Newhouse seeks global promotion of American science on pandemic virus

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) joined a bipartisan group of more than a dozen lawmakers in calling on the Biden administration to promote the U.S. government’s science on the virus causing COVID-19, particularly as it pertains to food and food packaging.

After more than a year since COVID-19 was declared a global health emergency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, peer global regulatory bodies, and leading food safety experts have underscored that there is no credible evidence to support the transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) via food or food packaging, wrote the lawmakers in a March 19 letter sent to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the heads of the USDA, FDA, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Despite this, the members are concerned that the World Health Organization (WHO), at the urging of China, may modify its assumptions regarding viral transmission of SARS-CoV-2 via food and food packaging without evidence to support such conclusions, according to their letter, which also included signatures from U.S. Reps. Tom Reed (R-NY), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Brad Wenstrup (R-OH), Tom Rice (R-SC), and Jimmy Panetta (D-CA).

“Recent reports suggest that the WHO may accept claims made by the Chinese government that COVID-19 can be a foodborne disease or spread through food packaging,” Rep. Newhouse and his colleagues wrote. “Such guidance risks not only eroding trust in our institutions but also jeopardizing the efforts of individuals at every step of the food supply chain who have been working to ensure a safe and secure food system as the pandemic persists.”   

Rep. Newhouse said in a separate statement that after a year of living with the ramifications of a global pandemic, it is clear how important science is to decision-making and how fragile the nation’s food supply chain can be. “Men and women in central Washington and across the country have been working around-the-clock to ensure a safe and secure food supply, and it is alarming that the WHO would accept unfounded, non-scientific claims made by the Chinese government that undermine confidence in our food safety and food supply chains,” he said.

Rep. Newhouse also said that Congress “must reject baseless, politically motivated attacks that threaten our country’s agriculture industry and continue to trust the facts.”

Along with his colleagues, Rep. Newhouse called on the Biden administration to recommend that the WHO commission a panel of objective and independent virus experts to review the evidence presented by the Chinese government rather than accepting the unfounded scientific claims at face value.

They also asked that USTR continue to engage with members of the WTO’s Sanitary and Phytosanitary Committee to represent the views of the U.S. government on this topic and to provide any relevant recommendations.

“We must continue to do so in a way that is not influenced by unproven assertions that undermine confidence in our food and food supply chains,” wrote Rep. Newhouse and the lawmakers.