Tech Times reported this week that the possible cause of the new Chinese outbreak was from eating salmon. Thursday, June 18, the odds may not be in favor of this theory after experts disagree with the claim. They said that mammals only acquire the same virus strands found in Coronavirus, not fish. But, where could the Chinese people get the new COVID-19 virus? Here's a new theory.
Nope, eating salmon won't get you COVID-19
Though its convincing that salmon could have infected hundreds of Chinese people with COVID-19, the country's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) think otherwise.
Both of them believe that it is very unlikely for salmon to be the host for a virus. First, mammals are the only ones that can release the same virus structure with COVID-19, not fishes. Secondly, the WHO said that food could not be contaminated with the virus.
"Viruses must rely on the viral receptor on the host cell surfaces to infect cells. Without a certain receptor, they cannot enter into cells successfully," Cheng Gong, a virologist at Tsinghua University, told CGTN. "All known evidence so far suggests this kind of receptors exist only in mammals, not fish."
"Coronaviruses cannot multiply in food; they need an animal or human host to multiply," WHO said in a document published on its website. "It also said it was "highly unlikely" that it could spread through food packaging.
So now we can peacefully eat sushi, right?
