city’s largest wholesale food market) due to “contaminated” imported frozen salmon. They cited the discovery if a contaminated fish cutting board from this market as evidence to support their inference.

It should be noted that there’s been no recorded evidence of this dangerous strain of novel coronavirus being transmitted via frozen packaged food (or any food at all). Experts around the world are finding Beijing’s claims dubious with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially stating that it is “not aware of any evidence” to suggest that food can transmit the COVID-19 infection. Additionally, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) pointed to the fact that this strain of novel coronavirus does not survive well on surfaces including food products and packaging (making it highly unlikely that it came from imported frozen food).

Given that the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) hasn’t always been honest to the international community in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, their claims pertaining to the Beijing outbreak (including reported numbers) should be taken with a relatively high level of scepticism. Their evidence regarding the cutting board is circumstantial at best as it’s more likely that an infected individual would have handled it before being discovered by the authorities, and traces of this virus found on the frozen salmon (if any) would be due to cross-contamination from this board. Additionally, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by President Xi Jinping is currently trying to propagate the illusion of strength and global domination, and they want to be remembered as the “leaders who saved their country from COVID-19”. This indicates that it’s in their best interest to falsify information to indicate that the source of this recent COVID-19 outbreak came from abroad, in this case frozen salmon from Europe.