Beijing epidemic joke : Salmons of some Beijing restaurants turn out to be fake

Reporter : Li Yun

Editor : Li Quan

Publisher : New Tang Dynasty Television

Ref : https://www.ntdtv.com/gb/2020/06/16/a102872232.html

Extract translation, editing : Gan Yung Chyan

                                             / KUCINTA SETIA

Image courtesy : Getty Images

A new round of covid outbreak in Beijing broke out. Officials not only dumped the virus strains to Europe, but also directed the source of the virus to salmon. Various places have removed salmon, and the CCP has stopped importing salmon from Europe. However, there was a joke again, and many restaurants admitted that the salmon used was not imported but pretended to be freshwater rainbow trout.

Many Beijing restaurants sell counterfeit salmon

Some Beijing restaurants feared that their business would be affected, and hurriedly came forward to clarify that the "high-quality imported fish" used by them was found to be actually a "domestic rainbow trout" variety, so consumers should be at ease.

The move triggered discussions among netizens. Many mainland netizens said that "our company's lawyer's letter is being delivered", "when the epidemic began, Wuhan Duck Neck changed its name", "it can be prosecuted by fraud and tripled in compensation."

The CCTV program’s economic half-hour report once reported that 1/3 of China’s salmon is supplied by Qinghai Province. It was later revealed by netizens that the salmon in the Qinghai farm is freshwater rainbow trout, not real salmon. Freshwater fish contains parasites and is not suitable for life and fish fillet consumption.

The Xinhua News Agency later wrote an article saying that because rainbow trout and salmon belong to both salmon trout, rainbow trout is "freshwater salmon" as far as it goes, and raw freshwater fish and shrimp are susceptible to parasites.

Reactions from netizens

The CCP pointed the source of the second wave of the Beijing epidemic to salmon imported from Europe, and many netizens thought it was "bullying salmon and not dumping the pot."

"The chopping board has no travel history, the salmon has no lungs!"

"It feels crazy, and the source of infection has not been found. The people of the whole country went to the salmon, just like everyone in the early days went to the bat."

"The catering has been resumed for a long time. Japanese food shops and seafood restaurants are big heads, and the number of people who buy salmon alone is by no means a small number. Many people like to eat raw. If there are problems, they will come out long ago. The source is unlikely to be fish.

"The focus is off-center:'Chopping board' is more worthy of attention than'Salmon'! It is recommended to only buy products from the shelf and the source of supply and the trading chain. However, please note that it is not limited to salmon, but other aquatic products processed in the same store also need our attention!"

Salmon has no lungs and cannot be infected

The Deutsche Welle mentioned that salmon has no lungs and can breathe with gills. There are two possibilities for finding the virus on the salmon chopping board. One is that the virus is attached to the surface of the salmon. The second is that the chopping board is not contaminated by the virus carried by the salmon, but is caused by other sources of pollution.

According to the analysis of the virologists of the First Finance and Economics, the host of the CCP virus is mammals, not salmon and other seafood; the virus in the human lung is generally not transmitted to fish, and the virus on the gills of the fish cannot be transmitted to humans. He said that at present, there is no virus disease common to humans and fish in the world.

Caixin.com also quoted experts saying that there is no scientific evidence to prove that salmon itself can infect and spread the CCP virus; the possibility of the virus spreading through food contamination is also very small.

Reactions from Europe 

Several European salmon producers including Norwegian royal salmon and salmon farm Bakkafrost have confirmed that the export of salmon was temporarily suspended by the CCP.

However, European salmon producers have stated that their employees have been tested and no cases of infection have occurred.

In response to the CCP’s official claim that the virus came from Europe, Keith Neal, an emeritus professor of epidemiology of infectious diseases at the University of Nottingham in the UK, said that the CCP brought the virus to the world, and the world is likely to return the virus to them. SARS-CoV-2 is spreading around the world, and it is not surprising to find a connection with Europe.