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Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out globally, the debate over the origin of the virus has not stopped.
At present, the only authoritative research results based on facts and science on virus traceability are the China-WHO joint research report on the traceability of the new crown virus released by the World Health Organization in March 2021.
After a 28-day in-depth study in Wuhan, the joint expert group came to a phased conclusion:
The new coronavirus is "more likely to very likely" to be transmitted from an intermediate host to person, "possibly to more likely" to be transmitted directly, "possibly" to human being through cold chain food, and "highly unlikely" to be transmitted through a laboratory.
This conclusion is clear and unambiguous, which points out the direction for the next stage of global traceability research under the global framework.
However, there are always some people who choose to go against science for political or personal gain. Even the "Wuhan laboratory leak theory", which the US intelligence agencies cannot compile evidence, is still taken as a guideline by them.
These people already have preconceived conclusions in their minds, and even as long as they do not blame China's point of view, they think that they must be influenced by the Chinese government. The joint study said "possible" in their eyes as "impossible". When the joint study pointed out the cold chain transmission route, they scoffed.
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The conclusions of the joint study clearly state that:
COVID-19 has been found to persist in frozen foods, packaging and cold chain products. The detection of the virus in some cases in China, as well as on packaging and products in other countries that supply cold-chain products to China, suggests that it can be transmitted over long distances through cold-chain products. The supply chain of the Huanan Seafood Market includes cold chain products and animal products from 20 countries, some of which have tested positive for COVID-19 in samples by the end of 2019, and some countries have a close relative of the new crown virus.
The possibility of the new crown virus spreading through the cold chain is already well known in China. Before the release of the joint research report, the virus that caused the cluster of epidemics in Beijing Xinfadi Market and Dalian Seafood Company had been confirmed to have been imported into China through the cold chain from other countries or regions abroad.
In the outbreak in Qingdao in October 2020, experts from the Institute of Viral Diseases of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention successfully isolated the live virus of the new crown from the outer packaging of the cold chain product for the first time, which became direct evidence of the cold chain transmission of the new crown virus.
Academician Zhong Nanshan also reminded that "we must be highly vigilant against the possibility of cold chain transportation leading to the infection of new coronavirus pneumonia."
He pointed out that after adding the new crown virus to chicken, salmon and pork, it was routinely refrigerated at 4 °C or frozen at -20 °C, and after 21 days of testing, the infectivity of the virus was found to be no less.
In order to maintain the hard-won anti-epidemic achievements and protect the people's life, health and safety, China's customs and local market supervision and management bureaus and other departments have long strictly prevented the new crown virus from being imported through imported cold chain food, and have achieved remarkable results.
From November to December this year alone, China's General Administration of Customs announced that it would take urgent preventive measures against 20 enterprises, 3 fishing transport vessels and 1 cold storage in India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, Argentina, Ecuador, the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Russia, Cuba, Myanmar and other countries because of the positive nucleic acid of the new crown virus in the outer packaging or inner packaging samples of the product.
Just recently, a batch of red heart dragon fruit imported from Vietnam and some of the goods and outer packaging of the new crown virus nucleic acid positive. Taiyuan, Shanxi, Kaifeng, Henan and other places quickly carried out investigation, sampling, testing, killing and harmless disposal of the batch of red heart dragon fruit, and tracked the purchasers to minimize the risk of the spread of the epidemic.
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However, some foreign media have falsely claimed that "the new crown virus can be transmitted through the cold chain" as "false information" deliberately released by China. They claim that no scholars from other countries except China have concluded that the virus spreads through the cold chain, and there are no relevant cases abroad.
This is certainly not the case.
I remember reading a recent report that researchers in France and Russia have found two new giant prehistoric viruses from Siberian permafrost samples.
One of the viruses was dormant for 30,000 years, but was "revived" immediately after thawing and exposing it to its host, amoeba, the researchers said.
Although this is not directly related to the new crown virus, in general, unlike pathogenic microorganisms such as parasites and bacteria, the virus does not freeze to death, and the lower the temperature, the longer it lives.
Viruses that we know and master can survive for more than 3-6 months at about 4 °C and up to 20 years below -20 °C.
As early as October 2020, researchers from australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation demonstrated in an experiment by the Australian Centre for Disease Control and Prevention that the coronavirus can remain infectious on surfaces for long periods of time and survive longer on low-temperature and non-porous or smooth surfaces.
In August this year, the American "Science" magazine published an article entitled "The Animal Origin of the New Coronavirus", which was jointly written by well-known virologists and Professor David Robertson of the Virus Research Center of the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom and other multinational researchers, arguing that the new crown pneumonia epidemic is most likely caused by the transmission of infected live animals to humans, but the role of large-scale cold chain supply in the emergence of the new crown virus should not be ignored.
The 2019 African swine fever epidemic led to a shortage of pork products in China, and China imported more other meat products such as poultry, beef and fish from international markets to cope with the shortage.
Massive demand has facilitated cold chain supply for all meat varieties, which may have transported susceptible animals to SARS-like coronaviruses.
In June this year, according to hong Kong's "English Tiger" and other media reports, a 17-year-old girl living in Tin Shui Wai was diagnosed with new crown pneumonia, becoming a local case of unknown origin. The epidemic prevention experts then detected the new crown virus from the surface of the "Thai imported frozen crocodile meat" package stored in the refrigerator in his home.
In August 2020, according to the New Zealand Herald and other media reports, in the absence of local transmission cases for 102 consecutive days, a family in Auckland found 4 cases.
One of the earliest infected people worked for a cold storage company that imported frozen food from overseas, and his colleagues were also infected. (Headquartered in Atlanta, USA, the cold storage company operates in the United States, Canada, Australia, Argentina, and New Zealand.) ）
The new crown virus can not only be transmitted over long distances through cold chain transportation, but also once introduced to special places such as seafood sales markets or aquatic product processing enterprises, it can cause a concentrated outbreak of local epidemics.
Singapore's Ministry of Health announced on July 17 this year that seven people working at Jurong Fishing Port, Singapore's largest wholesale market for seafood and aquatic products, tested positive for COVID-19.
As of the 24th of that month, the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 caused by Jurong Fishing Port had reached more than 700, involving nearly 50 wet markets and delicatessen centres.
The virus spread rapidly, outbreaks of cluster infections, fishing ports had to be closed for disinfection, and the surrounding processing and freezing companies basically stopped working.
Scientific research and a large number of facts have proved that it is entirely possible for the new crown virus to spread through the cold chain route.
So why are most of the cases of covid-19 spreading through the cold chain found in China?
Xu Wenbo, director of the Institute for Viral Disease Prevention and Control of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, explained that the reason why China was the first to recognize cold chain transmission is because China has always adhered to the "dynamic zero clearance" strategy.
If a region already has a trend towards a pandemic and does not have the preconditions for finding "case zero", it will be difficult to detect cold chain transmission.
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What the circle brother wants to say is that compared with the "new crown virus spread through the cold chain", the "Wuhan laboratory leakage theory" is the real false information, which is the "smoke screen bomb" used by the United States to divert attention.
Li Jie, a professor at lanzhou university's school of politics and international relations, recently summed up the essence of the commonly used political means of issues in the United States: through a change in the nature of the topic to make it the focus of controversy, and try to use this means to seek their own political self-interest, including naming, accusing and advocating three stages.
Circle brother believes that the emergence of the "Wuhan laboratory leakage theory" is fully in line with this law. Its name brings the issue of traceability in science into politics. In this way, the United States tries to make China the person responsible for the new crown pneumonia epidemic, gain its own so-called moral legitimacy, and finally put forward sanctions and other proposals to suppress and smear China and achieve its own political self-interest.
This politicization deviates from the objective facts of the subject, always uses blame as a framework, and becomes a political tool, the result of which is bound to be unreliable.
Michael Woolrobe, a well-known biologist at the University of Arizona and known as the "virus detective", has previously published an open letter with 17 scientists, calling for the possibility of "laboratory leakage theory" not being ruled out. But now he has changed his mind.
Woolrobe said his own and others' research since then has made him more confident about the natural origins of the coronavirus because it has significantly more data support than the "lab leak theory."
"It's almost certain that the 'lab leak theory' is a huge distraction that only takes people's attention off what's actually happening."
Woolrobe also said he was "frustrated" by the fact that the COVID-19 pandemic had been thoroughly politicized, from the debate over the usefulness of masks and vaccines to the investigation into the origins of the virus.
Politicization has never been the solution to the problem. According to the conclusions and recommendations of the joint study, it is the right direction to track the supplier countries of cold chain products that initially reported positive covid-19 tests before the end of 2019 while investigating the natural origin of the new coronavirus.
The United States, on the other hand, is one of the subjects that should be investigated.
Past period review
Text/Sound of rain
Manga/Chisato
Editor-in-Charge/Lin Feng
Edit/Rain Sounds
Image source/Xinhua News Agency, network screenshot
Source: "Broken Circle" WeChat public account