[ad_1]
In December 2019, news spread around the world that a mysterious and worrying viral pneumonia had been identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Within a few days, the outbreak that originated in this city spread throughout the country and, subsequently, beyond the borders.
The mysterious disease would later be confirmed as a new type of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, which causes the Covid-19 disease and has so far infected more than 60 million people worldwide and has killed close to 1.5. millions.
Almost a year after the first case was detected, China has stepped up a campaign challenging the origin of the pandemic. Chinese state media have insisted on the narrative that the virus already existed before it was discovered in the city of Wuhan, citing the presence of this new virus in imported frozen food packages.
Last Wednesday, the official page of the Chinese newspaper People’s Daily on Facebook made a publication in which it stated that “all available evidence suggests that the coronavirus did not appear in the Chinese city of Wuhan.”
“Wuhan was where the coronavirus was first detected, but not where it originated”, the newspaper page also reads, quoting Zeng Guang, former chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
When asked about this possibility, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry also argued that it is important to distinguish between where Covid-19 was first detected and when the virus crossed the species barrier and passed from animals to animals. humans. “Although China was the first country to report cases, it does not necessarily mean that the virus originated in China.“Zhao Lijian defended at a press conference. “Source tracking is an ongoing process that can involve various countries and regions,” the spokesperson added.
However, although it has not yet been reviewed, Chinese scientists have submitted an article for publication in the scientific journal. The lancet where they state that “Wuhan is not the place where human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 occurred for the first time,” suggesting, in turn, that the first case may have been in the Indian subcontinent.
Scientists debunk Chinese claims
Claims that Covid-19 originated outside of Chinese borders have little credibility with scientists in the Western world. On friday the executive director of the World Health Organization (WHO) health emergency program said it would be “highly speculative” to say that Covid-19 did not originate in China.
“It’s clear from a public health perspective that investigations begin where the first human cases emerged,” explained Mike Ryan during a virtual conference call.
The Chinese newspaper Diário do Povo also uses the argument based on reports that state that Covid-19 was already circulating in Italy in the fall of 2019, after specific antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in blood samples. obtained in a lung cancer screening test conducted between September 2019 and March of this year.
British virologist Jonathan Stoye considers these reports to be “weak”. In statements to the newspaper The Guardian, Stoye clarifies that “serological data [de Itália] can be explained by antibodies related to other types of coronavirus“That is, according to the epidemiologist, the antibodies may have been triggered by individuals infected with other coronaviruses, and not by the person responsible for the Covid-19 disease.
“What seems certain is that the first registered cases of the disease were in China,” Stoye adds. “Therefore, it is more likely that the virus originated in China,” he concluded.
Coronavirus detected in frozen food
According to the South China morning postThe current chief epidemiologist at the CDC’s Chinese Center also defends the thesis that the pandemic originated outside of China, giving the possibility of having reached the country through imported frozen meat and seafood packages.
In recent months, evidence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has been detected in frozen foods, mainly meat. Precisely this Sunday, the city of Wuhan confirmed that three batches of frozen food tested positive for Covid-19, two of them imported from Brazil. This is the third time this month that the new coronavirus has been detected in packages with frozen meat imported from Brazil to Wuhan.
Scientists believe, however, that the virus detected in frozen food packages poses an extremely low risk of contagion., as it is currently confirmed that the Covid-19 disease is transmitted mainly through respiratory droplets.
Andrew Pekosz of Johns Hopkins University explained to the Associated Press that a positive test for Covid-19 “does not indicate that the virus is infectious, only that it was present on that surface.” “I have not seen any convincing evidence that SARS-CoV-2 in food packaging poses a significant risk of infection.”Pekosz concluded.
Andrew Small, a Chinese college student, refers to The Guardian that Beijing is trying, with all this, to protect its reputation as the number of victims increases. “China is still struggling to be held responsible for the ‘initial sin’ of the outbreak, which undermines virtually every effort to save its image.“Says Small, who believes it may be even more difficult for China to fight responsibility for the pandemic than the disease itself.
For the university student, the Chinese senior representatives have no doubts about the origin of the new coronavirus and the effort to defend a narrative that denies that same origin is nothing more than an advertising campaign. He also argues that the doubts raised by China would be more plausible if they supported an independent investigation into the disease, but the Chinese authorities have not cooperated.
WHO researchers who visited Wuhan earlier this year were unable to visit the food market related to the initial outbreak. Although there is no confirmed date yet, a new team is expected to be dispatched to China soon to continue the initial work on the origin of Covid-19.
