Medical doctors say an allegation out of Beijing that China’s first Omicron case could also be linked to mail acquired from Toronto must be handled with deep skepticism.
Chinese language well being authorities stated earlier Monday {that a} case of Omicron in Beijing might have unfold from a bundle acquired from Canada. They urged residents to cease ordering parcels from overseas because the opening of the Winter Olympics approaches.
“I discover this to be, as an example, a rare view,” Well being Minister Jean-Yves Duclos informed a information convention Monday.
“Definitely [it’s] not in accordance with what we’ve finished each internationally and domestically.”
Pang Xinghuo, deputy director of the Beijing Centre for Illness Prevention and Management, stated well being officers “can not rule out the chance” that the affected person was contaminated by items from abroad carrying the virus.
The centre claims the bundle in query was routed via the U.S. earlier than arriving in Hong Kong after which its remaining vacation spot in Beijing.
However medical consultants say the idea that such a cargo might unfold the virus contradicts what current research say about COVID-19’s capability to outlive on surfaces.
“I do not assume any of that is based mostly on science,” stated Dr. Anna Banerji, an affiliate professor of pediatrics and infectious illness on the Dalla Lana Faculty of Public Well being.
She stated the airborne Omicron variant “would by no means survive” on an envelope shipped internationally.
The U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention say research present an “incapability to detect viable virus inside minutes to hours” on porous surfaces, like paper.
An April 2020 examine printed in The Lancet journal concluded that “no infectious virus may very well be recovered from printing and tissue papers after a three-hour incubation.”
Epidemiologist Dr. Donald Vinh, a professor with McGill College’s division of experimental medication, stated the prospect of such a bundle truly infecting somebody is “very, very low.”
“Is it plausible or seemingly or possible that this has occurred? And the reply isn’t any,” he stated.
Olympics drawing close to
China’s declare comes because it tries to clamp down on instances forward of the Winter Video games, set to open in Beijing on Feb. 4.
The Chinese language authorities has launched strict pandemic management measures — together with frequent lockdowns, common masking and mass testing — in a bid to drive new transmissions to zero. On Monday, the nation introduced it will not be promoting Olympics tickets to most people as a consequence of issues concerning the virus.
Colin Robertson, a former Canadian diplomat and now vice-president and fellow on the Canadian World Affairs Institute, stated he thinks China is getting an excuse prepared in case there’s an outbreak in the course of the Olympics.
“If issues had been to go badly, then they’ll counsel it got here from the skin and never from inside China as a result of they’ve made each effort to try to include, taking a zero tolerance strategy, fully shutting down cities to this point,” he stated.
Man St-Jacques, a former Canadian ambassador to China, stated he expects to see extra finger-pointing if there are outbreaks in the course of the Olympics.
“It’s straightforward for China in charge Canada as there isn’t a solution to examine the problem to say whether it is true and in that case, did the virus quantity actually represent a menace?” he stated.
“As China has increasingly problem with its zero-COVID coverage, it’ll blame foreigners for its predicament.”
The declare concerning the Canadian parcel comes at a time of heightened tensions between Ottawa and Beijing following China’s imprisonment of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor for almost three years — an obvious act of retaliation for the RCMP’s arrest of Huawei chief monetary officer Meng Wanzhou on a U.S. extradition warrant.
Late final month, China’s overseas ministry warned that Beijing’s relations with Canada stand “at a crossroads.”
Robertson stated he thinks the Chinese language authorities want to open up the connection once more.
“However they’re coping with — within the case of Canada and most western nations — public opinion which has shifted dramatically over the past couple of years and is now extremely suspicious of the Chinese language, significantly round its human rights document,” he stated.
Conservative Chief Erin O’Toole known as the information stories out of China “comical.”
“Tales like this remind us that from the start of the pandemic, among the information and reporting out of China couldn’t be trusted,” he stated.
