Since the United Kingdom first announced the emergence of mutant novel coronavirus on December 14, many countries, including Denmark, Australia, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Japan and other countries have reported mutant COVID-19 cases in China, which are consistent with the genetic sequence of the mutant virus in the United Kingdom.
Relevant countries will also emphasize the “British mutant virus” when reporting the epidemic, which makes a British right-wing politician who once used the coronavirus to smear China unable to sit still.
Roger Helmer, a member of the UK’s right-wing Independence Party and a former member of the European Parliament, asked the outside world in a tweet on December 28 to stop referring to the mutant coronavirus as “originating in Britain” and only “discovered in Britain”.
Helmer said that the virus was only the first to be discovered in the UK, and it is “done different thing” from the UK origin.
However, many netizens found that the white politician, who is now busy clearing Britain from the relationship with the virus, called the first outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China, a “Chinese virus” a few months ago.
In their comments, a large number of netizens accused Helmer of interpreting “unusual standards of double standards”.
So far, the mutant coronavirus found in the UK has appeared in many countries.
Worryingly, the mutant COVID-19 has witnessed “human-to-human transmission” in Japan, and the domestic activity trajectory of infected people, no longer limited to airports and designated isolation places (hotels), has entered Tokyo.
According to Japanese media reports, on December 26, a male pilot and his family who went to the United Kingdom were also found to be infected with a mutant virus similar to that found in Britain. The family members of the confirmed male pilot have not gone to the United Kingdom, so Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare believes that the man transmits the mutant coronavirus to his family.
According to Xinhua News Agency on December 28, several German media reported on the 28th that the mutant novel coronavirus found in the United Kingdom had appeared in Germany as early as November.
German media quoted the German health department of Lower Saxony as saying that after the British reported the discovery of a mutant novel coronavirus, researchers at the Hanover Medical College in Germany carried out more detailed tests on previously collected samples of COVID-19 patients. The results were found in the British newspaper in November this year from a sample taken from a couple. VUI-202012/01, a mutant of COVID-19. The test results were subsequently confirmed by the laboratory of the University of Saritat Hospital in Berlin.
According to the Lower Saxony Health Department, the couple’s daughter, who was in the UK in mid-November, may have contracted the mutant coronavirus during her stay. Now the husband of the couple has passed away, and his wife and daughter have recovered.
According to the Indian Express on December 29, India reported six cases of mutant COVID-19 for the first time on the same day, all of whom have recently returned from the United Kingdom.
The Ministry of Health of India announced on the same day that they had detected mutant COVID-19 in the United Kingdom in laboratory samples in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, India.
From 25 November to 23 December (before the ban on flights in India came into effect), about 33,000 passengers returning from the UK had disembarked from airports across India, the Ministry of Health said. In the testing and tracking of these passengers, the department found 114 positive cases of COVID-19.
The above information also means that the mutant coronavirus may have spread to India between November 25 and December 23.
On December 14th local time, WHO held a regular press conference on COVID-19. In response to the mutant novel coronavirus found in the United Kingdom, Michael Ryan, the head of the WHO Health Emergency Project, said that the virus will change over time, and there have been many mutations, and the key is whether it will affect public health. At present, the mutant virus is gradually becoming popular in the UK, and it is necessary to cooperate with international laboratories to observe whether the mutant virus is popular worldwide.
In the current epidemic, the common enemy of mankind is the virus. No one blamed the mutant virus on Britain’s head. Helmer should first reflect on his “double standards” while asking the outside world not to do so.
