Report by : Gan Yung Chyan
/ KUCINTA SETIA
Image courtesy : Entry to Xinfadi market is prohibited. Courtesy of UIP.
Beijing has newly diagnosed 36 new symptomatic cases of covid and the cases have agricultural products wholesale market activities before onset of illness while Liaoning CDC states the two symptomatic cases are close contacts of Mr Liu, the Beijing case. The Beijing officials have quickly dumped the source of SARS-CoV-2 (covi, CCP virus) on imported salmon, claiming that the virus was detected on the cutting board for cutting imported salmon in the market.
However, some experts said that seafood is unlikely to be a source of infection. The Beijing-Shenzhen Seafood Market, a source of salmon, also issued an article stressing that covid patients visited the market, not because the fish was infected with covi. Many netizens also complained about the salmon being removed from the supermarket.
According to media reports in mainland China, the city of Beijing has launched farmer wholesale markets, large supermarkets and other investigations. A total of 5,424 smears of seafood, meat and other foods and external environments have been collected to complete viral nucleic acid testing; 40 environmental positive samples have been found in the new market. The other farmers' wholesale markets and large supermarkets are negative.
Zhang Yuxi, Chairman of Beijing Xinfadi Wholesale Market, said in an interview with the media on 13 June that the relevant department detected the new crown virus from the cutting board of imported salmon (salmon) during the random inspection, and the source of the product came from the Beijing-Shenzhen seafood market. Affected by this news, all major supermarkets in Beijing have removed all salmon products overnight.
According to China News Weekly, Gao Xiaojun, a spokesman for the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, said that 40 sources of environmentally positive samples found in the Xinfadi market came from salmon cutting boards, but some were not.
The report quoted Jin Dongyan, a virology expert and medical professor at the University of Hong Kong, saying that seafood is unlikely to be a source of infection because fish as a lower organism, fish virus transmission to humans has almost never happened, and there is no evidence to show that covi can replicate in fish, so the possibility of salmon itself as a viral vector is very small.
The virology expert emphasized that at the end of last year, the covi samples were detected in the chopping board, gloves and door tops of the Wuhan Huanan Seafood Market, but the specific source is still unclear. If there is a CCP virus on the cutting board for salmon, has any other meat been cut on this board? Could it be that the person who uses the chopping board carries the virus and contaminates the chopping board? Jin Dongyan believes that, according to the current information, the virus that broke out in the farmers' market in Beijing's new development area may be passed from person to person, but the source has not yet been found.
An anonymous virologist told China Business News that the host of covi is mammals, not seafood such as salmon. The virus in the human lung is generally not transmitted to fish, and the virus on the gills cannot be transmitted to people. He said that at present, there is no virus disease common to humans and fish in the world.
Interface News quoted a research paper from the University of London (UCL) research team entitled "SARS-CoV-2 spike protein predicted to form stable complexes with host receptor protein or thologues from mammals, but not fish, birds or reptiles".
The article analyzed the role of covi and the two protein homologs of 215 vertebrates, and finally concluded that SARS-CoV-2 is difficult to infect reptiles, birds and fish.
There are also mainland China media that once called the Beijing-Shenzhen Seafood Market Office, but did not get more relevant information. However, a circle of friends suspected to have been released by the official WeChat of the Beijing-Shenzhen Seafood Market on the Internet said that the chairman of Xinfadi's speech was dumping the pot.
The circle of friends emphasized that it was the people with covi who visited the new place, not because the fish was infected with the CCP virus. "This order is very important!" Beijing-Shenzhen Seafood Market questioned that the virus was detected on the cutting board. Was the board brought from Beijing and Shenzhen with salmon?
According to the circle of friends in the Beijing-Shenzhen Seafood Market, the salmon here is imported through regular channels and is not smuggled, and the salmon in this seafood market has been subjected to nucleic acid testing, and the results show no problems.
An overseas netizen "Hush" analyzed on Twitter that the mainland official hyped imported salmon for a deeper purpose. "First of all, China does not produce salmon, and the virus carried by the salmon is obviously imported from abroad. Second, even if Beijingers were to be infected, the virus may be transmitted through high-grade ingredients such as salmon, instead of eating bats like Wuhan. These demonstrate the nobility of the people of the capital. Third, they are all seafood markets, suggesting that China’s experience in prevention and control in this regard must be keeping it under control."
In addition, many netizens blamed imported salmon for the emergency removal of all salmon from many supermarkets in Beijing.
Many supermarkets in Beijing including Wumart, Supermarket, Carrefour and others have removed all salmon overnight after hearing the outbreak. On 13 June, many Japanese restaurants in Beijing have stopped selling all salmon products or all sashimi, Many shopkeepers report that the operations of their stores have been greatly affected.
At the same time, the wholesale market of Chengdu Agricultural Products Center also announced the complete removal of salmon products, and the resale time is to be determined.
After the news came out, many netizens disagreed with this one-size-fits-all approach, believing that this is "bullying salmon and not dumping the pot."
Some people said, "The catering has already resumed work. Japanese restaurants 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."
"Is the salmon infected with covi, or is the covid patient contaminating the salmon chopping board? Which one is more logical?"
"The focus is off-center:'chopping board' is more worthy of attention than 'salmon'! It is recommended to only purchase products from the shelf and the source of supply and the trading chain. However, it is not limited to salmon, but other aquatic products processed in the same store also need critical attention!"
Since the official has not yet notified the source of the virus on seafood products such as salmon, Zhong Kai, Deputy Director of the Kexin Food and Nutrition Information Exchange Center, advised the public not to eat raw salmon for the time being.
Sources : National Health Commission of PRC, NTDTV, Sound Of Hope
No comments:
Post a Comment