US scientists report earliest known COVID-19 case a solid proof; next stage should be focused especially on the US: Chinese epidemiologist

  

CHINA / SOCIETY

US scientists report earliest known COVID-19 case a solid proof; next stage shouldbe focused especially on the US: Chinese epidemiologist

 

Next stage virus tracing should be focused on the US: epidemiologist

By GT staff reporters Published: Jun 16, 2021 10:21 PM

   

 

A recent US CDC report found #COVID19 antibodies in blood samples as early as Dec 13, 2019. With more & more evidence surfacing about the coronavirus' origins in places outside China before Wuhan detected it, the world is remapping the history of the #COVID19 pandemic. Infographic:GT

More scientific evidence in countries such as the US and France has emerged to suggest that those countries may have had COVID-19 cases way before they officially confirmed.

A US government study suggested that the coronavirus may have already been circulating among people one month earlier than it was officially confirmed, and French scientists also presented scientific evidence that the country's cases were caused by an indigenous virus strain prevailing before 2020. 

Chinese scientists urged that such evidence should not go unnoticed, and should serve as evidence that the next-stage virus-tracing investigations should be focused on countries which reported cases earlier than they previously identified, especially the US.

A study of more than 24,000 samples taken for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) research program in the US between January 2 and March 18, 2020 suggested that seven people in five states - Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin - may have been infected well before the country's first confirmed cases that were reported in January 21, 2020. 

The results suggest that the virus may have been circulating in Illinois, for example, as early as in December 24, 2019, one month earlier than the US authorities confirmed. 

The data suggests the virus was in the five states far away from the initial hot spots and areas that were considered its points of entry into the country, the study said.

Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told Global Times on Wednesday that the US should be prioritized in the next-stage investigation, as the country was slow to test people at an early stage, and it possesses so many biological laboratories all around the world. "All bio-weapons related subjects that the country has should be subject to scrutiny," Zeng said.

Coronavirus was in US in late 2019, study finds

 Thursday, June 17, 2021, 12:03

Coronavirus was in US in late 2019, study finds

By Ai Heping

 

In this photo healthcare workers prepare a syringe with a vial of the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccination site at Grand Central Terminal train station on May 12, 202 in New York City. (PHOTO / AFP)

A United States government study published on Tuesday suggests that the coronavirus was infecting people in the US before causing a deadly outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

The outbreak hit Wuhan, Hubei province in late 2019. Officially, the first US infection to be identified was a Washington state man who returned from Wuhan on Jan 15 that year and sought help at a clinic on Jan 19.

The study's results suggest that the virus may have been circulating in Illinois, for example, as early as Dec 24, 2019, although the first case in that state was confirmed a month later.

The study was published online by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases and was conducted by a team including researchers at the National Institutes of Health. They analyzed blood samples from more than 24,000 people across the country. The samples were collected in the first three months of 2020 as part of a long-term NIH research program called All of Us that seeks to track 1 million people in the US over the years to study Spokesman: US should work with WHO in tracing virus, the way China did their health.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said at the daily news briefing that the study proves once again that tracing the origin of the virus is a complicated scientific issue involving different countries and places