After blaming US and India, China claims COVID-19 originated in Australia
Story highlights
Over the last few months, the country has undertaken rigorous testing of frozen meat products - continuously pointing fingers at countries like New Zealand and Australia for sending meat laced with COVID-19
China has attempted to shift the blame for the global spread of coronavirus on different occasions. Recently, a group of researchers claimed that the virus originated not in China, but in India.
Now, they believe that the virus spread from Australia. Over the last few months, the country has undertaken rigorous testing of frozen meat products - continuously pointing fingers at countries like New Zealand and Australia for sending meat laced with COVID-19. However, like its claims about the virus originating from India, the country has been unable to verify related claims.
A new “investigative report” by Global Times - a Chinese mouthpiece claims that the idea of COVID-19 being imported from Australia into the wet markets in Huanan could not be “ruled out”. This is in conjunction with the country’s recent claims about frozen food from other countries spreading the virus.
The report did add that “more evidence is needed” to ascertain these claims. Like all things China, this claim holds no scientific basis and no supplementary empirical data to prove the same. The truth remains that the pandemic began in Wuhan’s wet markets, where exotic animals are sold openly. The consumption of exotic animals like bats, snakes, and pangolins keeps humans at risk of catching zoonotic diseases.
According to the Global Times report, the Huanan Seafood Market sells “imported cold-chain seafood” from many countries, including Brazil and Germany.
Besides Australia - Canada, Brazil, Germany, Spain, were identified as countries that trade with the Hubei province in China, where the pandemic wreaked havoc last year before infecting the whole world.
China has still not made clear the origins of COVID-19, but instead has continuously attempted to absolve itself of the responsibility. Many scientists and critics have posited that had China identified and isolated the virus earlier, the world could have been spared the horror of a pandemic which continues to dictate how we live our life.
Earlier in November, Chinese researchers pinned the blame on India. Earlier, they claimed that United States Army was behind the pandemic. In fact, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian tweeted that “it might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan”. Naturally, this came without evidence.
In December 2019, the first case of COVID-19 was spotted in Wuhan. Soon after, it was ascertained that the virus spread from an infected animal who may have been consumed by humans at the wet market, after which it rapidly spread among humans.