Coronavirus: Is Buying Products From China Really A Risk?

On social networks, the excerpt from an old episode of The Simpsons is looping. It dates from 1993 but seems to many internet users “visionary”. A mysterious Asian virus attacks the town of Springfield and its inhabitants and sows panic. Notable difference all the same: it does not come from China, but from its neighbor, Japan.

In this fiction, the propagation is done through consumer products, ordered online, and received by mail. So is it possible today with coronavirus? Some citizens fear it. “The Simpsons have predicted it again,” quips a surfer, saying that packages ordered via the AliExpress or Wish e-commerce sites – companies mainly supplying Chinese manufactured products – are contaminated.

Some of our readers also wonder. Referring to these e-commerce platforms, one of them asked us if there is “really a big risk of bringing the virus back to France by receiving packages” or if it is “still too early to say “.

The market is not anecdotal: in 2019, France imported 52 billion euros of Chinese goods, according to French Customs, mainly computer products such as phones or computers (for 14 billion euros).

The authorities want to be reassuring. The World Health Organization does not recommend “any travel or business restrictions” at this time. French customs confirm for their part that they have not received any instructions regarding the arrival of Chinese goods in France, whether in air or port transport.

Has all risk been ruled out? No, experts say, but the risk of contamination by consumer goods remains relatively limited. It should first of all be emphasized that there are more questions than answers regarding this new epidemic at the moment. “It’s a new virus so we can’t answer with certainty,” said Jean Dubuisson, a CNRS researcher at the Lille Center for Infection and Immunity. The genome is however known, and it is established that the virus belongs “to the family of coronaviruses, for the moment identified under the name of 2019-nCoV”, notes the Institut Pasteur. It causes pneumonia in humans, which can be fatal, and is now transmissible from human to human.

“The main route of transmission is from aerosols (suspended particles, note), when you cough for example”, details Jean Dubuisson. If you touch your mouth or nose with your hands, “it is not excluded that we also contaminate surfaces,” he admits. Packages from China can also be contaminated with respiratory secretions.

However, the chances of contamination are minimal. First of all because the hygiene rules in Chinese companies are very strict, tells us a researcher from the Institut Pasteur. Above all, the conditions of transport to France leave almost no chance for the survival of the virus.

In the past, two epidemics of coronavirus led to deaths, the MERS virus in the Middle East in 2012/2013 and the SARS in China in 2002/2003. The researchers therefore rely on the study of these two cases. “MERC deteriorated rapidly in 2/3 days, says Jean Dubuisson, it is slower for SARS. It takes a week to degrade.” However, according to the first elements available, the new coronavirus seems closer to SARS. The Directorate General of Health, an entity of the Ministry of Health, tells us that the 2019-nCoV “can survive a few hours in the environment, even a few days in wetlands.”

In all cases, “either the shipment is made by boat is the time is too long for the survival of the virus, she says, or the shipment is made by plane and the conditions in the hold (dry air) are not conducive to the survival of the virus. ”

An import specialist for a toy company confirms this. The majority of goods from China are made by ship, but according to his estimates, it takes at least four weeks for the products to reach their destination. One to two weeks from the factory outlet to boarding, the time to transport the goods to the port and fill the containers, then 23 to 30 days of transport. Once in France, they still have to carry out the administrative procedures, a process currently slowed down by the strikes against the pension reform. For rail freight, the deadlines are “2 to 3 weeks”.

What about food products and especially animal meat? France imports little, these represent only 0.5% of our total imports of meat and meat products. Especially if the source is not yet clearly identified, – “the reservoir probably comes from the Wuhan market, where live animals are sold”, simply indicates INSERM – Jean Dubuisson stresses that all coronaviruses originate from wild animals . SARS was found in bats, but was transmitted to humans by masked palmist civets, which the Chinese love. MERS is said to have been transmitted to humans by dromedaries. “These are not animals consumed by Westerners, so there is no risk.”

To our knowledge, only one country has taken specific measures to import meat: Kyrgyzstan. Local authorities have banned all imports of meat and meat products from China and tightened veterinary controls at borders and airports, the country’s news agency reports.

The e-commerce platforms targeted by critics are also confident. “The WHO has not recommended any trade restrictions to or from China, said the spokesman for Wish. Although we will continue to follow its guidelines, we do not expect there to be an immediate impact on our activity.”

“There is no evidence that the packages or their contents pose a risk, also notes the spokesperson for AliExpress, a Chinese e-commerce giant. We are paying special attention to the situation and we will cooperate with the authorities competent. ”

The Chinese company also tells us that the postal services of the Middle Kingdom have taken specific measures to disinfect any package and mail from Wuhan. “Mail and vehicle disinfection” from the Wuhan Post Office is carried out at the city’s sorting center, it said in a press release. The public service also explains that “the processing time for mail can be extended”.

In Wuhan, “delivery is preferred to a collection point or a mailbox to reduce contact between people.” La Poste thus explains to its users that a postman “will contact the recipient by telephone to make an appointment”. What reassure.