Chinese cities find coronavirus in frozen food imports, WHO downplays infection risk
By: Roxanne Liu, David Stanway, Jake Spring (REUTERS)
Here's an example of the conundrums the public has had to deal with since the beginning of the pandemic. How much is real concern, how much is click-bait media hype, how much is propaganda? How is the public supposed to decide?
Finding genetic remnants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus doesn't mean the virus is viable and can cause infection. Genetic remnants of the virus can be found on surfaces that have been disinfected. So, are the Chinese reports cause for concern or nothing more than propaganda?
The WHO statement that “people should not fear food, food packaging or delivery of food” isn't reassuring considering past statements, such as those concerning airborne transmission of the virus. The WHO has pursued an agenda unrelated to health in the past; is this time different?
The FDA claims that “there is no evidence that people can contract COVID-19 from food or from food packaging” aren't reassuring considering past pronouncements concerning evidence. Has anyone looked? If the FDA has not accepted evidence (according to its own methodology) then obviously there isn't any evidence.
So, does the public need to be concerned over this new information? We've seen COVID outbreaks at food processing plants in our own country. The CDC guidelines warn of surface contamination and the need to disinfect surfaces. In the beginning, the CDC indicated that surface contamination was a main source of infection. Now the public is being told there is no evidence?
Essentially the public is on its own to believe whatever the public believes. The information provided by the media and experts has been contradictory and isn't trustworthy.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Two cities in China have found traces of the new coronavirus in cargoes of imported frozen food, local authorities said on Thursday, although the World Health Organization downplayed the risk of the virus entering the food chain.
A sample taken from the surface of frozen chicken wings imported into the southern city of Shenzhen from Brazil, as well as samples of outer packaging of frozen Ecuadorian shrimp sold in the northwestern city of Xian, have tested positive for the virus, local Chinese authorities said. Shenzhen authorities identified the chicken as originating from a plant owned by Aurora, Brazil’s third-largest poultry and pork exporter.
As confirmed COVID-19 cases continue to rise globally, the discoveries raise fresh concerns that the coronavirus that causes the disease can spread on surfaces and enter the foodchain. A day earlier, officials started investigating whether the first COVID-19 cases in New Zealand in more than three months were imported by freight.
Viruses can survive up to two years at temperatures of minus 20 degrees Celsius, but scientists and officials say there is no strong evidence so far the coronavirus can spread via frozen food. “People should not fear food, food packaging or delivery of food,” the World Health Organization’s head of emergencies programme Mike Ryan told a briefing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Agriculture …
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How much of this information is real cause for concern? How much of it is just click-bait media hype? How much of it is political propaganda?
Which of these sources is the public supposed to believe?